Google Maps is making a big privacy change to protect your location history

Google Maps is changing the way it handles your location data. Instead of backing up your data to the cloud, Google will soon store it locally on your device.

In an email sent to users, Google says you have until December 1st to save all your trips on your mobile device before you start deleting your old data. Timeline — formerly known as Location History — is the feature that tracks your routes and travels based on your phone’s location, allowing you to revisit all the places you’ve been in the past.

The transition to on-device storage also means you will no longer be able to access your Timeline on the web in December. If you don’t turn on the new Timeline settings by then, Google will try to move the last 90 days of your travel history to the first device you signed in to Google on. The company will then delete all data prior to this.

If you want to continue using Timeline, open Google Maps on your mobile device, click your profile photo in the top right corner of the screen, and choose Your Timeline. From there, select whether you want to keep your location data until you manually delete it, or have Google automatically delete it after three, 18, or 36 months. Google will store the information you want to keep on your device.