24/06/2026
What your mate Google is doing, is refining the data they hold (and sell) about you whilst making it even more difficult, convoluted and confusing for you to understand, let alone manage. 😳👎
Hello Peter,
We’re updating our settings to give you even more control over saved history and personalized recommendations across Google Search services and Google Play. Search services include Search, Maps, Shopping, Hotels, Flights, Translate, and News. You’ll see this change in your Google Account in the next few days.
What’s changing
Previously, saving history and personalization were managed by Web & App Activity. Going forward, you can better tailor your Search services experience using your new Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations settings. These settings let you revisit your past searches and decide if you want your experience to be personalized. As people increasingly search in new ways, like searching a photo with Lens, Search Services History now includes media from your interactions, which you can stop saving at any time. For Google Play, you'll have new Play History and Personalization in Play settings, even if you’ve never used this service. You can turn these settings on or off at any time.
How this affects your account
New history and personalization settings: Your new settings for Search services and Google Play will reflect your most recent choices for Web & App Activity and Search Personalization settings. If Web & App Activity is currently off, these new settings will stay off. After the transition, the Web & App Activity setting will be separate from Search services’ and Play’s personalization and history settings. Changes to one setting won’t affect the others.
Auto-delete: Your prior choice from Web & App Activity for how long your history is saved will also apply to Search Services History and Play History. As always, you can change how long history is saved, choose an auto-delete period, and review or delete history manually at any time.
Your media is saved when Search Services History is on: Saved media includes your images, files, audio and video from your interactions with Search services to help improve your experience. For example, this lets you revisit your past visual searches with Lens or continue a Search Live conversation about a song you heard. To support these types of interactive product experiences, Google will now save your media to your Search Services History, applying robust privacy and security protections. Like your Search Services History, your saved media is also used to develop and improve Google services and technologies, including AI models and safety measures. With this transition, if your Web & App Activity setting is currently turned on, this new Save Media subsetting will also be turned on along with your Search Services History. You can turn off your Save Media subsetting at any time, and you can also delete individual pieces of media from your history.
You can manage these preferences by visiting My Activity and your Personalization settings pages.
Learn more about your Search services settings and Google Play settings.
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