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Is there an alternative to google location history that is privacy friendly? I like the feature during trips to record where I went. Maybe just me but when I ge

by Sytten 2y ago

Is there an alternative to google location history that is privacy friendly? I like the feature during trips to record where I went. Maybe just me but when I get a bit nostalgic I like to retrace my steps and find again some lost memories/places.

titaniumtown 2y ago
I've personally heard of https://owntracks.org/ https://owntracks.org/ though I haven't been able to try it myself. Seems like a location history and see where other members of your instance are.
boschfish 2y ago
I have been using https://scoria.info/ https://scoria.info/. It is privacy first and offers great flexibility with how you can filter, view, and export your location data.
- bad_username 2y ago
  Importing existing Google timeline data would be useful, but doesn't look like it's supported.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
modeless 2y ago
Google Location History is privacy friendly now. It was just recently changed a month or two ago and it no longer works in the way the article describes. The history data is now stored on your phone. Cloud backups are optional and default off and always end-to-end encrypted if enabled, so your location history database is not ever accessible to any Google server. Google made this change in response to issues like the ones described in this article.
- krackers 2y ago
  >not ever accessible to any google server How can they use it for ad targeting then?
  - modeless 2y ago
    They can't, obviously. Is this some kind of trick question? Your location can be used for ad targeting in other contexts. For example if you granted location permission to google.com in your browser, Google gets your location at the time you do a query and uses it both to provide relevant results and to target ads. And if you have search history on, I assume that location snapshot would be saved along with the query in search history, which Google can see. But the comprehensive and much more detailed "Location History" that is collected constantly in the background (when enabled) can't be seen by Google anymore.

by Sytten 2y ago

titaniumtown 2y ago

I've personally heard of https://owntracks.org/ https://owntracks.org/ though I haven't been able to try it myself. Seems like a location history and see where other members of your instance are.

boschfish 2y ago

I have been using https://scoria.info/ https://scoria.info/. It is privacy first and offers great flexibility with how you can filter, view, and export your location data.

bad_username 2y ago
Importing existing Google timeline data would be useful, but doesn't look like it's supported.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

modeless 2y ago

Google Location History is privacy friendly now. It was just recently changed a month or two ago and it no longer works in the way the article describes. The history data is now stored on your phone. Cloud backups are optional and default off and always end-to-end encrypted if enabled, so your location history database is not ever accessible to any Google server. Google made this change in response to issues like the ones described in this article.

krackers 2y ago
>not ever accessible to any google server How can they use it for ad targeting then?
- modeless 2y ago
  They can't, obviously. Is this some kind of trick question? Your location can be used for ad targeting in other contexts. For example if you granted location permission to google.com in your browser, Google gets your location at the time you do a query and uses it both to provide relevant results and to target ads. And if you have search history on, I assume that location snapshot would be saved along with the query in search history, which Google can see. But the comprehensive and much more detailed "Location History" that is collected constantly in the background (when enabled) can't be seen by Google anymore.