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Google recent locations1/20/2024 Let’s start by saying that we’re fans of Google. This blog post get into the what and why: That popup states that, when active, the setting “saves the things you do on Google sites, apps, and services … and associated information, like location”.Google Maps API Pricing Changes (and how it probably affects you)Įvents Manager 5.9.5 and Events Manager Pro 2.6.4 were released to address the new Maps API price changes by Google. Google offers additional information in a popup that appears if you reactivate the “web and app activity” setting – an uncommon action for many users, since this setting is on by default. There, the company notes that "some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other Google services, like Search and Maps”. Google offers a more accurate description of how “location history” actually works in a place you would only see if you turn it off: a popup that appears when you “pause” Location History on your Google account webpage. Google changed the practice and insisted it never recorded the data anyway.Ĭritics say Google's insistence on tracking its users' locations stems from its drive to boost advertising revenue. Last year, the business news site Quartz found that Google was tracking Android users by collecting the addresses of nearby cellphone towers even if all location services were off. Huge tech companies are under increasing scrutiny over their data practices, following a series of privacy scandals at Facebook and new data-privacy rules recently adopted by the European Union. You can see the stored location markers on a page in your Google account at, although they are typically scattered under several different headers, many of which are unrelated to location. You can delete these location markers by hand, but it's a painstaking process since you have to select them individually, unless you want to delete all of your stored activity. It does not stop Google's collection of other location markers. But leaving “web and app activity” on and turning “location history” off only prevents Google from adding your movements to the “timeline”, its visualization of your daily travels. When paused, it will prevent activity on any device from being saved to your account. Called “web and app activity” and enabled by default, that setting stores a variety of information from Google apps and websites to your Google account. To stop Google from saving these location markers, the company says, users can turn off another setting, one that does not specifically reference location information. “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.” “There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people's experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to the AP. “That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.” “If you're going to allow users to turn off something called ‘location history’, then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off," Mayer said. A researcher from Mayer's lab confirmed the AP's findings on multiple Android devices the AP conducted its own tests on several iPhones that found the same behavior. Storing location data in violation of a user's preferences was wrong, said Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission's enforcement bureau. The privacy issue affects about 2 billion users of devices that run Google's Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, such as “chocolate chip cookies” or “kids science kits”, pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude accurate to the square foot and save it to your Google account. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. Even with “location history” paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking.įor example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.” Google's support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you've been. So the company will let you “pause” a setting called “location history”. Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects.
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