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What they're referring to in that article is that when you use Google Maps and as you're following driving directions, their servers get your location so they c

What they're referring to in that article is that when you use Google Maps and as you're following driving directions, their servers get your location so they can compute your route and offer you better routes and notifications about accidents and such along the way. That part I feel I signed up for and is perfectly fine. It's been stretched by media to make it sound nefarious, but no one has shown that they're actually sending location data when history is disabled and you're not using maps.

kuzehanka 7y ago
No, what they're referring to is that if you use an android phone, either with a sim card or with google services authenticated, they are are recording the location of the phone to provide 'services' such as phone calling and play store access. The only thing location history toggles is whether your location data is branched off to the location history product line. It does not toggle the existence of that data or the fact that it's archived at several other points. Take the time to watch the congress hearing and note the very carefully worded answers and why they are worded that way.
- shittyadmin 7y ago
  It was based on his wording that I drew my conclusions, they provide many services outside of location history which do mandate on demand location data, you know? Do you have any evidence that they're still doing periodic location after location history is disabled? I had heard concerns but it seemed they were exaggerated last I checked. Should be pretty obvious in RE if that's true. Ultimately though, you're still not getting around being tracked, your cell provider collects that location data even if Google doesn't. Just having a cell phone and a SIM puts you in a pretty awful state privacy wise.
  - kuzehanka 7y ago
    LMGFY https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-location-tracking-android-iphone-mobile https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-lo...
    - shittyadmin 7y ago
      From your linked article: > For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app Yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. In order to download map tiles around you, show nearby stuff, traffic, etc they need to know where you are. So yes, that means they get your location. But that has nothing to do with the sort of periodic background location reporting used in Location History that people are concerned about. Disabling Location History and not using Maps or other Google location based apps or APIs means they won't get your location. Also note that there's no mention of play store access, phone calls or any other sorts of usages which seem like they shouldn't ask for location in that article. They make a bit of a big deal about searching for "chocolate chip cookies" not requiring localized results, but from a technical perspective I think it's obvious that they just send it with the request regardless, they don't know . Trivial to disable if you don't want that though. In fact, both this an the Maps example will happen even on iOS devices as the article points out. When I said I found those claims exaggerated last time I looked into it, this is exactly what I meant. They must get a lot of clicks by making this stuff out to be more nefarious.
      - kuzehanka 7y ago
        > Disabling Location History and not using Maps or other Google location based apps or APIs means they won't get your location. Which is impossible unless you don't use the phone at all, hence the 3 hour long congressional hearing[1]. Turn off location history, turn off location services, it doesn't matter, your location tracks are being logged. I'm not sure what you're trying to argue about since you seem agree with the premise. You think the news outlets exaggerated the fact that Google grossly underplayed the language around their always-on tracking and mislead hundreds of millions of users into thinking they're not being tracked when they in fact were? Okay then. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfbTbPEEJxI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfbTbPEEJxI
        shittyadmin 7y ago
        What you seem to be saying is that they're sending location data periodically even after disabling location history. That I believe is false. Any location sending after that is by user or app demand. Achieving this on an Android device isn't impossible by any means: deny location to all apps and those apps won't be able to call the Google Fused Location API. If you want location without using Google's API, allow only select apps which use direct on-device GPS access, it's readily available in the Android API without the need to pull in the Google Play Location Services package.

kuzehanka 7y ago

No, what they're referring to is that if you use an android phone, either with a sim card or with google services authenticated, they are are recording the location of the phone to provide 'services' such as phone calling and play store access. The only thing location history toggles is whether your location data is branched off to the location history product line. It does not toggle the existence of that data or the fact that it's archived at several other points. Take the time to watch the congress hearing and note the very carefully worded answers and why they are worded that way.

shittyadmin 7y ago
It was based on his wording that I drew my conclusions, they provide many services outside of location history which do mandate on demand location data, you know? Do you have any evidence that they're still doing periodic location after location history is disabled? I had heard concerns but it seemed they were exaggerated last I checked. Should be pretty obvious in RE if that's true. Ultimately though, you're still not getting around being tracked, your cell provider collects that location data even if Google doesn't. Just having a cell phone and a SIM puts you in a pretty awful state privacy wise.
- kuzehanka 7y ago
  LMGFY https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-location-tracking-android-iphone-mobile https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-lo...
  - shittyadmin 7y ago
    From your linked article: > For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app Yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. In order to download map tiles around you, show nearby stuff, traffic, etc they need to know where you are. So yes, that means they get your location. But that has nothing to do with the sort of periodic background location reporting used in Location History that people are concerned about. Disabling Location History and not using Maps or other Google location based apps or APIs means they won't get your location. Also note that there's no mention of play store access, phone calls or any other sorts of usages which seem like they shouldn't ask for location in that article. They make a bit of a big deal about searching for "chocolate chip cookies" not requiring localized results, but from a technical perspective I think it's obvious that they just send it with the request regardless, they don't know . Trivial to disable if you don't want that though. In fact, both this an the Maps example will happen even on iOS devices as the article points out. When I said I found those claims exaggerated last time I looked into it, this is exactly what I meant. They must get a lot of clicks by making this stuff out to be more nefarious.
    - kuzehanka 7y ago
      > Disabling Location History and not using Maps or other Google location based apps or APIs means they won't get your location. Which is impossible unless you don't use the phone at all, hence the 3 hour long congressional hearing[1]. Turn off location history, turn off location services, it doesn't matter, your location tracks are being logged. I'm not sure what you're trying to argue about since you seem agree with the premise. You think the news outlets exaggerated the fact that Google grossly underplayed the language around their always-on tracking and mislead hundreds of millions of users into thinking they're not being tracked when they in fact were? Okay then. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfbTbPEEJxI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfbTbPEEJxI
      - shittyadmin 7y ago
        What you seem to be saying is that they're sending location data periodically even after disabling location history. That I believe is false. Any location sending after that is by user or app demand. Achieving this on an Android device isn't impossible by any means: deny location to all apps and those apps won't be able to call the Google Fused Location API. If you want location without using Google's API, allow only select apps which use direct on-device GPS access, it's readily available in the Android API without the need to pull in the Google Play Location Services package.