Google is modifying its famed Web & App Activity settings to cater to Google Workspace customers from March 29. This function is now divided into two settings, one labeled Search History, and the other Web & App Activity.
Google has begun alerting Workspace admins about the modification (thanks, Hacker News), and a help page provides more information.
Unfortunately, both the support and email page are quite confusing—even Google workers struggle to understand the privacy options.
Furthermore, the Web & App Activity Admin interface setting will be removed on March 29, 2022.
On the other hand, Web & App Activity is among the two key Google privacy policies that store anything you search or do on your Gmail account (together with Location History).
You may recall those settings from previous lawsuits alleging that they had been ambiguous and poorly worded.
In addition, these options improve the performance of things like autocomplete, allowing Google to store all of your activities.
Important announcement
It is worth noting that this just mentions the Admin control for the Web & App Activity option, not the complete setting.
According to Google, your admin will no longer manage the Web & App Activity function from a centralized location.
The core of those previous privacy complaints was that keeping privacy options divided over two switches was unduly perplexing. However, with Search History, privacy options are now divided into three switches.
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