Over the past few years, almost all the tech companies have faced criticism over collecting users’ data and personal information without their knowledge to serve their own motives. This has put these tech companies in a tight spot, and they now have to take more transparent measures to ensure that even if they are collecting some data, users have all the knowledge about it. Google has also come under this radar, and it has faced allegations like subjecting users’ data to manual reviews by human employees, or some ‘peeping’ into the content of your Gmail content to serve you ads through Google Ads, and a lot more such stuff.
Now, Google has tried to make all its settings very transparent, and it has introduced some new settings that will give the users more control over their data.
First off, the company has already employed new privacy features across all its products. It has also enabled users to choose to auto-delete their web history and location history. Both these settings come in Gmail, Chat, Google Meet to protect the data of the users and to make their browsing more secure.
Now, Google has tried to make all its settings very transparent, and it has introduced some new settings that will give the users more control over their data.
First off, the company has already employed new privacy features across all its products. It has also enabled users to choose to auto-delete their web history and location history. Both these settings come in Gmail, Chat, Google Meet to protect the data of the users and to make their browsing more secure.
Some of the new settings especially come for Gmail. If a user chooses to use these features, the automatic filtering of emails in Gmail, smart composition of emails, summary cards, and the ability to add event details in your calendar will get disabled too.
Google tells the users that if they allow smart features that have been mentioned above in Gmail, Chat, and Meet, they basically allow Google to use their data. So, the choice is clear. If a user wants to continue using the smart features, they must make an educated decision based on the transparency that Google is providing. Otherwise, they can disable the smart features and protect their data from Google as they want.
Then, Google also gives a choice to the users to opt for the personalization of other Google Products with their Gmail, Chat, and Meet data or not.
If they opt for personalization, they get to enjoy services like Google Assistant’s reminders for due bills, Google Maps help with restaurant reservations, itineraries management while traveling, using GPay methods, etc.
But on the other hand, users can opt-out of this personalization too, and that will disable all these features, of course. Google has clearly mentioned that if a user agrees to personalization, they will basically be granting other Google Products like Assistant, Maps, Travel, GPay, etc. to use the information and data from Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
So, once again, it is going to be a user’s own choice whether to go for it or not.
All these new and much clearer settings will start rolling out in the following weeks.
Read next: All Google files like Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard in Drive are going to count against the 15 GB free storage limit from 1st June 2021
Google tells the users that if they allow smart features that have been mentioned above in Gmail, Chat, and Meet, they basically allow Google to use their data. So, the choice is clear. If a user wants to continue using the smart features, they must make an educated decision based on the transparency that Google is providing. Otherwise, they can disable the smart features and protect their data from Google as they want.
Then, Google also gives a choice to the users to opt for the personalization of other Google Products with their Gmail, Chat, and Meet data or not.
If they opt for personalization, they get to enjoy services like Google Assistant’s reminders for due bills, Google Maps help with restaurant reservations, itineraries management while traveling, using GPay methods, etc.
But on the other hand, users can opt-out of this personalization too, and that will disable all these features, of course. Google has clearly mentioned that if a user agrees to personalization, they will basically be granting other Google Products like Assistant, Maps, Travel, GPay, etc. to use the information and data from Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
So, once again, it is going to be a user’s own choice whether to go for it or not.
All these new and much clearer settings will start rolling out in the following weeks.
Read next: All Google files like Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard in Drive are going to count against the 15 GB free storage limit from 1st June 2021
