Google Simplifies Data Control Following Security Vulnerabilities

Google Simplifies Data Control Following Security Vulnerabilities

Google is giving data control back to the users.

  • By Sydny Shepard
  • Oct 26, 2018

Google is attempting to give the control of data security back to its users. As part of its effort to bolster security following the Google+ data exposure, Google is giving users access to data controls from directly within its most-used product: Search.

Users of Google Search will now be able to review and delete your recent Search activity, and be able to learn more about how Search works with your data. These options will be available from within Search on desktop and mobile, and in the Google app for iOS and Android in the next coming weeks.

"When you use Google products, you generate data about your activity," Google said. "For Search, this data includes the terms you search for, links you interact with and other information like your current location when you search." 

In the past, those looking to review or manage their data would have been navigated away to their Google Account to make changes. 

The updates to the Google Search platform come just weeks after it was discovered that Google had fixed a bug in March that gave external developers access to around 500,000 Google+ users' private info. Google chose not to reveal the breach, as it says there was no evidence the data was ever misused. 

An internal memo obtained by the Washington Street Journal noted that revealing the bug could result in "us coming into the spotlight alongside or even instead of Facebook despite having stayed under the radar through the Cambridge Analytica scandal." The tech giant is now in hot water with Congress, who is now ask the company to handover more information about the March incident. 

About the Author

Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.

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