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How Google Maps is giving you more power over your location data

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How Google Maps is giving you more power over your location data

Google Maps has long been a gold standard in everyday navigation, whether it is hopping on public transportation or jumping in your car for a journey across town. 

In addition to giving you insight into how crowded the bus or final destination is, Google has increased user data control with features like auto-delete and incognito mode. 

Google takes it a step further with its latest updates launched this December to give you even more ease and control as you navigate your life.

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Web and app activity screen in Google Maps app (Google)

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1) Timeline saves your location and provides better control of data

Though your Location History is off by default, if you turn it on you can take advantage of the Timeline feature.

There’s so much to remember, let alone the store you visited a week ago. Just like having your search history on, having your location data on to utilize the new Timeline feature can be very helpful when you need help recollecting the specific address or location of the store or restaurant you visited while running errands the week prior. Timeline will remember the places you’ve visited for you. Here’s how to turn it off or on, depending on your preference.

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How to turn your Location History on or off

  • On your mobile device, open Google app
  • Then tap your profile picture
  • Click Google Account
  • Tap the Data & privacy tab
  • Scroll down to History settings and tap Location History
  • Tap Turn off or Turn on 

When location history is turned on, it will not only help you remember locations you’ve visited when you want, but you also have more control over what data is saved. With auto-delete, you can select a timeframe for which your location history will be automatically deleted. When your location data is on, and you set up auto-delete, the default or minimum timeframe you can set for auto-deletion is 3 months. This way, you don’t have to remember to go back and delete your location data. Google will remember for you. Thereafter, you can choose 18 months or 36 months.

How to Auto-delete Your Location History on Google Maps

  • Open the Google Maps app on your mobile device
  • Click on your profile icon at the top right corner
  • Tap on Your Timeline
  • Then tap on the three dots in the right corner of your screen
  • Tap settings and privacy 
  • Tap on Location History settings and then tap on Auto-delete
  • Choose the timeframe you want to keep your location history for: 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months. You can also choose Don’t auto-delete activity if you want to keep your location history indefinitely.
  • Tap on Next and then confirm your choice by tapping on Confirm.

Google will automatically delete your location history older than the timeframe you selected. You can change or turn off this setting anytime you want.

A Google Maps timeline  (Google)

How to delete your Location History on Google Maps

You may also want to delete some or all of your location history for various reasons, such as privacy, security, or storage. Here’s how to delete your entire location history, a specific time range, a single day, or a single place from your Google Maps app on your mobile device.

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How to delete all Location History

You may want to delete your entire location history on Google Maps for privacy or security reasons. To do this, follow these steps.

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  • On your mobile device, open the Google Maps app
  • Tap your profile picture or initial 
  • Click Your Timeline 
  • In the top right, tap the 3 horizontal dots
  • Then tap Settings and privacy
  • Click Location History settings, tap Delete all Location History
  • Follow the on-screen instructions

How to delete a range of Location History

You can also choose to delete a specific period of your location history, such as a week or a month, by following these steps.

  • On your mobile device, open the Google Maps app 
  • Tap your profile picture or initial
  • Click Your Timeline 
  • Tap the three horizontal dots in the upper right of the screen
  • Click Settings and privacy
  • Under “Location settings,” tap Delete Location History range
  • Follow the on-screen instructions

How to delete a day from Location History

Sometimes, you may want to delete a single day of your location history, for example, if you visited a sensitive or personal place. To remove a single day from your location history, you can select the date from the calendar and delete it with these steps. 

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  • On your mobile device, open the Google Maps app 
  • Tap your profile picture or initial 
  • Click Your Timeline 
  • Tap Show calendar 
  • Select which day you want to delete
  • Tap the three horizontal dots in the upper right of the screen
  • Click Delete day
  • Follow the on-screen instructions

How to delete a stop from Location History

If you only want to delete a certain place that you visited, such as a restaurant or a shop, you can find it in the list of places and remove it with these steps. 

  • Open the Google Maps app on your mobile device
  • Tap your profile icon at the top right corner
  • Click Your timeline
  • Tap Places, then view all visited places
  • Tap the three-dot menu next to a location and select Remove all visits

MORE: 5 GOOGLE MAPS TRICKS THAT CAN SAVE YOU MONEY 

2) How to remove your directions, searches, and shares on Google Maps

You can keep specifics about your whereabouts private with the ability to delete directions, searches, and shares in one place on Google Maps.

Delete directions, searches and shares on Google Maps (Google)

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To delete your directions, searches, and shares in Google Maps

  • Open the Google Maps app on your mobile device
  • Click on your profile icon at the top right corner
  • Tap on Your Timeline
  • Then tap on the three horizontal dots at the top right corner
  • Tap on Settings and privacy
  • Tap on Delete activity by and then choose the option you want: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, All time, or Custom range
  • Tap on Next and then confirm your choice by tapping on Delete

That’s it. You have deleted your activity on Google Maps for the selected time frame. You can also delete individual activities by tapping on them and then tapping on the Trash icon.

MORE: THIS GOOGLE MAPS TRICK CAN SUPERCHARGE YOUR ABILITY TO NAVIGATE DIRECTIONS

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3) Blue Location dot gives you immediate control

When you open Google Maps, your current location is shown as a blue dot. This not only gives you a clear visual reference of your location in relation to the area around you, but now it also lets you control key location features with a few taps. With one tap, you can find out if certain settings are on, such as Location History or Timeline, and whether you’ve given Maps access to your device’s location.

Blue Dot with more control features in Google Maps (Google)

You can always review your data, and any choices you make at activity.google.com or your timeline.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Google Maps has long been a mainstay for most Android and Apple users because of the ability to get powerful data, up-to-date intel, and fluidity between desktops and phone apps. Now Google gives you even more control over your data by allowing Maps to remember specific visits and locations for you while remembering to delete consistently or specifically if necessary.

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Do you use Google Maps for daily errands or travel? Will you take advantage of Timeline and other new features to maximize Maps? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips & security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover.

Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:

Ideas for using those Holiday Gift cards:

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Technology

Here’s your first look at Kratos in Amazon’s God of War show

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Here’s your first look at Kratos in Amazon’s God of War show

Amazon has slowly been teasing out casting details for its live-action adaptation of God of War, and now we have our first look at the show. It’s a single image but a notable one showing protagonist Kratos and his son Atreus. The characters are played by Ryan Hurst and Callum Vinson, respectively, and they look relatively close to their video game counterparts.

There aren’t a lot of other details about the show just yet, but this is Amazon’s official description:

The God of War series storyline follows father and son Kratos and Atreus as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.

That sounds a lot like the recent soft reboot of the franchise, which started with 2018’s God of War and continued through Ragnarök in 2022. For the Amazon series, Ronald D. Moore, best-known for his work on For All Mankind and Battlestar Galactica, will serve as showrunner. The rest of the cast includes: Mandy Patinkin (Odin), Ed Skrein (Baldur), Max Parker (Heimdall), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Thor), Teresa Palmer (Sif), Alastair Duncan (Mimir), Jeff Gulka (Sindri), and Danny Woodburn (Brok).

While production is underway on the God of War series, there’s no word on when it might start streaming.

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300,000 Chrome users hit by fake AI extensions

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300,000 Chrome users hit by fake AI extensions

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Your web browser may feel like a safe place, especially when you install helpful tools that promise to make your life easier. But security researchers have uncovered a dangerous campaign in which more than 300,000 people installed Chrome extensions pretending to be artificial intelligence (AI) assistants. Instead of helping, these fake tools secretly collect sensitive information like your emails, passwords and browsing activity.

They used familiar names like ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Assistant. If you use Chrome and have installed any AI-related extension, your personal information may already be exposed. Even worse, some of these malicious extensions are still available today, putting more people at risk without their knowing.

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More than 300,000 Chrome users installed fake AI extensions that secretly harvested sensitive data. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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What you need to know about fake AI extensions

Security researchers at browser security company LayerX discovered a large campaign involving 30 malicious Chrome extensions disguised as AI-powered assistants (via BleepingComputer). Together, these extensions were installed more than 300,000 times by unsuspecting users.

Some of the most popular extensions included names like AI Sidebar with 70,000 users, AI Assistant with 60,000 users, ChatGPT Translate with 30,000 users, and Google Gemini with 10,000 users. Another extension called Gemini AI Sidebar had 80,000 users before it was removed.

These extensions were distributed through the official Chrome Web Store, which made them appear legitimate and trustworthy. Even more concerning, researchers found that many of these extensions were connected to the same malicious server, showing they were part of a coordinated effort.

While some extensions have since been removed, others remain available. This means new users could still unknowingly install them and expose their personal data. Here’s the list of the affected extensions:

  • AI Assistant
  • Llama
  • Gemini AI Sidebar
  • AI Sidebar
  • ChatGPT Sidebar
  • Grok
  • Asking ChatGPT
  • ChatGBT
  • Chat Bot GPT
  • Grok Chatbot
  • Chat With Gemini
  • XAI
  • Google Gemini
  • Ask Gemini
  • AI Letter Generator
  • AI Message Generator
  • AI Translator
  • AI For Translation
  • AI Cover Letter Generator
  • AI Image Generator ChatGPT
  • Ai Wallpaper Generator
  • Ai Picture Generator
  • DeepSeek Download
  • AI Email Writer
  • Email Generator AI
  • DeepSeek Chat
  • ChatGPT Picture Generator
  • ChatGPT Translate
  • AI GPT
  • ChatGPT Translation
  • ChatGPT for Gmail

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These malicious tools were listed in the official Chrome Web Store, making them appear legitimate and trustworthy. (LayerX)

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How the fake AI Chrome extension attack works

These fake extensions pretend to offer helpful AI features, such as translating text, summarizing emails, or acting as an AI assistant. But behind the scenes, they quietly monitor what you are doing online.

Once installed, the extension gains permission to view and interact with the websites you visit. This allows it to read the contents of web pages, including login screens where you enter your username and password.

In some cases, the extensions specifically targeted Gmail. They could read your email messages directly from your browser, including emails you received and even drafts you were still writing. This means attackers could access private conversations, financial information and sensitive personal details.

The extensions then sent this information to servers controlled by the attackers. Because they loaded content remotely, the attackers could change their behavior at any time without needing to update the extension.

Some versions could also activate voice features through your browser. This could potentially capture spoken conversations near your device and send transcripts back to the attackers.

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If you installed one of these extensions, attackers may already have access to extremely sensitive information. This includes your email content, login credentials, browsing habits and possibly even voice recordings.

We reached out to Google for comment, and a spokesperson told CyberGuy that the company “can confirm that the extensions from this report have all been removed from the Google Web Store.”

BROWSER EXTENSION MALWARE INFECTED 8.8M USERS IN DARKSPECTRE ATTACK

Once installed, the extensions could read emails, capture passwords, monitor browsing activity and send the data to attacker-controlled servers. (Bildquelle/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

7 ways you can protect yourself from malicious Chrome extensions

If you have ever installed an AI-related Chrome extension, taking a few simple precautions now can help protect your accounts and prevent further damage.

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1) Remove any suspicious or unused browser extensions

On a Windows PC or Mac, open Chrome and type chrome://extensions into the address bar. Review every extension listed. If you see anything unfamiliar, especially AI assistants you don’t remember installing, click “Remove” immediately. Malicious extensions depend on going unnoticed. Removing them stops further data collection and cuts off the attacker’s access to your information.

2) Change your passwords

If you installed any suspicious extension, assume your passwords may be compromised. Start by changing your email password first, since email controls access to most other accounts. Then update passwords for banking, shopping and social media accounts. This prevents attackers from using stolen credentials to break into your accounts.

3) Use a password manager to create and protect strong passwords

A password manager generates unique, complex passwords for each account and stores them securely. This prevents attackers from accessing multiple accounts if one password is stolen. Password managers also alert you if your login credentials appear in known data breaches, helping you respond quickly and protect your identity. Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at Cyberguy.com.

4) Install strong antivirus software and keep it active

Good antivirus software can detect malicious browser extensions, spyware, and other hidden threats. It scans your system for suspicious activity and blocks harmful programs before they can steal your information. This adds an important layer of protection that works continuously in the background to keep your device safe. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

5) Use an identity theft protection service

Identity theft protection services monitor your personal data, including email addresses, financial accounts, and Social Security numbers, for signs of misuse. If criminals try to open accounts or commit fraud using your information, you receive alerts quickly. Early detection allows you to act fast and limit financial and personal damage. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com.

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6) Keep your browser and computer fully updated

Software updates fix security vulnerabilities that attackers exploit. Enable automatic updates for Chrome and your operating system so you always have the latest protections. These updates strengthen your defenses against malicious extensions and prevent attackers from taking advantage of known weaknesses.

7) Use a personal data removal service

Personal data removal services scan data broker websites that collect and sell your personal information. They help remove your data from these sites, reducing what attackers can find and use against you. Less exposed information means fewer opportunities for criminals to target you with scams, identity theft or phishing attacks.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

Kurt’s key takeaway

Even tools designed to make your life easier can become tools for cybercriminals. Malicious extensions often hide behind trusted names and convincing features, making them difficult to spot. You can significantly reduce your risk by reviewing your browser extensions regularly, removing anything suspicious and using protective tools like password managers and strong antivirus software.

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Have you checked your browser extensions recently? Let us know your thoughts by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Anthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance

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Anthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance

Less than 24 hours before the deadline in an ultimatum issued by the Pentagon, Anthropic has refused the Department of Defense’s demands for unrestricted access to its AI.

It’s the culmination of a dramatic exchange of public statements, social media posts, and behind-the-scenes negotiations, coming down to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desire to renegotiate all AI labs’ current contracts with the military. But Anthropic, so far, has refused to back down from its two current red lines: no mass surveillance of Americans, and no lethal autonomous weapons (or weapons with license to kill targets with no human oversight whatsoever). OpenAI and xAI had reportedly already agreed to the new terms, while Anthropic’s refusal had led to CEO Dario Amodei being summoned to the White House this week for a meeting with Hegseth himself, in which the Secretary reportedly issued an ultimatum to the CEO to back down by the end of business day on Friday or else.

In a statement late Thursday, Amodei wrote, “I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries. Anthropic has therefore worked proactively to deploy our models to the Department of War and the intelligence community.”

He added that the company has “never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner” but that in a “narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values” — going on to specifically mention mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. (Amodei mentioned that “partial autonomous weapons … are vital to the defense of democracy” and that fully autonomous weapons may eventually “prove critical for our national defense,” but that “today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.” He did not rule out Anthropic acquiescing to the military’s use of fully autonomous weapons in the future but mentioned that they were not ready now.)

The Pentagon had already reportedly asked major defense contractors to assess their dependence on Anthropic’s Claude, which could be seen as the first step to designating the company a “supply chain risk” – a public threat that the Pentagon had made recently (and a classification usually reserved for threats to national security). The Pentagon was also reportedly considering invoking the Defense Production Act to make Anthropic comply.

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Amodei wrote in his statement that the Pentagon’s “threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.” He also wrote that “should the Department choose to offboard Anthropic, we will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider, avoiding any disruption to ongoing military planning, operations, or other critical missions. Our models will be available on the expansive terms we have proposed for as long as required.”

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