Google now allows incognito browsing on Maps

New features to facilitate users’ privacy and security, Google announced, including expanding both its “incognito” use of its applications and the option of automatically deleting location history, searches and other user activity.

“Incognito mode” appeared in the Chrome Web Browser in 2018, earlier this year it was added to YouTube and has now been expanded to Google Maps. When a user uses “Incognito mode” on Maps, its in-app activity, such as the places it searched for, will not be stored in its Google Account and will not be used to make its Maps experience more personalized.

You can enable “Incognito mode” by selecting it in the menu that appears when you tap on your profile picture, and can turn it off at any time. The “Incognito mode” feature will launch on Android this month and will soon be available for iOS devices.

In May, Google announced that users could now automatically delete location history and web and app activity, including things they searched for and browsed. Now automatic deletion also comes in YouTube history. The user can specify how long their data is to be kept (three months, 18 months or until it is deleted).

The company also announced that it has added new ways to easily understand and manage user data in Google Assistant. Privacy control is made easier with simple voice commands. In the coming weeks, any user will be able to delete Assistant activity from their Google account, saying e.g. “Hey Google, delete the last thing I told you.” or “Hey Google, delete everything I told you last week.”

The user will not need to activate any of these features as they will work automatically when he asks for Assistant help. If he requests to delete data for more than one week from his account, the Assistant will direct him directly to his account settings page to complete the deletion. The new feature will be available this week in English and next month in all other languages.

In addition, in order to enhance the security of the user’s password, the new “Password Control” is now implemented, a new function that with one click informs if one of the passwords is weak, if the user has it reuse on many sites or if the code has been violated by third parties.