Our privacy and security tools are designed to put you in control of your data and protect it. Based on your Activity controls, your activity on Google products and services like Search, Chrome, and YouTube may be saved in your Google Account. You can use My Activity to view and delete this data.
How Google deletes activity in your account
When you select to delete activity manually or activity is deleted automatically based on your auto-delete setting, it starts the process of removal from the product and the systems.
First, we aim to remove it from view and the data may no longer be used to personalize your Google experience.
We then begin a process designed to safely and completely delete the data from our storage systems.
Learn more about how Google retains data we collect.
Data that may be retained for limited purposes
When you delete some types of data from My Activity, Google may need to retain certain information associated with your Google Account for specific purposes, including for:
- Security, fraud and abuse prevention. For example, info about abusive accounts may be retained to help block abusive behavior in the future.
- Financial record-keeping. For example, if you buy an app from Google Play, Google may need to retain info about that transaction for required accounting purposes.
- Complying with legal or regulatory requirements. For example, if Google receives a lawful subpoena, information may be retained as required by law.
- Ensuring our services continue to work. For example, if you share information with others (like using Google Assistant to send a message to someone), deleting the activity from your Google Account will not delete the message you sent.
- Direct communications with Google. For example, if you suggest an edit to a place in Google Maps.
Anonymized data
To help power certain services, an anonymized version of your data might be retained after you delete it. Anonymized data can no longer be associated with you or your account.
For example, if you delete a search from My Activity, an anonymized version of what you searched for may be retained to create functionality like global search trends.
Use of Google services
When data is deleted, some information about your use of Google services is kept until your Google Account is deleted, like which Google services you use and how frequently you use them.
For example, if you delete an address you've searched for in Google Maps, your account may still store that you've used the directions feature. That way, Google Maps can avoid showing you how to use the directions feature in the future.
- You can view a summary of the data saved in your Google Account and download your data at any time.
- You can choose to automatically delete activity after it’s been in your Google Account for a certain period of time, and manually delete your activity at any time.
- The anonymization techniques that Google uses create data that cannot be associated with any one individual.
To find and delete your activity, go to activity.google.com. You can download your data at any time.
- You can automatically delete activity after it’s been in your account for a certain period of time.
- You can manually delete all activity from My Activity or filter by date and product to delete activity items or groups of activity. You can always delete activity manually, even if automatic deletion is turned on.
- You can delete your Google Account or delete a Google service.
Delete data saved in other places
- Files or content like documents, emails, or photos are stored in their respective products, like Drive, Gmail, and Photos. You can manage and delete content or files directly from the Google products you use. Timeline saves your location data to your device. Learn how to delete your Timeline data.
- You also have the option to store an encrypted backup of your Timeline to Google’s servers in case you change devices or want to download your data. Learn how to back up your Timeline data.
- Search history may be saved to your device. Learn how to manage your Search history.
- Data from Google Fit.