Search history tracking for all Google Workspace users will be enabled starting March 29.
Unfortunately, even if users previously turned off this tracking feature in Workspace, it is now being put back on by default, and administrators will no longer have the option to turn it back off.
Beginning next month, Google will provide a new search history control tool for Workspace users, which will enable a kind of tracking (formerly known as Web & App Activity) by default, regardless of whether users have previously disabled it.
This sudden announcement and shift, however, is causing some consternation among Workspace users, who are understandably upset that Google determined it was alright to turn tracking on by default.
What is Google Workspace Search History?
The My Activity page now includes a new default setting for Google Workspace search history, which can be found on the My Activity page.
When this feature is activated, users will get suggestions from their search history as they write their search term.
Previous searches can be easily re-run at any time.
According to Support.Google, after 18 months, the search history data associated with Google Workspace is automatically removed.
Users can, on the other hand, designate data to be deleted after three, eighteen, or thirty-six months, or never.
The Google Workspace search history is automatically updated to reflect any user settings for auto-deletion that were established in Web & App Activity prior to March 29.
Important Functions of Workspace
Ghacks reported Google intends to transition all Google Workspaces customers and will enable the new tracking option by default for all users, even if Web & App Activity was previously off.
The company will remove the Web & App Activity setting from the Admin console and replace it with a new end user setting called Google Workspace search history on the My Activity page.
This means that after March 29, end users will be able to control the storage of their key Google Workspace services search history data.
Turning On Search Tracking
There was a discussion on the new feature, as well as a Pastebin copy of the email Google is sending to Workspace customers.
As reported by PCMag, someone who claims to be a Google project manager with a user named River Guardian commented about the announcement to the post with the following explanation.
Web and App Activity is meant to store search activity across all Google services.
Google is splitting Workspace data out because it's governed by strict data handling rules, and they hope that more people will be able to get the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-in to search history being tracked for all Google services, which they don't want to do.
Users should know that Google Workspace core service data is kept separate from other Google services and is never used for advertising.
This change should not give Workspace user data to third parties.
Although related to the central issue being discussed here, this is a different issue: users who had previously disabled a kind of tracking were overridden by Google, rather than the tracking becoming an opt-in option, as the company determined.
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