Google Map App's Version of Anonymity Might Violate EU Privacy Laws

Ars Technica reports that Google's map application for iOS, however popular it might be with users, raises red flags with European regulators, who maintain that it by default does not sufficiently safeguard user privacy as required by EU privacy rules. Ars quotes Marit Hansen of Germany's Independent Centre for Privacy Protection on why: "Hansen's main gripe is that Google's use of 'anonymous' is misleading. 'All available information points to having linkable identifiers per user," she told Computerworld. Hansen added this would allow Google to track several location entries, thus leading to her assumption that Google's 'anonymous location data' would be considered 'personal data' under the European law."

Comments

Re:If you are bothered don't ask for directions.

[arth1]

if you ask google for directions for a to b then they need to know what a and b are.

True, but they don't need to know who is asking nor that the same person five minutes earlier searched for adult stores.

Re:If you are bothered don't ask for directions.

[houghi]

Or if you are irritated by a countries laws, don't do business there.

Perhaps you don't care, but I do.

Have anybody ever asked you for directions? Please tell me the exact time and date, where he or she was before and when after. This can even be a person close to you.

You can't? Google can and that is why you should not compare individual situations with the ones that are done by companies who use a database.

The fact that you do not care about your privacy does not stop me fighting for it.

Re:I don't know how iPhone works.

[BasilBrush]

The issue is Google collecting data on where you've been. That's not to serve you. It's to serve the interests of Google.

It's one of the reasons Apple wouldn't accept Google's conditions for adding turn-by-turn navigation to the old Google Maps app.