Google announces new privacy tools for Maps, YouTube and Assistant

Google on Wednesday announced a series of new updates for Maps, YouTube and its voice-controlled Assistant that should make it easier to keep your personal data private.

Google Maps will now let you navigate in incognito mode, meaning that your activity on the app, such as the places you search for, won't be saved to your Google Account. Browsing Maps in incognito mode will also mean that your activity "won't be used to personalize your Maps experience," Google said in a blog post announcing the updates.

Incognito mode can be accessed by selecting it from the menu on your profile photo "and you can turn it off at any time to return to a personalized experience with restaurant recommendations, information about your commute, and other features tailored to you," the company said.

It will roll out on Android devices in October. Google did not specify when it would be available for Apple iOS devices, saying only that it was coming soon.

YouTube users can now choose to auto-delete their browsing and viewing history after a certain amount of time that they choose.

Finally, the company announced new security features on its voice Assistant, such as simpler commands to ask the Assistant to delete recent activity.

Now with the commands “Hey Google, delete the last thing I said to you” and “Hey Google, delete everything I said to you last week," the voice-controlled device will automatically delete that data. If you ask it to delete over a week's worth of data from your account, it will pull up the page in your account settings where you are able to do this.

In January, Google was slapped with more than $56 million in fines under new European privacy rules after an investigation by a watchdog group into complaints filed against Google last year revealed that users were "not sufficiently informed" about its data consent policies.