Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Google Maps tracks everywhere you go. Here's how to automatically delete what it stores

Google Maps tracks everywhere you go. There’s a tool that lets you automatically delete your location data from Google’s servers after a preset amount of time. This prevents Google from automatically logging years of your location data on its servers.

If you don’t configure Google Maps properly, it will automatically keep a detailed log of everywhere you go, whether you’re walking, driving or even flying anywhere in the world. It’s wildly detailed down to the minute, and can show where you were at any moment in time. I’ll show you how to automatically delete it.

That information can be helpful for you. You might want to look back and see where you went during a past trip, for example. Or you might want Google to know how long it typically takes to drive somewhere you go often. Still, it’s kind of creepy to have years and years of that data stored on Google’s servers.

But, over the summer, Google began rolling out a feature that lets you automatically delete your saved location date either every 18 months or every 3 months. Anything older than that is automatically deleted, so Google won’t know about those stops you made in Las Vegas last year.

Oddly, it’s not where Google normally puts this setting, on your Google Account page. Instead, you need to dig through your settings in Google Maps.

Here’s what to do:

Open Google Maps on iPhone or Android.
Tap the menu bar on the top-left of the app.
Choose “Your Timeline.”
Tap the three dots on the top-right of the screen.
Choose “Settings and privacy.”
Select “Automatically delete location history.”
Change the setting from “Keep until I delete manually” to “Keep for 18 months” or “Keep for 3 months.”

I recommend forcing Google to delete after every 3 months. There isn’t much reason to hold on to your history for much longer than that, though you can select 18 months if you disagree. Now, anything older than the time you set will automatically be deleted and will continue to be deleted by Google as time goes on.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
The Great Western Exit: Why Best Citizens Are Fleeing the Rich World [PODCAST]
The New Robber Barons of Intelligence: Are AI Bosses More Powerful Than Rockefeller?
The End of the Old Order [Podcast]
Britain’s Democracy Is Now a Costume
The AI Gold Rush Is Coming for America’s Last Open Spaces [Podcast]
The Pentagon’s AI Squeeze: Eight Tech Giants Get In, Anthropic Gets Shut Out [Podcast]
The War Map: Professor Jiang’s Dark Theory of Iran, Trump, China, Russia, Israel, and the Coming Global Shock [Podcast]
Labour Is No Longer a National Party [Podcast]
AI Isn’t Stealing Your Job. It’s Dismantling It Piece by Piece.
Lawyers vs Engineers: Why China Builds While America Litigates [Podcast]
Churchill’s Glass: The Drunk, the Doctor, and the Myth Britain Refuses to Sober Up From
Apple issues an unusual warning: this is how your iPhone can be hacked without you doing anything
The Met Gala Meets the Age of Billionaire Backlash
Russian Oligarch’s Superyacht Crosses Hormuz via Iran-Controlled Route
Gunfire Disrupts White House Correspondents’ Dinner as Trump Is Evacuated
A Leak, a King, and a Fracturing Alliance
Inside the Gates Foundation Turmoil: Layoffs, Scrutiny, and the Cost of Reputational Risk
UK Biobank Breach Exposes Health Data of 500,000, Listed for Sale on Chinese Platform
KPMG Cuts Around 10% of US Audit Partners After Failed Exit Push
French Police Probe Suspected Weather-Data Tampering After Unusual Polymarket Bets on Paris Temperatures
News Roundup
Microsoft lost 2.5 millions users (French government) to Linux
Privacy Problems in Microsoft Windows OS
News roundup
Péter András Magyar and the Strategic Reset of Hungary
Hungary After the Landslide — A Strategic Reset in Europe
×