LONDON 7 Jul (ANA) - It probably comes as no surprise that Google keeps track of everywhere you go via the apps you use on your smartphone.

This information is used to give you more personalised experiences, like maps and recommendations based on places you've visited, real-time traffic updates about your commute, help finding your phone and more targeted ads.

But while these things can be useful, you may not feel comfortable with the idea of Google holding on to that information indefinitely. 

In the past, if you chose to enable Location History, the only way to delete that data was to go into your app settings and remove it manually.

But Google recently introduced a new setting that allows you to automatically delete your location history after a fixed period of time.

There are currently only two options - automatically deleting your Location History after three months or after 18 months - but it beats leaving a trail of information that you might not want Google or others to see.

Here's how to automatically delete your Location History on Android and iOS:

Open the Google Maps app

In the top left, tap the Menu icon and select "Your timeline".

In the top right, tap the More icon and select "Settings and privacy".

Scroll to "Location settings".

Tap "Automatically delete Location History".

Follow the on-screen instructions.

If you'd prefer to turn of Location History altogether, you can do so in the the  "Location History" section  of your Google Account.(ANA)

FA/ANA/7 July 2019------