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Really, the only reason it's creepy is because it actualizes the difference between what a user thinks the location services know, and what they actually know.
by jfktrey 10y ago
Really, the only reason it's creepy is because it actualizes the difference between what a user thinks the location services know, and what they actually know. Your phone pretty much always knows roughly where you are, it usually just doesn't brag about it.
- xg15 10y agoAt least from a technical standpoint, yes, my phone knows - but it's not necessary that any google apps know or that the information is sent back to any kind of server.
- ethbro 10y agoDoesn't brag about it is a bit mild of a way of putting it. I'd phrase it more as "specifically chooses not to educate users that capability is present because everyone in the industry knows it would scare the hell out of normal users."
- xg15 10y agoWell, it can be quite entertaining to show the Google Location History page to people who never heard of it before...
- stan_programmer 10y agoI love introducing people to Google Location History...
- sharemywin 10y agoI created an gmail for my phone that I never used. My regular google account isn't tied to it.
- api 10y agoThat's been true for as long as there's been cellular to some extent. It's not hard to triangulate with multiple towers.
- compiler-guy 10y agoYour phone knows your location, of course, but doesn't have to communicate your location to a third party.
- Silhouette 10y agoMobile networks track the location of connected devices all the time. That's how they know where to find you if someone calls you or sends you a message. The problem we have with a lot of modern technology, and particularly communications and payment technologies, is that while some degree of personal identification and association with specific locations or actions is necessary to perform their function, that same information is readily repurposed and easily shared if there are no rules to prevent it, or almost equivalently, if there are no effective sanctions if rules that do exist are breached.
- leephillips 10y agoWell said. I would add that while "Mobile networks track the location of connected devices all the time. That's how they know where to find you if someone calls you or sends you a message" this is at the cell level; Google knows what particular store you're in, by using its WiFi database and GPS: much finer grained.
- Silhouette 10y agothis is at the cell level; Google knows what particular store you're in, by using its WiFi database and GPS: much finer grained. For a single tower, yes. In practice, if you're within range of multiple cell towers, a little physics and mathematics will determine your location much more precisely, assuming knowledge of each tower's exact location, the relative signal strength received from your device at each tower, and ideally any confounding factors like awkward terrain or local sources of interference. As an aside, if things are going wrong on the network, it's a fair bet that engineers will be out driving around with directed antennae that will find any given rogue transmitter even using a single receiver given a bit of time. This one's not so much of a privacy concern, though, given that it only tends to be used as necessary to resolve specific problems.