The message that many people who use Google Accounts received via email wasn’t spam; it was a Google update about changes to how search history and personalized recommendations work.
The Google update will start appearing in users’ Google Accounts in the coming days.
What Are These Google Updates?
Google is updating settings for its Google Search services, including Search, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate, and News.
In the past, saving history and personalized recommendations were managed by Web & App Activity.
From now on, Google will introduce two new settings to help users better monitor their experience: Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations.
Google’s new settings will let users revisit past searches and decide whether they want their experience to be personalized. Users can turn these settings on or off at any time.
What Services are Included?
In the Google’s update, Search services include Google knowledge and information services: Search, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate, and News.
It doesn’t include services that save history under other settings, such as Chrome, Gemini Apps, Google Assistant, and YouTube.
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What Search Services History Includes
When a user signs in, Search Services History lets them control whether Google saves their interactions with Search services as history in their Google Account.
User’s Search Services History includes:
- Their searches
- Information from sites they visit with Search services
- Generative AI responses
- General location
- Media from the user’s interactions (images, files, audio/video recordings like Google Lens images, content they upload, and recordings from Search Live, Translate speaking practice, and voice searches)
Two New Settings Users Will Have Control Over
Google’s new Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations settings will be available when a user is signed in to their Google Account.
Users will now begin managing their data and experiences across Google Search services using these settings.
Search Services History will now include media (like images and audio) from a user’s interactions, depending on their settings.
“We’re updating our settings to give you even more control over saved history and personalized recommendations across Google Search services. These settings let you revisit your past searches and decide if you want your experience to be personalized. You can turn these settings on or off at any time.” Google said
How the Google Update Settings Will Work
These new Google update settings are based on the user’s most recent choices for Web & App Activity and Search Personalization settings.
If the user’s Web & App Activity and Search Personalization settings were on, the new settings would also be on, and vice versa.
After the transition, Web & App Activity and Search services settings will be separate, and changes to one won’t affect the other.
Auto-Delete and Privacy
Google said that users will still choose how long their history is retained and whether to delete it manually or automatically, as before, and will also be able to manage their Save Media sub-setting at any time.
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The user’s prior choice from Web & App Activity for how long their history is saved will also apply to Search Services History.
How Google Uses Search History
Saved history helps track users’ experience on Search services and across Google. For example, it helps them revisit previous searches and get personalized recommendations and ads, based on their personalization settings.
As described in the Google Privacy Policy, Google uses a user’s history to provide, develop, and improve its services (such as training generative AI models) and to protect Google, its users, and the public with the help of human reviewers.
“We take your privacy seriously and take steps to protect it when using your Search Services History data to train our AI models. For example, data is disconnected from your Google Account before it is used to train our AI models or reviewed by our trained service providers,” Google emphasized.
Google always seeks a user’s permission before sharing their media with service providers for human review as part of the model improvement process.
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