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And another one! I actually used this regularly on my PC to remember places I'd gone to on trips, or back in time. > The company is switching to an on-device a
by BowBun 2y ago
And another one! I actually used this regularly on my PC to remember places I'd gone to on trips, or back in time.
> The company is switching to an on-device approach that is more private and works on each phone independently.
They're literally harvesting all of your location history, transaction histories, etc. What exactly is more private about doing it on your phone? It's not like your entire maps history will be stored on the device exclusively.
- prepend 2y agoThey mean “more private” as in your data are less useful for things like exporting into tools or third parties. I wish google would just focus on apis and tools for me to work with my data as interoperable as possible. But there’s no money in this, so I guess it’s not a priority.
- asah 2y agoMORE private, not completely private. I'd argue that anything entered into a computer is not completely private, and since location can be inferred from environmental signals (e.g. cell towers, other devices, webcams, etc) location is one of the least private types of data.
- cimnine 2y ago> And another one! I actually used this regularly on my PC to remember places I'd gone to on trips, or back in time. Me too. High-noon to engage Google Takeout [1] – so that I at least have a copy of all that data. Off-topic: TIL, that Google Takeout can do regular backups automatically for up to one year when you link it to some cloud storage account (GDrive, Dropbox, One Drive, Box). [1] https://takeout.google.com https://takeout.google.com
- chris_wot 2y agoWait till they remove Google Takeout
- WesolyKubeczek 2y agoDon't give them ideas. Although... EU will smack them with fines for it. And probably California, too.
- GeoAtreides 2y ago> EU will smack them with fines for it. And probably California, too. Kind and respectful reminder that HN does not permit the users to delete their data or download it. It is against the law in EU (and probably California), but it hasn't been legally tested yet.
- j-bos 2y agoHn is an interesting one because there's not even an email associated. Though I imagine they have logs of IPs and such. Still, an equivalent feels like ad networks that are everywhere though don't seem to have a way to delete data.
- LopovJack 2y agoDoesn't that refer to personal data only? If you did not provide personal info to HN, would GDPR still apply?
- pajko 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten#European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten#European...
- senordevnyc 2y agoYC / HN are in the US, not the EU. Yes, I know, Europeans think their laws automatically apply globally, but laws are meaningless without enforcement. Hence why 99% of US companies can safely ignore GDPR unless they're operating in the EU (which HN is not).
- deleted 2y ago
- pgalvin 2y agoYou have not been able to export the raw data from Location History, via Takeout, for about a year (in preparation for this change). i.e. no GPX files
- johtso 2y agoWhat the hell?? Seriously? There's no way to get my historical location data anymore? I always assumed I could rely on my google location history as a way to look back at where I've been throughout my life..
- pcthrowaway 2y agoUh.. what format does it give you the data in then?
- aembleton 2y agoThey didn't give me gpx files a few years ago either. I seem to remember it being a json or a csv, I can't remember which right now. Was easy to parse it to get the information I was after.
- elaus 2y agoSeems like you are right, when configuring an export the "file type" choice of your location history data is grayed out.
- WesolyKubeczek 2y agoThey are harvesting it for themselves, not for you.
- afavour 2y ago> It's not like your entire maps history will be stored on the device exclusively. Isn’t that what “more private and works on each device independently” implies? Obviously we need more detail on the implementation here but AFAIK Timeline is the only time I’ve seen a full accounting of my location in the cloud. There will, I’m sure, be a lot of ways it can still be inferred: purchases, which IP address I’m on etc etc but if Google is stepping away from constantly streaming your phone GPS location to the cloud that’s surely a good thing.
- DaveSchmindel 2y ago> ...Timeline is the only time I've seen a full accounting of my location in the cloud. Yes, that _you've_ seen. I think the person you're replying to is referring to use cases of your location data that you don't see.
- afavour 2y agoThat feels like a kind of useless conversation though, there are no facts involved. Once Google had implemented the change they’ve outlined here someone can plug their phone into Wireshark and see what, if anything, has changed. Then there’s a conversation to be had.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoWireshark would likely be unhelpful. Everything runs encrypted.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoWouldn't they have to reveal that in GDPR requests?
- fauigerzigerk 2y ago>> It's not like your entire maps history will be stored on the device exclusively. >Isn’t that what “more private and works on each device independently” implies? Probably, but I don't think it should be taken to mean that location data stays on the device. Surely, Google will continue to use location data for ad targeting. Location is also used in countless other places such as Photos. The Google Maps timeline is a specific database and this particular database will be stored on-device. I don't think it changes anything for how Google uses location data more generally.
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- gostsamo 2y agoSpousal abuse works well through this feature. Not sure if this is it or privacy theatre, but it will force potential domestic stalkers to become more visible and/or to put more effort.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoAm I the only one who feels that "domestic abuse" is becoming the new "think of the children" in computing? The problem is serious, but if we follow the logic of removing any and all features that could aid the abuser in tracking their victim or preventing them from getting help, then we'd have to remove a lot of functionality considered basic. This includes e.g. security warnings that you've logged in from a new location/machine, or an dashboard showing active sessions. Hell, this probably includes location tags and dates on photos in your own phone gallery. Abusers, especially spouses, have a lot of options on their disposal (including that the assumption that phone is a personal device no longer holds). I'm not sure how is removing web access to Timeline really helping here.
- gostsamo 2y agoIt is very likely that you are indeed the only one. "Think of the children" is aimed at eroding privacy while this feature is aimed at increasing it and the goals are diametrically opposite. I used the spousal example because it was the shortest path between web access and demonstrating potential harm. However, bad browser extensions and stallen credentials can lead to the same result if the attacker is interested in using your history against you.
- bux93 2y agoWhat's "more private" is that Google won't need to respond to apporax. a million daily requests for information from law enforcement(?) anymore. Cf. whatsapp - they've been encrypting messages for years, but only recently started encrypting (if you enable it) the cloud backups at google. Encrypting the data that went to their own servers was a higher priority. And they could just send law enforcement to the cloud storage provider. Are those two things related? Curious minds wonder.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kcb 2y agoSpent many hours reminiscing over my past timeline. So disappointed to hear this.
- tedmiston 2y agoIt would be cool if someone made a similar minimal open source desktop UI that could run on the data export from Google Takeout [or whatever the future export mechanism turns out to be].