Google tightens privacy settings for new users

San Francisco: Google has begun auto-deleting new users’ search data and location history on a rolling 18-month basis, CEO Sundar Pichai announced, as the tech giant moves to tighten privacy settings.

The tweak was introduced Wednesday and is the latest attempt by a big online firm to boost public trust after hefty fines were levied against Facebook and Google for privacy violations in recent years.

"We believe that products should keep your information for only as long as it’s useful and helpful to you," Pichai said in a blog post, adding that the changes were designed to "keep less data by default."

When creating a new Google account, "your activity data will be automatically and continuously deleted after 18 months, rather than kept until you choose to delete it," he explained. Current users can already opt in to auto-delete their data every three or 18 months -- a setting that has not changed, although existing users will be reminded of the option to do so.