Google now brings privacy controls to apps, no need to visit Google Account page

With all the criticisms Google continues to receive in regards to privacy, the company announced a new tool that offers privacy controls and makes it easier for you to understand what data Google collects.

Called Your Data, the feature shows up in Google Search instead of being buried in your Google Account page. From there, you can access your Ad Settings to control the ads you see, review and delete your search history, and even choose what information Google saves to your account.

Google director of product management in the Privacy and Data Protection Office Eric Miraglia told Wired said the idea is to start with Google Search and go from there.

“A lot of things with Google start with search; it’s a good test bed where we see a lot of our users,” said Miraglia. “Search is a tool that people depend on for a lot of things as they go through the day, so feeling in command of that is really important. We want this initiative to make the controls and resources a little more visceral and a little more actionable.”

According to Google, Your Data will be available in Google Search on desktop and mobile today. The feature will then make its way to the Google app for iOS and Android in the coming weeks, with Maps and other Google products getting the feature sometime in 2019.

These privacy controls arrive at a poignant time for big tech companies. Facebook was in hot water over the Cambridge Audio Analytica scandal and continues to receive heat over a recent security breach. Google recently had to shut down Google Plus because of a bug that exposed user data. Apple and Amazon hardware allegedly included Chinese spy chips that monitored the two companies as information passed through their networks.