Data privacy issues are forcing companies to revisit their existing features and provisions. Google that seems to be collecting the largest volume of data on the internet in terms of where people go, what places they searched for and visit and what music they prefer to listen to. And it is now ready to change that. Just like the browsers offer an incognito mode, the US tech giant is keen to launch an incognito version of its Google Maps app.
On similar lines, Google is willing to have a privacy arrangement for YouTube. In the existing setup, Google keeps track of the music or the videos you watch and brings up suggestions the next time you log in to platform. There will now be a new option to listen to or watch the contents in private. This means there will be no trace of the tracks you watched once the session is over and you come out of YouTube. The user will be given the option to set a timeframe after which the history will be deleted. This is to give the option to you to go back and listen to something again.
The same issue will crop up for the Google Maps users, in the sense that some of the advantageous features like personalized recommendations being presently made, like a place you have searched before being suggested, will go missing.
There is another area Google is working on. The AI-based Google Assistant will remember all your voice commands to it. Google now says if you don’t want it to remember something, you just need to say, "Hey Google, delete the last thing I said to you."
The fact remains that the authorities all over are tightening the norms for collecting, storing and sharing of personal data from users. There are user-groups too which strongly oppose the service providers like Google and social media platforms like Facebook collecting data. These new moves by Google may be in response to these developments.