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Google tracks users who turn off location history
- mtmail 8y ago200+ comments in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17749330 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17749330
- oinkgrr 8y agooh, missed that.
- some_account 8y agoHow come that is not in top items of hacker news?
- mbel 8y agoIt was yesterday.
- TACIXAT 8y agoThe algorithm accounts for time.
- theandrewbailey 8y agoLots of factors go into it. Key words in titles and certain domains can drag things down. http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really-works.html http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really...
- beat 8y agoBecause the evil Google conspiracy suppressed it!
- froogie 8y agoYou say that as if xorporations didn't do this by e.g. vote manipulation in Reddit.
- sgt101 8y agoDidn't appear as an item for me yesterday at all - something's not right about that!
- abababba 8y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2018-08-13&p=2 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2018-08-13&p=2 55th position
- ddtaylor 8y agoWow! I didn't know you could look at the homepage based on day. That's awesome, thanks!!
- js2 8y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists includes that option among other lists. The story from yesterday is currently number 11 on the best list.
- Max_Mustermann 8y agoYou can also check them by order of votes with waybackhn: http://www.waybackhn.com/?date=2018-08-13 http://www.waybackhn.com/?date=2018-08-13
- Jaruzel 8y agoTo be fair this should be dropped from the front page, or merged with yesterdays post.
- Jaruzel 8y agoMassively downvoted, seriously? I didn't mean 'remove' from the front page, but merge it with the other post and leave it in position on the front page... wow, you guys.
- pressurefree 8y ago8th comment! woot! paint by numbers is flawed. strut strut.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- l9k 8y agoStill don't understand why this story blowing out all of a sudden. It's common knowledge that the biggest internet ad company likes your data and wants it for its recommendation systems. If you want to turn off Location History, which is a feature, a product in itself, you can. If you don't want your searches to be tracked, use another engine like DuckDuckGo or Qwant. If you still want Google, you can disable the location tracking. In addition, they provide a tool to see exactly what they store and you can delete any entry. Also, of course Maps will want to know your location, you can turn off your GPS anyway. The only troubling point is the storage of the location at the opening for no reason I don't know if you can disable this.
- some_account 8y agoRead the article.
- l9k 8y agoExactly. What's your point? I read the ones from yesterday, including the AP that started the "scandal". The problem is that since Cambridge Analytica, any piece of privacy issue gets a clickbaity headline for little reason just to get viral, play with fear and emotions, and drive traffic. All of that for ads money from Google. Full circle. On this story: Headline is "Google tracks users who turn off location history ", sub-headline is "Pretty sneaky", but actually in the article : "We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time".
- pacala 8y agoRead the article. What are the "clear descriptions and robust controls" to turn off the following Google location tracking behaviors: > Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you open the Maps app > Automatic weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where a user is > Searches that have nothing to do with location pinpoint precise longitude and latitude of users
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- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- brookhaven_dude 8y agoWhat if I shut down the google maps app after every use (iphone)? Surely they can't track after that.
- macintux 8y agoThere are multiple layers here. The current controversy is whether Google keeps a history of your location data tied to your Google account when you ask them not to. It turns out there are two different places they record it, so you have to disable both. Separately there is the question of whether Google can get your location data from your phone at all. On your iPhone, you can specify "Never", "While using", or "Always" for Google Maps' access to your location. If you specify "While using" and force quit the app, no, they can no longer access your location. I do not know for certain, but suspect, that if you use the home button or multitouch gesture to leave Google Maps, it's still effectively being "used" and thus can still access your location.
- RussianCow 8y agoThe "while using" permission does allow apps to continue using your location in the background, but you get a status indicator when that is the case. Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203033 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203033
- 0x8BADF00D 8y agoYou can tell if there was a CLLocationManager framework call to startUpdatingLocation() depending on the color of the location arrow in Location Services settings. AFAIK, it is not possible to use location manager without first registering a location authorization type (When in use, always, etc).
- MaupitiBlue 8y agoAgain? They just got caught yesterday doing the same thing!
- russellbeattie 8y ago"Turning off" location history == Don't show me my location history. It's not like Google (or Apple) is going to actually stop tracking you. I love showing iPhone users the section in Settings where all their location history is. Most have no idea it's there.
- massel 8y agoDo you also show them the part where it says "Significant Locations are encrypted and cannot be read by Apple"? They're local to the device, not sent back to them.
- zepto 8y agoThe iPhone location history is on your iPhone not at Apple. And Apple doesn’t track you. They cycle identifiers regularly for exactly this reason. Spreading falsehoods about this being something everyone does is harmful because it normalizes the abusive behavior from those that actually do.
- welder 8y agoThis whole story is about the name "Location History" aka timeline being confusing as people think it means a location tracking privacy setting while it's actually a Google product name. Can we rename it to "Location History product poorly named"?
- pacala 8y agoCan we rename it to "<Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC> product poorly named"?
- 323454 8y agoTo add one datum, I turned off location history thinking that meant that Google would use my _current_ location for Maps, Search etc while not storing my _past_ locations. Their interface and messaging did not succeed in dissuading me from this belief, despite the fact that I was explicitly looking for messaging and settings related to protecting my privacy. Was I naive to believe this was even possible in the first place? Probably. I used to think Google were basically good guys, so I thought that when they said something they actually meant it, and I was willing to forgive them for minor mistakes and bad press. This is the first time I actually feel like they've lied to me. I'll be migrating my personal Google accounts elsewhere. Suggestions are welcome for good alternatives, free/non-free/whatever, that offer effective privacy controls.
- hashr8064 8y ago> Suggestions are welcome for good alternatives, I'm in the move away myself. Here's some services I've started using, in many areas I'm still looking for other replacements. Hopefully others can help. 1. E-Mail : protonmail.com, I really like this one, great service. 2. Video Calls : I'm currently using signal to some extent, not very happy though, would really like something like Hangouts. 3. Browser : Firefox 4. Phone : Apple 5. Things I'm still looking for : Google Calender, Drive, Chat, Backup Storage services.
- mbel 8y ago> 5. Things I'm still looking for : Google Calender, Drive Fastmail provides a DavCAL calendar and some storage space with their email offering. They also have a wonderful browser client (much better that gmail at least for me).
- adtac 8y ago+1, I recommend FastMail's web client too if you like to manage your email and calendar using a browser. It's fast and snappy, has a clean interface (they have a couple of themes you can choose from), and it's pretty lightweight (for example, a gmail tab uses 195 MB for me while Fastmail's uses 51 MB).
- goshx 8y agoFrom time to time I visit https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity and every time I need to turn something off again.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- adtac 8y agoHere's a subset of what Google knows about you to tailor ads for you: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated
- goshx 8y agoI've had that off for a while. Now my ads on Gmail only offer me to date women and men 60+.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- OnlyRepliesToBS 8y agoFederalize search.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pasbesoin 8y agoPeople can stalk people. Beyond a certain threshold (defined by jurisdiction), it's illegal. Why wouldn't this apply to corporations? To (legal) entity? Corporations and their lobbyists spend a lot of time, money, and effort claiming they are "people". For example, with respect to their "free speech" -- meaning, lately, unlimited spending on political campaigns. Well, ok then, I would propose that they can stalk, like people. Oh, but wait, there's the catch. They've already beaten me, with their outsized pocketbooks, to the very people who would legally define this. In the U.S., at least, the law is a _____. Pardon my, albeit self-censored, decidedly improper language. But sometimes, crudeness is the rhetoric of clarity -- in all its unpleasantness and offensiveness.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- herodotus 8y agoIt is becoming too easy to pick on Google. There are many Web apps that use location. BestBuy, just to pick one arbitrary example, will ask permission to discover my location in order to show me my nearest stores. This is, of course, very useful, and I am happy this service exists. What I do not know is whether or not BestBuy or many other companies are sharing this information with other companies. My assumption is that BestBuy et. al are using a middleware web service, and that company probably makes money selling location information to advertisers. For me it is just depressingly hopless: as soon as I go on the Internet of phone network, I have given up a lot of privacy.
- pnutjam 8y agoI think we have a different definition of "very useful". I find it intrusive and routinely deny those requests. It's simple to pop my zip in a form to find the nearest store.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- prirun 8y agoI bought my first smartphone about 6 months ago - a BLU R2. Really like the phone, and here's how I use it: 1. I use puretalkusa.com's $20/month phone plan. It comes with 20MB of data per month, then throttles. 2. Disabled Cellular Data 3. Disabled WIFI 4. Never setup or signed in to my Google account from the phone. 5. Disabled anything that gave me any pause about privacy, including Location services. 6. Covered the fingerprint reader with electrical tape. And still, the other day my phone decided to reboot itself in the middle of the day. I only know this because it played a little jingle. After the reboot, Location services was enabled again. Hmm... I disabled it, but it made me wonder if this wasn't some kind of forced reboot so someone could ping my location. This has happened once before, in the middle of the night - a good time to find out where someone lives.