Google is making it easier for users to keep their online privacy intact, including an option to auto-delete their YouTube history.
Sure, there's already a way to pause watch and search activities on the streaming platform, but doing so would limit "more personalized experiences" across the company's services. Some people don't want to miss out on that, while others would prefer to keep their viewing habits under wraps. At that, this new feature could be considered as a middle ground where users can get the best of both worlds.
How To Auto-Delete YouTube History
Step 1: Go to your Google account page.
Step 2: On the left-hand menu, click on "Data & personalization."
Step 3: Under "Activity controls," click on "YouTube History" and then on "manage activity."
Step 4: Click on "Choose to delete automatically" on the box on the right where it likely says "Keeping activity until you delete it manually."
Step 5: Choose between "Keep for 18 months" and "Keep for 3 months," depending on how long you prefer to keep your data on the platform.
How To Pause YouTube Watch And Search Activity
If you want to, you can also just disable YouTube History altogether. That means your viewing and search activities won't be saved from the get-go.
Step 1: From your main Google account page, click on "YouTube History" under "Activity controls."
Step 2: You have a few options here. You can toggle "YouTube History" off to completely stop YouTube from saving your activity. You can also just uncheck "Include the YouTube videos you watch" or "Include your searches on YouTube" if you want to keep one and not the other.
Note: You can always delete your activity manually by going to your YouTube History page and clicking on "Delete activity by" on the left-hand menu. There, you can opt to delete your activity in the last hour or day and even for all time. You can set a custom range as well.
If this new feature seems familiar, that's because Google already announced something similar back in May, allowing users to auto-delete web and app activity and location history.
