You aren't disagreeing with me. Adding a location manually to a query makes it a different query, but I specifically stated one that doesn't have a location (an

You aren't disagreeing with me. Adding a location manually to a query makes it a different query, but I specifically stated one that doesn't have a location (and yes obviously users make such queries all the time!). But yes, to your wider point, you can progressively delete all location sensitivity from every product and make them annoying and hard to use in the process. And even that wouldn't work. It's a fair bet that if you search for something with a location in the query, whether it be on web search or maps, that this is where you actually are. The reality is nobody cares about this type of privacy feature, especially because Google can't avoid knowing at least your IP address. The AP only cares because it's gone digging for an attack story.