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Your Location 'Extremely Valuable' To Google
An anonymous reader writes "Google recently wrote off concerns about its mobile devices sending precise user location data back to its servers, but recently uncovered emails illustrate that user location is instrumental in its strategy. Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, wrote to Larry Page, founder and now CEO, explaining that location data from mobile phones was 'extremely valuable to Google,' especially given the privacy blow-up concerning its Street View cars at the time."
Course they can, they just pay some chinese kid to follow you instead of doing it digitally. Call it analogue tracking systems...
. . . had been more of an early adopter. . .
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
It should be illegal to collect and retain location data of any kind on anyone for any reason short of a duly issued warrant. Maps,etc, can query Google and info returned, just no logs kept at all. Why not? The only people that would be against this are people that want to maintain control of some kind. Smartphones are just the thin edge of a wedge of the death of personal privacy.
Let's see, your smartphone is:
1. a location-tracking device showing where you are, have been, and may be going
2. a veritable microphone listening device
3. a record of who you know and communicate with
What more could they want? People say the data these devices generate and store won't be misused. Bah! They are misused everyday and everyone knows it. The fact this stuff has come to light will in no way alter, stop, or slow down the tracking of people. We need some serious privacy laws, even more strict that say, Germany, has. People have a right to not be tracked and databased at every turn. This is the reason I have basically stopped using Google products.
TFA only quotes 4 words that are in the email, and completely fails to mention any other details.
Every piece of information about your customers/users is extremely valuable. But it depends on what you do with it; how you get it; and how you protect it.
Its no surprise that if you know where someone is you can deliver more targeted results. Is this really news? Besides, Google has a good track record of protecting consumer privacy and making it clear what they collect. Apple collected all their data without telling users and Facebook has a track record of both violating privacy as default policy and refusing to share it with others.
Of *course* your location is important to them. Google is an advertising company; geographically targeted adverising is in high demand.
The issue people have is when Google (or anyone else) collects this data without any consent, and without adequate warning that it is being collected.
Google is also keeping all of the money for itself, and is not passing any of it on to the users who supplied the data. If your smartphone paid you cash for every day you allow them to track your data, people would not be objecting so loudly.
I didn't realize my location was so valuable. So where's MY share of the money?!
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They are not named cell phones because they can be smuggeld easy into a prison cell, they are called that way because the phone can determine easily what cell it it in. Telephone carriers always had access to this information. You might not have been aware that that data was available and stored. (e.g. in poland you can see the streetname you are walking in because the cell are note named ONLY after the provider).
The whole problem is that companies should announce that they collect this information and what they are doing with this information. Announcing that this information is anonymously shared with partners in a 40 pages eula is too vague. maybe an opt-out should be available I am not sure about that.
Not using products fromx.com is not the solution. (x in apple, google, RIM )
... it must be o.k. After all, if you can't trust a company with a motto like "Don't be evil", who could you trust. It did occur to me though, that if you wanted to be evil, "Don't be evil" would probably be a pretty good motto.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Apple is in the business of selling hardware and software. Theirs is a Business-to-Consumer model.
Google is in the business of selling you. Theirs is a Business-to-Business model, like the fisherman who puts a free worm on his hook, catches the fish, and sells it to market. Unfortunately for the fish, it never questioned why a free worm was just sort of dangling there in the water.
Google provides free software, e-books, search engines, etc., as its bait. And based upon your slavish fanboi gushing, you've fallen for it hook, line, and sinker...
Wasn't Android going to be open? Why are you keeping HoneyComb's source code locked behind the Google doors? Fucking hypocrite!
From the paper that obtained the emails: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_17960065
FBI? Police? Divorce lawyer? Boss? Neighbor? Retailers? Stranger who finds your phone?
You personally may be reason to worry. And any escalation of private data collection needs to be considered carefully - it is just a step, and there will be future steps based on acceptance of this one. Being concerned is probably appropriate, but panicking is probably an overreaction.
But for most of your "enemies" this is not something to worry about. Your wife, boss, and neighbor don't have access to this data unless you end up in court and you probably did something else to tip them off first and in the past they could have hired someone to follow you.
FBI & police have been tracking people pretty well for a long time with credit card purchases, phone taps, security cameras, cell phone location, door-to-door interviews, APBs, etc. If you're running from them, you probably avoid these. But if they want to find out where you were all day last Tuesday when you weren't trying to avoid them, they can probably get as close as google's data.
Stores have been tracking you with credit cards, loyalty cards, etc. They probably don't care what you did all day.
A hacker breaking into google's data may be able to find patterns to know when someone is not at home or is on a deserted street. But it's probably a lot more effort and more dangerous to use that than search for credit cards in the data. They'd want to do a stakeout anyhow to verify so why not pick a target first rather than using location data to pick a random target.
There's an android app that lets you report no location at all. It's called 'Your Phone's Settings Menu'.
They give you a pile of services like Gmail, Google Calendar, Picasa, Google Apps, Google Reader, Google docs, etc. It ain't free, it's a trade.
They're prohibited, by the way, though there is a healthy black market.
OK, we're narrowing in on it, is it 3rd world prohibited, like wave some cash and its all good, so everyone has a AK-47 even though no one officially has one.
Or is it 1st world prohibited like the UK where only some of the crooks are armed and rest of the population is disarmed (aka victim)?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Ok - but say I actually wanted location-based services, but not necessarily for the location I'm in.
Like I work in the south-east bay but live in, and expect to have dinner in, and do most of my shopping in San Francisco.
It'd just about always be more useful for me if my phone thought I'm near where I live than where I work.