22 ms·

Google Trusted Contacts

406 points by eipipuz 10y ago

castratikron 10y ago
>When Elliot doesn’t show up at the coffee shop, Thelma starts to worry. Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. Thelma calls the nearest ranger station, they send out a rescue party, and find Elliot in a few hours. Yeah because that has totally been a problem I've been needing a solution for.
- dudus 10y ago
  until you do and your life depends on it
- twr 10y ago
  I don't need it either, but it's uncaring to imagine that millions of people don't. A young woman was abducted recently on a local trail. I don't believe she's been found yet. Perhaps this would have made some difference.
  - SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
    But cant police use the tracking info already once you report someone missing? This just seems like a way for busybody and manipulative people to stir up drama.
    - twr 10y ago
      It can take many hours to surmise that someone has been kidnapped. Getting people to pay direct attention to someone's whereabouts, without having to constantly nag the person, is a huge win. Anyone who has ever expected an at-risk person to make contact at an estimated time can relate how worrying it is when that person is delayed.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      > But cant police use the tracking info already once you report someone missing? 1. Police can, but won't until they consider it a missing person scenario, which oftdn involves considerable delay, at least for an adult -- and that's even if the police happen to prioritize that case. 2. For many people in various places for a variety of reasons, even aside from delay issues, the police aren't the first people they'd want to rely on. Or even on that list at all. > This just seems like a way for busybody and manipulative people to stir up drama There is some risk of that, but there's also empowerment of people to create their own effective support networks of real, personal trust.
      - SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
        Late reply: there are 800,000 missing persons cases in the US each year, but 12,000,000 victims of intimate partner violence. I just suspect that your solution to the smaller problem will make something that's a much larger problem (as in, more than an order of magnitude larger) worse.
- GavinMcG 10y ago
  I use Amazon Prime quite a bit, but it turns out there's also a huge market made up of people who leave their houses.
- davidbanham 10y ago
  I have that use case. I often go bushwalking and always text my wife from the trailhead to let her know which track I'm going to be on. This product is a much better version of that system. It's impervious to me forgetting to send the text and gives an accurate location rather than "somewhere in the general area served by this trailhead".
  - literallycancer 10y ago
    I'm often hiking too and my battery almost always dies halfway through. If my family members were to initiate a rescue effort anytime they can't reach me, I'd probably have to stop doing anything. Then again, I'm in Europe, so crime rates are virtually zero, and the only risk is spraining an ankle or something.
    - int_19h 10y ago
      I like convenience of having the GPS, so I carry a battery pack for the phone. I'm also paranoid, so I carry a Cospas-Sarsat PLB as well. But you need to be conscious, and have at least one arm working, to activate that. Hikes can still be dangerous, especially in the mountains. Hereabouts, pretty much every year several people get seriously injured on one of the trails, usually by tripping and falling down the slope; and in most years, there's at least one fatality. Usually it's because people veer off the trail or do something similarly dangerous, but sometimes it's just dangerous conditions (e.g. ice) on regular, well-maintained trails that are normally safe, or just bad luck. Better safe than sorry.
- applecrazy 10y ago
  I see your point and agree with you. Their PR department should have come up with a better example. However, they didn't want to offend or scare anyone with a more realistic application of this feature (to prevent abductions and missing people), so I understand where they're coming from.
- philip1209 10y ago
  North of SF in Marin this past Saturday, one of the competitors in the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile race decided to give up and go home without telling anybody. His parents were at the finish line waiting and, apparently out of shame, he did not tell them, nor did he answer any calls. So, the organizers sent out an emergency search and rescue team. It was not for another two and a half hours that they realized that the competitor was sitting at home and choosing not to answer his phone.
hakanito 10y ago
Coincidentally (or not), Facebook presented this as an upcoming Messenger feature today [1] > If you can't find a friend and become worried about their safety, Messenger could one day let you send a request to see their location. A timer would begin on the friend's phone that gives them a chance to approve or deny the request. If the timer expires on its own, their location would be sent to you automatically. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reviewed-coolest-facebook-hackathon-projects-2016-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reviewed-cool...
robteix 10y ago
> Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe As a parent, I find this tremendously useful. This is specially important for people in certain countries where walking/driving home at night is realistically dangerous.
- sliken 10y ago
  Seems like false sense of security. It only updates every 10 minutes or so. If you are really worried have them just call you and put their phone in their pocket. That way you can listen in and call 911 if needed. Waiting 10 minutes for a GPS update doesn't seem to actually increase safety in any noticeable way.
  - Clamhead 10y ago
    Is it every 10 minutes? I haven't downloaded the app myself. However, I was under the impression the 'virtual walk' was some separate feature that when turned on, allows the person to monitor your whereabouts in near real-time. (like could watch a tiny dot moving on a map as you walk). One update every 10 minutes is way too infrequent. I feel like the majority of walks people could use this with would take less than 10 minutes ...
  - jpravetz 10y ago
    I go out for mega long bike rides in areas with very spotty cell coverage (Silicon Valley). This app is great because when my spouse wants to know where I am she can initiate the request, and I can keep my hands on the handlebars and keep rolling. I only wish they had thought to allow choices other than 'phone ring, wait 5 minutes'. I'd have prefered to set the notification type and delay. I hope the GPS battery drain for this feature is low (as compared with Garmin Connect, Strava or Glympse). 10 minute intervals sounds great.
    - mikecb 10y ago
      AFAIK, the largest battery drain in GPS is for an initial fix, and small updates after that are much lower cost.
potatosoup 10y ago
Useful feature, yes, but I see this as a license to track locations of more people at all times. Also see: Uber's recent "always track" update
- scarmig 10y ago
  So, I've got some bad news for you: Google is already tracking your location all the time if you're in the market for this product. This just exposes that data for what seems like a very useful user feature.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    I realized this (well, "realized"... I knew it, but it became very creepy) the other day, when my phone popped up a notification while I was in a restaurant, saying "enjoying <restaurant name>? Why not take some photos for people to see?" or something like that. I've lately been getting into the habit of turning location services off unless I actually need them on, and I would recommend it. It's a shame my phone gets my location behind my back without any indication by default.
    - int_19h 10y ago
      You're lucky. A more creepy way of getting enlightened is having Google Now tell you, "I see you're at work, and it's about your usual time to head home. Traffic is heavy on the usual route, though, so it might take 15 minutes longer than normal." (This all without you ever telling which location is your work and which is home.)
      - meowface 10y ago
        Do you see an issue with this?
        int_19h 10y ago
        When it comes out of the blue, yes. It's a useful feature, but also very intrusive, and that should be gated on a very, very clear opt-in.
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
It's always amazing to me how often Google takes something they... already had... renames it, and then announces it as a brand new thing. I used to use this six years ago, it was called Google Latitude.
- natrius 10y ago
  User experience matters, and this works very differently from how Google Latitude worked. Digital products are not about revealing the truth stored in database records. They're elaborate fictions we tell each other about meaningless database records.
- Gustomaximus 10y ago
  And is currently 'Locations' in Google+
gpm 10y ago
Used as intended this sounds like a great idea. However used by an abusive significant other or parent (even just an overbearing parent) it seems pretty scary. To mitigate the potential harm I would hope for two things 1. Make it hard/impossible to be forever telling your location to someone (it's unclear if that's what the feel unsafe mode does in the first place, or if it just broadcasts it once) 2. Make it easy to 'enter an alternate location' to tell the inquirer
- scarmig 10y ago
  Number 2 sounds like a pure win.
  - euyyn 10y ago
    Even for simple things like buying your Christmas present for your SO, you want the app to let you lie sometimes.
    - sliken 10y ago
      Android allows this under debugging, click on "allow mock locations".
      - knz 10y ago
        Or just turn off location services.
        btown 10y ago
        An abuser would know if the device was failing to report a location, or if the victim were to turn off the system, and could take action accordingly. When user consent can be subverted, otherwise benign opt-in features that are deployed and marketed ubiquitously can have unforeseen consequences. That said there is a utilitarian way to look at this, that for more situations it helps parents to keep their kids safe. The ethical question is far from cut and dry.
mcs_ 10y ago
I trust my contacts google. I don't trust your ideas. Got an idea... vote before implement. You ask us if we want the new feature looking at our data. Just kidding. I like the idea.
mrgriscom 10y ago
I can't believe the amount of effort invested in this more cumbersome, much more specific use case solution rather than just bringing back Latitude -- a fully functional product (and exactly the same under the hood) that existed 6 years ago. I trust my trusted contacts -- let me share my location all the time. (No, some backwater tab in the G+ app does not count.)
- jaimex2 10y ago
  Yup, what a waste of a great product. Least the G+ feature can be set as a widget.
  - mrgriscom 10y ago
    Yeah for me it's overlay in the maps app or bust. I liked opening google maps and seeing all my friends and family. The option to share only city-level location was enough to assuage any feelings of creepiness. And I know I'm on the fringe here, but I was also quite partial to the fact that it had an API.
    - k1t 10y ago
      I made the same complaint to a Googler friend - but he showed me his copy of Maps complete with contact's locations. I assumed it would be coming soon in a future update, but this was more than a year ago.
      - wfunction 10y ago
        > but he showed me his copy of Maps complete with contact's locations Whoa there! Were the contacts also Googlers??
        k1t 10y ago
        Sorry, I think you missed the context from the parent post. This is just the same as the Location tab in Google+ (which used to be a separate app, Latitude) - it's only contacts who have chosen to share their location, but integrated into Maps.
exhilaration 10y ago
Here’s how it works: Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. I've got an android phone but my wife has an iPhone, does that mean this is useless for us? Edit, it's in the works: If you're an iOS user, click here to get notified when the iOS app is available
- aiiane 10y ago
  You can do one way sharing (from you to her) even now. You just won't be able to do the opposite direction until an iOS version is available.
  - gvurrdon 10y ago
    It's inevitable that the forthcoming iOS version will require location history to be turned on for one's Google account. Therefore, I'd much prefer another cross-platform means of providing this information. Owntracks hasn't been too bad for this; there are clients for iOS and Android and the the backend is self-hosted. http://owntracks.org http://owntracks.org The only problem I've encountered with it is that the Android client has shown some instability from time to time, with high battery drain or missed location updates.
quickben 10y ago
This just promotes obsession and anxiety.
- krick 10y ago
  Well, of course. Would it be easier for me to sell you something if you were calm, relaxed and would't really need anything more to be happy?
tonyplee 10y ago
How does it work when it is offline? Via SMS?
- NamTaf 10y ago
  It looks like it just caches the last known location which is pretty useless.
  - int_19h 10y ago
    It's plenty useful in some scenarios, like getting lost on a hike - it would significantly narrow down the search area for S&R.
    - darrenkopp 10y ago
      It would depend on where you are. Here in Utah my cell service goes out within the first 5 minutes of the hike I do by my house. The hike itself is about 2 hours in and an hour out.
      - int_19h 10y ago
        Hereabouts, I don't get mobile service on most hikes, but I do get it on many trailheads. So, at the very least, it would tell them which trail I was on when I disappeared. This may be a thing that is specific to local conditions, though. It so happens that I live in upper Snoqualmie River valley, which has trailheads for many of the best and most popular hiking trails in the area. So, naturally, this is where most of my hikes are. And the towers that provide signal for the towns in the valley are on the surrounding mountaintops, so they provide coverage for a good chunk of wilderness around, as well.
imh 10y ago
>Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. The cynic in me thinks this whole use case is intended to normalize the idea of a company always knowing everywhere you go. See? Privacy is unsafe!
- moxious 10y ago
  Hasn't this already been the case for some time? What's remarkable to me is how late in the game they're making this tracking available to us as a useful feature. Relative to ad targeting I'm not sure there's anything new here.
- viraptor 10y ago
  > normalize the idea of a company always knowing everywhere you go This doesn't really make sense. Google already has this information. They're sharing what they already had access to with contacts you select. On the other hand, there was an interesting feature a few years ago, where you could share your location with friends without special requests. Since then it has been moved from a separate google service to google+. What I'm saying is - this is nothing new. It's actually a new, restricted version of what's been available and happening for a long time.
  - imh 10y ago
    I meant normalize in the social sense that people become more comfortable with google tracking them everywhere instead of feeling creeped out by it. It doesn't have to be new. Most, or at least a large fraction of, google maps and android users would probably be appalled to realize how extensively they're being currently tracked.
    - viraptor 10y ago
      I heard that opinion for quite a while already. I wonder if it still holds up. Do people still get creeped out, considering how in-your-face google now is? I don't know many "normal" users, so don't have an answer really.
symlinkk 10y ago
How does it know your location when your phone is offline?
- throwanem 10y ago
  It doesn't, but it knows where it last saw you.
  - symlinkk 10y ago
    They should just say that! The marketing is deceptive: > This new personal safety app lets you share your location with loved ones in everyday situations and when emergencies arise — even if your phone is offline or you can’t get to it.
    - GavinMcG 10y ago
      It's tricky because the access to your location data is available when your phone is offline. They could have done better at explaining that, but probably not with just one sentence.
jonstewart 10y ago
FTFY: Sometimes you just want to share your location with the Ad Sense team...
- moxious 10y ago
  That's silly. They've had your location for years even without asking, they don't need an app for that. The TOS says you're already BFFs.
- deegles 10y ago
  I find it hard to believe they don't have access to it already.
agumonkey 10y ago
Google PI ;) I very often wish for something similar, for instance when my mother is running a bit late in a park. I don't want to mess with her jogging or walk. But I'd like to be sure she's still fine. Thing is, except for the current generation, smartphones are often silenced and forgotten in some pocket. So unless it's an invasive constant-on tracker .. it wouldn't work in my case.
peterhadlaw 10y ago
I'm not even kidding, I was thinking about this EXACT application / functionality yesterday and was thinking about making it.
yersonperez 10y ago
What's it?
- GavinMcG 10y ago
  There's actually a whole article someone prepared to answer that question, along with a video. If you scroll up to the top of the page you can click the link and go there.
waltkurtz 10y ago
And now, Google injects itself directly within and throughout the level of trust some people only place in their parents or spouses. It used to be that certain truths were only know between two people, but now for many, it will be those two people, and Google. Even if it were any other company, the totality of awareness a single organization has, from childhood on up should give us some pause. Microphones, accelerometers, cameras, GPS, and now annotated depth of relationship, instead of presumed depth inferred from ancillary metrics. At this point it's getting a little strange. With software and services these days, there's almost nothing people won't consume. It's as if people will eat everything in a package labeled as food, even if most of the contents are inedible. More and more, it feels like people know they're eating fish hooks, but maybe they'll pass the foreign objects they've swallowed, before any fisherman tries to tug the line and set the hook. But even if you or I don't buy in, when everybody else does, the outliers still get hooked and still lands in the boat, just by implicit association and proximity. The stakes are raised ever higher with each beat of this game. It's like the quote from Apocalypse Now: Ah, man... The bullshit piled up so fast in Viet Nam, you needed wings to stay above it.
achikin 10y ago
Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was...one block away from Julia's apartment ha-ha.
kumarm 10y ago
I am afraid most people are missing the target audience of this feature. This is for people who live in unsafe areas and have trusted family member than they do want to watch over. This is an app that should have been released in India immediately after Nirbhaya incident. For a Company thats supposed to move fast, Google definitely blew timing of launching such a feature.
shade23 10y ago
This is not good. This basically gives a public opening into massive amounts of data which they could legally collect till now but now use it as a product? What happens when people disable location access. And this: >But if you’re unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe, your location is shared automatically and your loved ones can determine the best way to help you out. This does not seem like consent.I can think of at least a 100 situations where I was not near my phone and yet do not want to send my location. Moreover how is this different from messaging someone/calling someone to ask them where they are? The only time I am trying to reach a person and cannot reach them is when they are out of coverage range.At that time, no app would make a difference. This is nice when its a part of other apps (Whatsapp,Uber etc) .On its own, location based information as being the only purpose can prove to be quite disastrous. Edit 1: People seem to miss the intricacies of human relationships here.I'd like to see folks tell their parents/loved ones/other close beings how they do not want to add "trusted contacts" and share their location continuously.
- devoply 10y ago
  When you use Google Maps you consent to having your location monitored at all times. They are just now making good use of this feature.
- arjie 10y ago
  > This does not seem like consent.I can think of at least a 100 situations where I was not near my phone and yet do not want to send my location. Then don't install the app, man.
- caseysoftware 10y ago
  > Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. Sounds like the consent is explicit at the time of configuration. As long as it's a separate app an opt-in, I don't think this is bad. More creepy is when it becomes a part of Android itself and someone can add themselves as "Trusted" either via physical access or an exploit. It's a stalker's dream.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
matt_wulfeck 10y ago
iOS allows me to request location access as well as permanently or temporarily share my location. It would be great to get a "last known location" coordinate, but this feature is still very useful.
bigethan 10y ago
Is talking about distrusting this service due to government intervention a violation of the "no politics" rule? What about if it's just a nosy parent?
wineisfine 10y ago
This is just an incident waiting to happen.
- fixermark 10y ago
  Can you elaborate?
chirau 10y ago
Reminds me of Google Latitude. Honestly, I prefer Latitude to this. This just smells of eternal tracking to me.
richartruddie 10y ago
This is nice. Definitely in response to Facebooks Safety Check and it's great to see innovation that makes the world a better place. I wrote about this: http://richartruddie.blogspot.com/2016/12/facebook-google-safety-check.html http://richartruddie.blogspot.com/2016/12/facebook-google-sa...
- puzzle 10y ago
  Uh, I think Safety Check was inspired by Google.org's Person Finder.
reacharavindh 10y ago
Should I think that it is coincidence that Uber wants 24/7 location data, FB wants it, and Now Google officially wants it.. Now, people like me who prefer to 'own' their digital lives, and not become part of this surveilled garden would be labeled as 'tinhat'. Thanks but no thanks.
- ap22213 10y ago
  I know. This is just getting sickening. Can't they focus on delivering real value without being just an 'advertisement company'. I know that advertising is like the only thing that makes money anymore, but does it really help people? No. Be a science, engineering, and technology company, Goddammit! Can someone brave please put their foot down and say enough? Someone? And, it's even so much worse because they make it seem like they're such good guys by releasing these 'free' or 'cheap' services. It's just outright deceptive.
  - witty_username 10y ago
    Advertising helps people. Why are they paying for it then?
    - ap22213 10y ago
      When if ever has it helped you? Meaning - yes, clearly it helps companies sell their products and services. But, as an individual consumer, how many times over the past year have you purchased something because its advertisement informed you of something that you truly needed but didn't know about?
      - witty_username 10y ago
        0
    - ionised 10y ago
      It manipulates people by expoloiting their weaknesses, insecurities and fears. That's not the same thing as 'help'.
cyberferret 10y ago
I am guessing that the nay sayers to this app probably don't have young children. I have two sons (16 and 13) who are always out and about socialising with friends, or at sporting / musical activities. My older son gigs with his band late at nights, and let me tell you - as parents, my wife and I do not rest easy until we either pick him up or he gets dropped home. Any app that lets us check on our kids' whereabouts quickly and effectively without taking them out of the zone (Have you ever tried to get a teenager to call to let you know "Hey everything is OK"??) is a blessing IMO. An app like this would be restricted just between my wife and I, and our two boys. No more than that. No more is needed. We are an 'absolute trust' group and quite frankly, the idea that any of us would want to hide our locations from each other is simply not even a thing.
- erispoe 10y ago
  Do your teens (you're hardly a 'young child' at 16) share your enthusiasm for sharing location at all time with their parents? I know I was not at that age. Learning to be autonomous is part of growing up. Setting up a one-click call for help with location is one thing, wanting to know the whereabouts of your 16 years old son at all times is something else entirely, that has little to do with his actual safety.
  - yeowMeng 10y ago
    Honest question: when you didn't want your parents knowing where you were - did you make good choices? The truth for me; If I had listened to my parents, I would not be as cool. But If I had listened, I would be healthier and getting older - I realize health is happiness.
    - GuiA 10y ago
      Friends and I would frequently sneak out of school during lunch breaks etc. This was during day time in a very large, safe city, (with ample access to public transportation, police officers, etc) and gave our teenage brains the freedom and independence that school so eagerly took away from us. If my parents had received a push notification the moment I left school, my teenage years would have been utterly miserable, instead of just mostly miserable. To be honest, I hope my kids do the same when they're that age. I'd absolutely yell at them if I found out because that's how it's supposed to be (and that's how they get better at not being caught), but deep inside I'll be glad they did. It's part of growing up. That being said, I understand why Americans and their car-centric, gun heavy cities wouldn't agree with this, except maybe in a city like NYC. Which is why I won't be raising my kids in the US. I expect the public infrastructure of where I live to guarantee my kid's safety, and not to have to rely on helicopter parenting to give me peace of mind.
emilburzo 10y ago
For anyone looking for a more privacy conscious version, I made Graticule[1] a few years ago. Install the app, start beacon, send anonymous and platform independent link, done. Optionally customize location technology (gps/network/passive) and beacon interval (from the default GPS/1 second). No registration, no contacts, nothing else. You choose when you're sharing your location and with whom. Partially inspired by the old Google Latitude. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo.graticule https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo....
- ComodoHacker 10y ago
  Does it have active users?
  - emilburzo 10y ago
    Yes.
- whyagaindavid 10y ago
  Are you planning to opensource the code. That would give more trust. Please post to fdroid.org
XorNot 10y ago
Interesting. Me and my SO use glympse to coordinate pickups, but we've been looking for a relatively low power consumption way to share location just generally.
ap22213 10y ago
Geez. Google is just getting carried away with this tracking stuff. It's like every day they release something new that seems to con people into letting Google track them. I know advertising is a trillion dollar industry. But, you'd think that Google, of all companies, would be the ones to create real innovation and value without falling to the lowest common denominator.
- ap22213 10y ago
  WTF - I know Google employees troll this forum to build brand and influence, but squelch criticism? Come on. What ever happened to the 'don't do evil' company?
  - pgeorgi 10y ago
    Or maybe that "criticism" is just not very good and merely a rehash of the same (weak) point made so many times on this very page already? "con people into letting Google track them" - how does this enable any _more_ tracking than existed yesterday? The only thing I see it enables is to share the data that already exists about the user with the people that user appoints (and trusts, hopefully). Disclosure: Google employee, but nothing to do with location services.
    - ap22213 10y ago
      First, I really appreciate the reply. So, thank you. It may seem a rehash (and, it partially is). But, there are readers who are either unaware or have forgotten that Google doesn't give away services for free. Google is an advertisement and tracking company, not a benevolent technology supplier. The Google collective is obviously way smarter than any of us. So, who really knows how they plan to profit from this service. My guess: It gives them further reach beyond Android devices. It requires people who may otherwise quickly turn off location services to keep it on. And, it allows them to bypass COPPA via implied parental consent. Look, I've worked in this industry. And, tracking devices (AKA people) is massively profitable. And, the profit increases exponentially. That is, the profit per signal increases as the number of signals and devices grows. Furthermore, at the highest levels of coverage density, it becomes possible to even make accurate conclusions from the empty spaces (i.e. people without devices).
etchalon 10y ago
It's this just a Google version of Apple's "Find My Friends"?
keypress 10y ago
Bad name. How about: "I'm here.", or "Where are you?". Trusted contacts sounds more like a FOAF vouch, or authenticated contact details app.
tatotato 10y ago
An insinuation of this kind of tech is that if you aren't carrying a phone, you aren't safe. I'm seeing in the comments that the level of trust in companies is higher than the trust in your government. Both very sad things.
- witty_username 10y ago
  Companies are more directly accountable through $$$. Government is only accountable indirectly through elections; and you can win those with 51% of the vote [0]; the other 49% could completely disagree. [0] With the Electoral College, you don't even need a majority of the popular vote.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    Many US elections, emphatically including those of Presidential electors, are done by plurality rule, so you don't need a majority to start with -- which is floor(votes×50%)+1, not 51%. With the structure of the EC, you can, therefore, win with a minority of votes in states with a minority of the population.
  - nicktelford 10y ago
    In the UK, our current Conservative government "won" a majority (and hence control of the government) with only 35% of the popular vote. It's the smallest mandate a UK government has had in modern history.
  - jonathansizz 10y ago
    > Companies are more directly accountable through $$$ What's direct about that? Companies are directly accountable to their shareholders, accountable to the general population via the government, and very indirectly accountable to their customers.
- twr 10y ago
  > I'm seeing in the comments that the level of trust in companies is higher than the trust in your government. Maybe that's occasionally deserved. I'm probably more paranoid about surveillance than you are. I wrote positively about this app anyway. The average commenter here is, more than likely, like me, not really in the target demographic for this app. I'm male, reasonably strong, and capable of defending myself. I don't worry when I leave the house. Sometimes my female friend, who is passionate about bicycling, tells me about her experiences on the nearby bike trail. Where, every day, she passes by dozens of loitering homeless individuals. Where, some time ago, a woman was dragged off her bike and had her face shattered. Where multiple women have been kidnapped. She expresses fear, but loves her sport enough to overcome it. She rides on a multi-thousand dollar custom-made road bike that's surely appealing for someone desperate enough. Who am I to tell her that her fears are overwrought? My physical safety isn't at stake. For people like her, I think this app is worth consideration. For people like me, I never wanted it.
jakebasile 10y ago
I wonder if Google Apps accounts can use this? I don't have an Android phone to find out.
dayaz36 10y ago
I already have an app like this that lets me share my location and everything with my loved ones. It's called text messaging
natch 10y ago
With regard to the cheerleaders saying there are no problems whatsoever with this feature: 1. The reason people raise concerns about Google, and less so about iOS, is that Google and Apple are in different businesses. Google is in the business of profiting off your personal data and that of your family members. Apple is not, and iOS makes it significantly harder for rogue apps to get access to personal data without the actual user's direct permission. 2. Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) place different priorities on security relative to other factors. 3. Many of the naysayers are raising issues that do not single out Android, however fair it may be to do so. There are some issues that remain the same beyond the specific platform. For example: this kind of app creates social pressure for people to be tracked by their family and show trust that they may not sincerely feel. 4. If you think they can "just" turn the feature off or "just" remove the trusted contacts when they feel uncomfortable, you are not thinking this through. These "trusted" contacts may be authority figures in the family and may be able to examine any settings done by the actual users. 5. If your kids are carrying a cell phone, it should probably be a secure phone, with strictly enforced app store policies, and with a secure OS that is not provided by a company with every incentive to gather and monetize personal and private information. Your kids do not deserve to be the targets of this kind of commercial activity. So even if you think the feature is good, it is tainted by the interests of the provider. But whether the feature is good or bad, Android is a bad way for children to get the feature.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  > If your kids are carrying a cell phone, it should probably be a secure phone, with strictly enforced app store policies, and with a secure OS that is not provided by a company with every incentive to gather and monetize personal and private information. Pest or cholera. At least it allows you to tinker with it, as opposed to iOS.
  - yakcyll 10y ago
    And who of the God knows how many users of Android will 'tinker' with it? Ignorance of the user base, technical or otherwise, IS a valid argument against this sorta thing. We made it so.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
restuos 10y ago
I wonder if this would work for when I need to pick my kids up or some friend at the airport. Basically tell them to wait inside while I share my location. Then have it alert them when I'm nearby so they can come out. This would be really helpful for the airport situation, as I wouldn't even need to park.
ComodoHacker 10y ago
>assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family OK Google, we got the whole point of this app. Nevertheless, it's a useful feature and can help many.
nexxer 10y ago
Shrug, yet another product we cannot even try in Cyprus due to Location History being disabled country-wide, for some reason.
rmc 10y ago
What a great way for homophobic parents to keep track of their gay kids and make sure they aren't hanging out at that LGBT centre, or with any LGBT-friendly people!
laktak 10y ago
Just remember that Google will be your most trusted contact.
whyagaindavid 10y ago
Such a live tracking service exists for openstreepmap based OSMAND already (with privacy) http://osmand.net/features?id=osmo-plugin http://osmand.net/features?id=osmo-plugin
bhstahl 10y ago
Want an app just like this for iOS, today? Try out https://goguardian.xyz https://goguardian.xyz
wfunction 10y ago
The app isn't working for me. I keep pressing Continue on the welcome screens and after the 4th or 5th screen Continue stops doing anything. Same thing when I restart the app, etc... anyone have this problem?
wfunction 10y ago
Is there any app that can send my location to a custom server of my own rather than Google's?
- arnoooooo 10y ago
  Owntracks does this
  - wfunction 10y ago
    Thanks!
sathishmanohar 10y ago
Dad has requested your location. Your location will be auto shared in 4min 59seconds. Loud Music Notification Not Audible Son is in Strip Club. Thank you.
cfv 10y ago
How far are we from being required to use a Google Buttplug in order to use gmail?
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CoryG89 10y ago
I tend to feel that this is more for parents who don't trust their kids, rather than those who do. Many parents will say, "My kids won't have a problem with this because we have trust in our family." The truth is, if you trusted your kids, you wouldn't need the ability to obtain their exact location without having to ask for it. Parents who trust their kids will already know where their kids are supposed to be, or will just ask them. On the other hand, I see no problem with the feature that allows you to request location and will automatically send location after a long non-response. Of course, most kids (beyond a certain age) are going to occasionally go places their parents aren't comfortable with. This is a normal part of growing up and it shouldn't be impossible IMO. Even in particularly bad or dangerous cases, I would feel this calls for a normal punishment (maybe?). No TV, chores, etc. Not constant location tracking.
- was_boring 10y ago
  I'm not sure where you got that from. I couldn't find a single reference to parents or children on the page.
  - CoryG89 10y ago
    It will be primarily used for parents to track their kids. They don't need to specifically spell out that use case with parent/child characters. It seems obvious to me that this will enable parents (all kinds, good and bad) to track their kids with a pretty scary level of control. But you're right in that this isn't just restricted to parents and children. In my post just substitute parent/child with a controlling boyfriend/girlfriend.
barnacs 10y ago
- google now has one more reason to collect your location and associate it with the rest of your activities - you are encouraged to use your phone even more, because doing so signals to your loved ones that you're ok. Using your phone pretty much means sharing even more data with google, watching their ads and buying stuff from their app store It's a pure win. For google.
themihai 10y ago
>assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family Would be great if we wouldn't have to assign the "trusted" status to Google(or any other 3rd party) too in order to use the app.
gravypod 10y ago
blog.google It sometimes escapes me how much power google holds over the internet. It's moments like this that rekindle my fear in the "Don't be Evil" slogan (or for that matter, the removal of said slogan).
- delroth 10y ago
  $200K buys you a gTLD, it does not translate to any "power held over the internet". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#Brand_top-level_domains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_dom... And the "Don't be Evil" slogan has never been removed. https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html
koolba 10y ago
Anyone want to take bets on how long until someone uses this to find his or her spouse's secret lover? My money is going to be on "not very long".
imaginenore 10y ago
Or you can install Cerberus on your family's smartphones, and have all kinds of useful features besides determining their location.
kalkiYuga 10y ago
If you have concerns you can always use this. I am planning to opensource this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spacetime https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spacetime
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406 points by eipipuz 10y ago

>When Elliot doesn’t show up at the coffee shop, Thelma starts to worry. Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. Thelma calls the nearest ranger station, they send out a rescue party, and find Elliot in a few hours. Yeah because that has totally been a problem I've been needing a solution for.

dudus 10y ago
until you do and your life depends on it
twr 10y ago
I don't need it either, but it's uncaring to imagine that millions of people don't. A young woman was abducted recently on a local trail. I don't believe she's been found yet. Perhaps this would have made some difference.
- SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
  But cant police use the tracking info already once you report someone missing? This just seems like a way for busybody and manipulative people to stir up drama.
  - twr 10y ago
    It can take many hours to surmise that someone has been kidnapped. Getting people to pay direct attention to someone's whereabouts, without having to constantly nag the person, is a huge win. Anyone who has ever expected an at-risk person to make contact at an estimated time can relate how worrying it is when that person is delayed.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > But cant police use the tracking info already once you report someone missing? 1. Police can, but won't until they consider it a missing person scenario, which oftdn involves considerable delay, at least for an adult -- and that's even if the police happen to prioritize that case. 2. For many people in various places for a variety of reasons, even aside from delay issues, the police aren't the first people they'd want to rely on. Or even on that list at all. > This just seems like a way for busybody and manipulative people to stir up drama There is some risk of that, but there's also empowerment of people to create their own effective support networks of real, personal trust.
    - SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
      Late reply: there are 800,000 missing persons cases in the US each year, but 12,000,000 victims of intimate partner violence. I just suspect that your solution to the smaller problem will make something that's a much larger problem (as in, more than an order of magnitude larger) worse.
GavinMcG 10y ago
I use Amazon Prime quite a bit, but it turns out there's also a huge market made up of people who leave their houses.
davidbanham 10y ago
I have that use case. I often go bushwalking and always text my wife from the trailhead to let her know which track I'm going to be on. This product is a much better version of that system. It's impervious to me forgetting to send the text and gives an accurate location rather than "somewhere in the general area served by this trailhead".
- literallycancer 10y ago
  I'm often hiking too and my battery almost always dies halfway through. If my family members were to initiate a rescue effort anytime they can't reach me, I'd probably have to stop doing anything. Then again, I'm in Europe, so crime rates are virtually zero, and the only risk is spraining an ankle or something.
  - int_19h 10y ago
    I like convenience of having the GPS, so I carry a battery pack for the phone. I'm also paranoid, so I carry a Cospas-Sarsat PLB as well. But you need to be conscious, and have at least one arm working, to activate that. Hikes can still be dangerous, especially in the mountains. Hereabouts, pretty much every year several people get seriously injured on one of the trails, usually by tripping and falling down the slope; and in most years, there's at least one fatality. Usually it's because people veer off the trail or do something similarly dangerous, but sometimes it's just dangerous conditions (e.g. ice) on regular, well-maintained trails that are normally safe, or just bad luck. Better safe than sorry.
applecrazy 10y ago
I see your point and agree with you. Their PR department should have come up with a better example. However, they didn't want to offend or scare anyone with a more realistic application of this feature (to prevent abductions and missing people), so I understand where they're coming from.
philip1209 10y ago
North of SF in Marin this past Saturday, one of the competitors in the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile race decided to give up and go home without telling anybody. His parents were at the finish line waiting and, apparently out of shame, he did not tell them, nor did he answer any calls. So, the organizers sent out an emergency search and rescue team. It was not for another two and a half hours that they realized that the competitor was sitting at home and choosing not to answer his phone.

hakanito 10y ago

Coincidentally (or not), Facebook presented this as an upcoming Messenger feature today [1] > If you can't find a friend and become worried about their safety, Messenger could one day let you send a request to see their location. A timer would begin on the friend's phone that gives them a chance to approve or deny the request. If the timer expires on its own, their location would be sent to you automatically. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reviewed-coolest-facebook-hackathon-projects-2016-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reviewed-cool...

robteix 10y ago

> Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe As a parent, I find this tremendously useful. This is specially important for people in certain countries where walking/driving home at night is realistically dangerous.

sliken 10y ago
Seems like false sense of security. It only updates every 10 minutes or so. If you are really worried have them just call you and put their phone in their pocket. That way you can listen in and call 911 if needed. Waiting 10 minutes for a GPS update doesn't seem to actually increase safety in any noticeable way.
- Clamhead 10y ago
  Is it every 10 minutes? I haven't downloaded the app myself. However, I was under the impression the 'virtual walk' was some separate feature that when turned on, allows the person to monitor your whereabouts in near real-time. (like could watch a tiny dot moving on a map as you walk). One update every 10 minutes is way too infrequent. I feel like the majority of walks people could use this with would take less than 10 minutes ...
- jpravetz 10y ago
  I go out for mega long bike rides in areas with very spotty cell coverage (Silicon Valley). This app is great because when my spouse wants to know where I am she can initiate the request, and I can keep my hands on the handlebars and keep rolling. I only wish they had thought to allow choices other than 'phone ring, wait 5 minutes'. I'd have prefered to set the notification type and delay. I hope the GPS battery drain for this feature is low (as compared with Garmin Connect, Strava or Glympse). 10 minute intervals sounds great.
  - mikecb 10y ago
    AFAIK, the largest battery drain in GPS is for an initial fix, and small updates after that are much lower cost.

potatosoup 10y ago

Useful feature, yes, but I see this as a license to track locations of more people at all times. Also see: Uber's recent "always track" update

scarmig 10y ago
So, I've got some bad news for you: Google is already tracking your location all the time if you're in the market for this product. This just exposes that data for what seems like a very useful user feature.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  I realized this (well, "realized"... I knew it, but it became very creepy) the other day, when my phone popped up a notification while I was in a restaurant, saying "enjoying <restaurant name>? Why not take some photos for people to see?" or something like that. I've lately been getting into the habit of turning location services off unless I actually need them on, and I would recommend it. It's a shame my phone gets my location behind my back without any indication by default.
  - int_19h 10y ago
    You're lucky. A more creepy way of getting enlightened is having Google Now tell you, "I see you're at work, and it's about your usual time to head home. Traffic is heavy on the usual route, though, so it might take 15 minutes longer than normal." (This all without you ever telling which location is your work and which is home.)
    - meowface 10y ago
      Do you see an issue with this?
      - int_19h 10y ago
        When it comes out of the blue, yes. It's a useful feature, but also very intrusive, and that should be gated on a very, very clear opt-in.

ocdtrekkie 10y ago

It's always amazing to me how often Google takes something they... already had... renames it, and then announces it as a brand new thing. I used to use this six years ago, it was called Google Latitude.

natrius 10y ago
User experience matters, and this works very differently from how Google Latitude worked. Digital products are not about revealing the truth stored in database records. They're elaborate fictions we tell each other about meaningless database records.
Gustomaximus 10y ago
And is currently 'Locations' in Google+

gpm 10y ago

Used as intended this sounds like a great idea. However used by an abusive significant other or parent (even just an overbearing parent) it seems pretty scary. To mitigate the potential harm I would hope for two things 1. Make it hard/impossible to be forever telling your location to someone (it's unclear if that's what the feel unsafe mode does in the first place, or if it just broadcasts it once) 2. Make it easy to 'enter an alternate location' to tell the inquirer

scarmig 10y ago
Number 2 sounds like a pure win.
- euyyn 10y ago
  Even for simple things like buying your Christmas present for your SO, you want the app to let you lie sometimes.
  - sliken 10y ago
    Android allows this under debugging, click on "allow mock locations".
    - knz 10y ago
      Or just turn off location services.
      - btown 10y ago
        An abuser would know if the device was failing to report a location, or if the victim were to turn off the system, and could take action accordingly. When user consent can be subverted, otherwise benign opt-in features that are deployed and marketed ubiquitously can have unforeseen consequences. That said there is a utilitarian way to look at this, that for more situations it helps parents to keep their kids safe. The ethical question is far from cut and dry.

mcs_ 10y ago

I trust my contacts google. I don't trust your ideas. Got an idea... vote before implement. You ask us if we want the new feature looking at our data. Just kidding. I like the idea.

mrgriscom 10y ago

I can't believe the amount of effort invested in this more cumbersome, much more specific use case solution rather than just bringing back Latitude -- a fully functional product (and exactly the same under the hood) that existed 6 years ago. I trust my trusted contacts -- let me share my location all the time. (No, some backwater tab in the G+ app does not count.)

jaimex2 10y ago
Yup, what a waste of a great product. Least the G+ feature can be set as a widget.
- mrgriscom 10y ago
  Yeah for me it's overlay in the maps app or bust. I liked opening google maps and seeing all my friends and family. The option to share only city-level location was enough to assuage any feelings of creepiness. And I know I'm on the fringe here, but I was also quite partial to the fact that it had an API.
  - k1t 10y ago
    I made the same complaint to a Googler friend - but he showed me his copy of Maps complete with contact's locations. I assumed it would be coming soon in a future update, but this was more than a year ago.
    - wfunction 10y ago
      > but he showed me his copy of Maps complete with contact's locations Whoa there! Were the contacts also Googlers??
      - k1t 10y ago
        Sorry, I think you missed the context from the parent post. This is just the same as the Location tab in Google+ (which used to be a separate app, Latitude) - it's only contacts who have chosen to share their location, but integrated into Maps.

exhilaration 10y ago

Here’s how it works: Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. I've got an android phone but my wife has an iPhone, does that mean this is useless for us? Edit, it's in the works: If you're an iOS user, click here to get notified when the iOS app is available

aiiane 10y ago
You can do one way sharing (from you to her) even now. You just won't be able to do the opposite direction until an iOS version is available.
- gvurrdon 10y ago
  It's inevitable that the forthcoming iOS version will require location history to be turned on for one's Google account. Therefore, I'd much prefer another cross-platform means of providing this information. Owntracks hasn't been too bad for this; there are clients for iOS and Android and the the backend is self-hosted. http://owntracks.org http://owntracks.org The only problem I've encountered with it is that the Android client has shown some instability from time to time, with high battery drain or missed location updates.

quickben 10y ago

This just promotes obsession and anxiety.

krick 10y ago
Well, of course. Would it be easier for me to sell you something if you were calm, relaxed and would't really need anything more to be happy?

tonyplee 10y ago

How does it work when it is offline? Via SMS?

NamTaf 10y ago
It looks like it just caches the last known location which is pretty useless.
- int_19h 10y ago
  It's plenty useful in some scenarios, like getting lost on a hike - it would significantly narrow down the search area for S&R.
  - darrenkopp 10y ago
    It would depend on where you are. Here in Utah my cell service goes out within the first 5 minutes of the hike I do by my house. The hike itself is about 2 hours in and an hour out.
    - int_19h 10y ago
      Hereabouts, I don't get mobile service on most hikes, but I do get it on many trailheads. So, at the very least, it would tell them which trail I was on when I disappeared. This may be a thing that is specific to local conditions, though. It so happens that I live in upper Snoqualmie River valley, which has trailheads for many of the best and most popular hiking trails in the area. So, naturally, this is where most of my hikes are. And the towers that provide signal for the towns in the valley are on the surrounding mountaintops, so they provide coverage for a good chunk of wilderness around, as well.

imh 10y ago

>Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. The cynic in me thinks this whole use case is intended to normalize the idea of a company always knowing everywhere you go. See? Privacy is unsafe!

moxious 10y ago
Hasn't this already been the case for some time? What's remarkable to me is how late in the game they're making this tracking available to us as a useful feature. Relative to ad targeting I'm not sure there's anything new here.
viraptor 10y ago
> normalize the idea of a company always knowing everywhere you go This doesn't really make sense. Google already has this information. They're sharing what they already had access to with contacts you select. On the other hand, there was an interesting feature a few years ago, where you could share your location with friends without special requests. Since then it has been moved from a separate google service to google+. What I'm saying is - this is nothing new. It's actually a new, restricted version of what's been available and happening for a long time.
- imh 10y ago
  I meant normalize in the social sense that people become more comfortable with google tracking them everywhere instead of feeling creeped out by it. It doesn't have to be new. Most, or at least a large fraction of, google maps and android users would probably be appalled to realize how extensively they're being currently tracked.
  - viraptor 10y ago
    I heard that opinion for quite a while already. I wonder if it still holds up. Do people still get creeped out, considering how in-your-face google now is? I don't know many "normal" users, so don't have an answer really.

symlinkk 10y ago

How does it know your location when your phone is offline?

throwanem 10y ago
It doesn't, but it knows where it last saw you.
- symlinkk 10y ago
  They should just say that! The marketing is deceptive: > This new personal safety app lets you share your location with loved ones in everyday situations and when emergencies arise — even if your phone is offline or you can’t get to it.
  - GavinMcG 10y ago
    It's tricky because the access to your location data is available when your phone is offline. They could have done better at explaining that, but probably not with just one sentence.

jonstewart 10y ago

FTFY: Sometimes you just want to share your location with the Ad Sense team...

moxious 10y ago
That's silly. They've had your location for years even without asking, they don't need an app for that. The TOS says you're already BFFs.
deegles 10y ago
I find it hard to believe they don't have access to it already.

agumonkey 10y ago

Google PI ;) I very often wish for something similar, for instance when my mother is running a bit late in a park. I don't want to mess with her jogging or walk. But I'd like to be sure she's still fine. Thing is, except for the current generation, smartphones are often silenced and forgotten in some pocket. So unless it's an invasive constant-on tracker .. it wouldn't work in my case.

peterhadlaw 10y ago

I'm not even kidding, I was thinking about this EXACT application / functionality yesterday and was thinking about making it.

yersonperez 10y ago

What's it?

GavinMcG 10y ago
There's actually a whole article someone prepared to answer that question, along with a video. If you scroll up to the top of the page you can click the link and go there.

waltkurtz 10y ago

And now, Google injects itself directly within and throughout the level of trust some people only place in their parents or spouses. It used to be that certain truths were only know between two people, but now for many, it will be those two people, and Google. Even if it were any other company, the totality of awareness a single organization has, from childhood on up should give us some pause. Microphones, accelerometers, cameras, GPS, and now annotated depth of relationship, instead of presumed depth inferred from ancillary metrics. At this point it's getting a little strange. With software and services these days, there's almost nothing people won't consume. It's as if people will eat everything in a package labeled as food, even if most of the contents are inedible. More and more, it feels like people know they're eating fish hooks, but maybe they'll pass the foreign objects they've swallowed, before any fisherman tries to tug the line and set the hook. But even if you or I don't buy in, when everybody else does, the outliers still get hooked and still lands in the boat, just by implicit association and proximity. The stakes are raised ever higher with each beat of this game. It's like the quote from Apocalypse Now: Ah, man... The bullshit piled up so fast in Viet Nam, you needed wings to stay above it.

achikin 10y ago

Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was...one block away from Julia's apartment ha-ha.

kumarm 10y ago

I am afraid most people are missing the target audience of this feature. This is for people who live in unsafe areas and have trusted family member than they do want to watch over. This is an app that should have been released in India immediately after Nirbhaya incident. For a Company thats supposed to move fast, Google definitely blew timing of launching such a feature.

shade23 10y ago

This is not good. This basically gives a public opening into massive amounts of data which they could legally collect till now but now use it as a product? What happens when people disable location access. And this: >But if you’re unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe, your location is shared automatically and your loved ones can determine the best way to help you out. This does not seem like consent.I can think of at least a 100 situations where I was not near my phone and yet do not want to send my location. Moreover how is this different from messaging someone/calling someone to ask them where they are? The only time I am trying to reach a person and cannot reach them is when they are out of coverage range.At that time, no app would make a difference. This is nice when its a part of other apps (Whatsapp,Uber etc) .On its own, location based information as being the only purpose can prove to be quite disastrous. Edit 1: People seem to miss the intricacies of human relationships here.I'd like to see folks tell their parents/loved ones/other close beings how they do not want to add "trusted contacts" and share their location continuously.

devoply 10y ago
When you use Google Maps you consent to having your location monitored at all times. They are just now making good use of this feature.
arjie 10y ago
> This does not seem like consent.I can think of at least a 100 situations where I was not near my phone and yet do not want to send my location. Then don't install the app, man.
caseysoftware 10y ago
> Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. Sounds like the consent is explicit at the time of configuration. As long as it's a separate app an opt-in, I don't think this is bad. More creepy is when it becomes a part of Android itself and someone can add themselves as "Trusted" either via physical access or an exploit. It's a stalker's dream.
brokenmachine 10y ago

matt_wulfeck 10y ago

iOS allows me to request location access as well as permanently or temporarily share my location. It would be great to get a "last known location" coordinate, but this feature is still very useful.

bigethan 10y ago

Is talking about distrusting this service due to government intervention a violation of the "no politics" rule? What about if it's just a nosy parent?

wineisfine 10y ago

This is just an incident waiting to happen.

fixermark 10y ago
Can you elaborate?

chirau 10y ago

Reminds me of Google Latitude. Honestly, I prefer Latitude to this. This just smells of eternal tracking to me.

richartruddie 10y ago

This is nice. Definitely in response to Facebooks Safety Check and it's great to see innovation that makes the world a better place. I wrote about this: http://richartruddie.blogspot.com/2016/12/facebook-google-safety-check.html http://richartruddie.blogspot.com/2016/12/facebook-google-sa...

puzzle 10y ago
Uh, I think Safety Check was inspired by Google.org's Person Finder.

reacharavindh 10y ago

Should I think that it is coincidence that Uber wants 24/7 location data, FB wants it, and Now Google officially wants it.. Now, people like me who prefer to 'own' their digital lives, and not become part of this surveilled garden would be labeled as 'tinhat'. Thanks but no thanks.

ap22213 10y ago
I know. This is just getting sickening. Can't they focus on delivering real value without being just an 'advertisement company'. I know that advertising is like the only thing that makes money anymore, but does it really help people? No. Be a science, engineering, and technology company, Goddammit! Can someone brave please put their foot down and say enough? Someone? And, it's even so much worse because they make it seem like they're such good guys by releasing these 'free' or 'cheap' services. It's just outright deceptive.
- witty_username 10y ago
  Advertising helps people. Why are they paying for it then?
  - ap22213 10y ago
    When if ever has it helped you? Meaning - yes, clearly it helps companies sell their products and services. But, as an individual consumer, how many times over the past year have you purchased something because its advertisement informed you of something that you truly needed but didn't know about?
    - witty_username 10y ago
      0
  - ionised 10y ago
    It manipulates people by expoloiting their weaknesses, insecurities and fears. That's not the same thing as 'help'.

cyberferret 10y ago

I am guessing that the nay sayers to this app probably don't have young children. I have two sons (16 and 13) who are always out and about socialising with friends, or at sporting / musical activities. My older son gigs with his band late at nights, and let me tell you - as parents, my wife and I do not rest easy until we either pick him up or he gets dropped home. Any app that lets us check on our kids' whereabouts quickly and effectively without taking them out of the zone (Have you ever tried to get a teenager to call to let you know "Hey everything is OK"??) is a blessing IMO. An app like this would be restricted just between my wife and I, and our two boys. No more than that. No more is needed. We are an 'absolute trust' group and quite frankly, the idea that any of us would want to hide our locations from each other is simply not even a thing.

erispoe 10y ago
Do your teens (you're hardly a 'young child' at 16) share your enthusiasm for sharing location at all time with their parents? I know I was not at that age. Learning to be autonomous is part of growing up. Setting up a one-click call for help with location is one thing, wanting to know the whereabouts of your 16 years old son at all times is something else entirely, that has little to do with his actual safety.
- yeowMeng 10y ago
  Honest question: when you didn't want your parents knowing where you were - did you make good choices? The truth for me; If I had listened to my parents, I would not be as cool. But If I had listened, I would be healthier and getting older - I realize health is happiness.
  - GuiA 10y ago
    Friends and I would frequently sneak out of school during lunch breaks etc. This was during day time in a very large, safe city, (with ample access to public transportation, police officers, etc) and gave our teenage brains the freedom and independence that school so eagerly took away from us. If my parents had received a push notification the moment I left school, my teenage years would have been utterly miserable, instead of just mostly miserable. To be honest, I hope my kids do the same when they're that age. I'd absolutely yell at them if I found out because that's how it's supposed to be (and that's how they get better at not being caught), but deep inside I'll be glad they did. It's part of growing up. That being said, I understand why Americans and their car-centric, gun heavy cities wouldn't agree with this, except maybe in a city like NYC. Which is why I won't be raising my kids in the US. I expect the public infrastructure of where I live to guarantee my kid's safety, and not to have to rely on helicopter parenting to give me peace of mind.

emilburzo 10y ago

For anyone looking for a more privacy conscious version, I made Graticule[1] a few years ago. Install the app, start beacon, send anonymous and platform independent link, done. Optionally customize location technology (gps/network/passive) and beacon interval (from the default GPS/1 second). No registration, no contacts, nothing else. You choose when you're sharing your location and with whom. Partially inspired by the old Google Latitude. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo.graticule https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo....

ComodoHacker 10y ago
Does it have active users?
- emilburzo 10y ago
  Yes.
whyagaindavid 10y ago
Are you planning to opensource the code. That would give more trust. Please post to fdroid.org

XorNot 10y ago

Interesting. Me and my SO use glympse to coordinate pickups, but we've been looking for a relatively low power consumption way to share location just generally.

ap22213 10y ago

Geez. Google is just getting carried away with this tracking stuff. It's like every day they release something new that seems to con people into letting Google track them. I know advertising is a trillion dollar industry. But, you'd think that Google, of all companies, would be the ones to create real innovation and value without falling to the lowest common denominator.

ap22213 10y ago
WTF - I know Google employees troll this forum to build brand and influence, but squelch criticism? Come on. What ever happened to the 'don't do evil' company?
- pgeorgi 10y ago
  Or maybe that "criticism" is just not very good and merely a rehash of the same (weak) point made so many times on this very page already? "con people into letting Google track them" - how does this enable any _more_ tracking than existed yesterday? The only thing I see it enables is to share the data that already exists about the user with the people that user appoints (and trusts, hopefully). Disclosure: Google employee, but nothing to do with location services.
  - ap22213 10y ago
    First, I really appreciate the reply. So, thank you. It may seem a rehash (and, it partially is). But, there are readers who are either unaware or have forgotten that Google doesn't give away services for free. Google is an advertisement and tracking company, not a benevolent technology supplier. The Google collective is obviously way smarter than any of us. So, who really knows how they plan to profit from this service. My guess: It gives them further reach beyond Android devices. It requires people who may otherwise quickly turn off location services to keep it on. And, it allows them to bypass COPPA via implied parental consent. Look, I've worked in this industry. And, tracking devices (AKA people) is massively profitable. And, the profit increases exponentially. That is, the profit per signal increases as the number of signals and devices grows. Furthermore, at the highest levels of coverage density, it becomes possible to even make accurate conclusions from the empty spaces (i.e. people without devices).

etchalon 10y ago

It's this just a Google version of Apple's "Find My Friends"?

keypress 10y ago

Bad name. How about: "I'm here.", or "Where are you?". Trusted contacts sounds more like a FOAF vouch, or authenticated contact details app.

tatotato 10y ago

An insinuation of this kind of tech is that if you aren't carrying a phone, you aren't safe. I'm seeing in the comments that the level of trust in companies is higher than the trust in your government. Both very sad things.

witty_username 10y ago
Companies are more directly accountable through $$$. Government is only accountable indirectly through elections; and you can win those with 51% of the vote [0]; the other 49% could completely disagree. [0] With the Electoral College, you don't even need a majority of the popular vote.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  Many US elections, emphatically including those of Presidential electors, are done by plurality rule, so you don't need a majority to start with -- which is floor(votes×50%)+1, not 51%. With the structure of the EC, you can, therefore, win with a minority of votes in states with a minority of the population.
- nicktelford 10y ago
  In the UK, our current Conservative government "won" a majority (and hence control of the government) with only 35% of the popular vote. It's the smallest mandate a UK government has had in modern history.
- jonathansizz 10y ago
  > Companies are more directly accountable through $$$ What's direct about that? Companies are directly accountable to their shareholders, accountable to the general population via the government, and very indirectly accountable to their customers.
twr 10y ago
> I'm seeing in the comments that the level of trust in companies is higher than the trust in your government. Maybe that's occasionally deserved. I'm probably more paranoid about surveillance than you are. I wrote positively about this app anyway. The average commenter here is, more than likely, like me, not really in the target demographic for this app. I'm male, reasonably strong, and capable of defending myself. I don't worry when I leave the house. Sometimes my female friend, who is passionate about bicycling, tells me about her experiences on the nearby bike trail. Where, every day, she passes by dozens of loitering homeless individuals. Where, some time ago, a woman was dragged off her bike and had her face shattered. Where multiple women have been kidnapped. She expresses fear, but loves her sport enough to overcome it. She rides on a multi-thousand dollar custom-made road bike that's surely appealing for someone desperate enough. Who am I to tell her that her fears are overwrought? My physical safety isn't at stake. For people like her, I think this app is worth consideration. For people like me, I never wanted it.

jakebasile 10y ago

I wonder if Google Apps accounts can use this? I don't have an Android phone to find out.

dayaz36 10y ago

I already have an app like this that lets me share my location and everything with my loved ones. It's called text messaging

natch 10y ago

With regard to the cheerleaders saying there are no problems whatsoever with this feature: 1. The reason people raise concerns about Google, and less so about iOS, is that Google and Apple are in different businesses. Google is in the business of profiting off your personal data and that of your family members. Apple is not, and iOS makes it significantly harder for rogue apps to get access to personal data without the actual user's direct permission. 2. Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) place different priorities on security relative to other factors. 3. Many of the naysayers are raising issues that do not single out Android, however fair it may be to do so. There are some issues that remain the same beyond the specific platform. For example: this kind of app creates social pressure for people to be tracked by their family and show trust that they may not sincerely feel. 4. If you think they can "just" turn the feature off or "just" remove the trusted contacts when they feel uncomfortable, you are not thinking this through. These "trusted" contacts may be authority figures in the family and may be able to examine any settings done by the actual users. 5. If your kids are carrying a cell phone, it should probably be a secure phone, with strictly enforced app store policies, and with a secure OS that is not provided by a company with every incentive to gather and monetize personal and private information. Your kids do not deserve to be the targets of this kind of commercial activity. So even if you think the feature is good, it is tainted by the interests of the provider. But whether the feature is good or bad, Android is a bad way for children to get the feature.

Nullabillity 10y ago
> If your kids are carrying a cell phone, it should probably be a secure phone, with strictly enforced app store policies, and with a secure OS that is not provided by a company with every incentive to gather and monetize personal and private information. Pest or cholera. At least it allows you to tinker with it, as opposed to iOS.
- yakcyll 10y ago
  And who of the God knows how many users of Android will 'tinker' with it? Ignorance of the user base, technical or otherwise, IS a valid argument against this sorta thing. We made it so.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

restuos 10y ago

I wonder if this would work for when I need to pick my kids up or some friend at the airport. Basically tell them to wait inside while I share my location. Then have it alert them when I'm nearby so they can come out. This would be really helpful for the airport situation, as I wouldn't even need to park.

ComodoHacker 10y ago

>assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family OK Google, we got the whole point of this app. Nevertheless, it's a useful feature and can help many.

nexxer 10y ago

Shrug, yet another product we cannot even try in Cyprus due to Location History being disabled country-wide, for some reason.

rmc 10y ago

What a great way for homophobic parents to keep track of their gay kids and make sure they aren't hanging out at that LGBT centre, or with any LGBT-friendly people!

laktak 10y ago

Just remember that Google will be your most trusted contact.

whyagaindavid 10y ago

Such a live tracking service exists for openstreepmap based OSMAND already (with privacy) http://osmand.net/features?id=osmo-plugin http://osmand.net/features?id=osmo-plugin

bhstahl 10y ago

Want an app just like this for iOS, today? Try out https://goguardian.xyz https://goguardian.xyz

wfunction 10y ago

The app isn't working for me. I keep pressing Continue on the welcome screens and after the 4th or 5th screen Continue stops doing anything. Same thing when I restart the app, etc... anyone have this problem?

wfunction 10y ago

Is there any app that can send my location to a custom server of my own rather than Google's?

arnoooooo 10y ago
Owntracks does this
- wfunction 10y ago
  Thanks!

sathishmanohar 10y ago

Dad has requested your location. Your location will be auto shared in 4min 59seconds. Loud Music Notification Not Audible Son is in Strip Club. Thank you.

cfv 10y ago

How far are we from being required to use a Google Buttplug in order to use gmail?

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CoryG89 10y ago

I tend to feel that this is more for parents who don't trust their kids, rather than those who do. Many parents will say, "My kids won't have a problem with this because we have trust in our family." The truth is, if you trusted your kids, you wouldn't need the ability to obtain their exact location without having to ask for it. Parents who trust their kids will already know where their kids are supposed to be, or will just ask them. On the other hand, I see no problem with the feature that allows you to request location and will automatically send location after a long non-response. Of course, most kids (beyond a certain age) are going to occasionally go places their parents aren't comfortable with. This is a normal part of growing up and it shouldn't be impossible IMO. Even in particularly bad or dangerous cases, I would feel this calls for a normal punishment (maybe?). No TV, chores, etc. Not constant location tracking.

was_boring 10y ago
I'm not sure where you got that from. I couldn't find a single reference to parents or children on the page.
- CoryG89 10y ago
  It will be primarily used for parents to track their kids. They don't need to specifically spell out that use case with parent/child characters. It seems obvious to me that this will enable parents (all kinds, good and bad) to track their kids with a pretty scary level of control. But you're right in that this isn't just restricted to parents and children. In my post just substitute parent/child with a controlling boyfriend/girlfriend.

barnacs 10y ago

- google now has one more reason to collect your location and associate it with the rest of your activities - you are encouraged to use your phone even more, because doing so signals to your loved ones that you're ok. Using your phone pretty much means sharing even more data with google, watching their ads and buying stuff from their app store It's a pure win. For google.

themihai 10y ago

>assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family Would be great if we wouldn't have to assign the "trusted" status to Google(or any other 3rd party) too in order to use the app.

gravypod 10y ago

blog.google It sometimes escapes me how much power google holds over the internet. It's moments like this that rekindle my fear in the "Don't be Evil" slogan (or for that matter, the removal of said slogan).

delroth 10y ago
$200K buys you a gTLD, it does not translate to any "power held over the internet". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#Brand_top-level_domains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_dom... And the "Don't be Evil" slogan has never been removed. https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html

koolba 10y ago

Anyone want to take bets on how long until someone uses this to find his or her spouse's secret lover? My money is going to be on "not very long".

imaginenore 10y ago

Or you can install Cerberus on your family's smartphones, and have all kinds of useful features besides determining their location.

kalkiYuga 10y ago

If you have concerns you can always use this. I am planning to opensource this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spacetime https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spacetime

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