Google Assistant Will Soon Get a Guest Mode for Private Voice Searches

Google Assistant will be getting a Guest mode soon. When this is turned on, interactions with Google Assistant will not be saved to your Google account. Your data will not be used for personalised results, as per the search giant. The Guest mode feature, designed to give you more control over your data, will be introduced in the coming weeks. Google has been rolling out a number of safety and privacy features in the recent past, owing to privacy concerns.

Announcing the feature in a blog post, Google acknowledged that there are times you may not want your Assistant interactions saved to your Google account; turning on Guest mode will ensure the same. On turning off the Guest mode, you'll get the full personalised Google Assistant experience again. You can also go back and delete what you've said to the Assistant by using your voice, a feature Google had enabled last year.

Along with this, Google also said it will be introducing a redesigned critical alert system along with a new way to deliver it. On detecting a serious Google Account security issue, it'll automatically display an alert within the Google app for the user and help address it. These alerts are resistant to spoofing, as per Google. This feature will see a limited rollout in the coming weeks and an expanded rollout early next year.

A similar feature had been introduced to Google Maps last year. The incognito mode on the app doesn't save map activity to the users' account, including the places they search for and personalised recommendations.

Google said that the safety of its products was driven by three core principles – keeping your information secure, treating it responsibly, and putting you in control.

The tech giant has recently announced improvements to password security and other safety features for Chrome's latest version, as well as for the browser on Android and iOS. Chrome for mobile will alert you if any of your passwords from the ones you've asked it to save have been compromised, and will lead you straight to the ‘change password' form in order to fix it. It was also launching Enhanced Safe Browsing for Android and introducing a biometric authentication step before auto-filling passwords for iOS.

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