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Android Users Need To Delete Google Maps and Google Play If They Don't Want Their Locations Tracked (theregister.co.uk)
Kieren McCarthy, reporting for The Register: Google, it seems, is very, very interested in knowing where you are at all times. Users have reported battery life issues with the latest Android build, with many pointing the finger at Google Play -- Google's app store -- and its persistent, almost obsessive need to check where you are. Amid complaints that Google Play is always switching on GPS, it appears Google has made it impossible to prevent the app store from tracking your whereabouts unless you completely kill off location tracking for all applications. You can try to deny Google Play access to your handheld's location by opening the Settings app and digging through Apps -> Google Play Store -> Permissions, and flipping the switch for "location." But you'll be told you can't just shut out Google Play services: you have to switch off location services for all apps if you want to block the store from knowing your whereabouts. It's all or nothing, which isn't particularly nice. This is because Google Play services pass on your location to installed apps via an API. The store also sends your whereabouts to Google to process. Google doesn't want you to turn this off.
I love Big Brother. Don't you love Big Brother? Maybe you need re-education.
The power button still exists (unless apple deems it is not necessary in the next iphone).
BTW, apple and MS location track as much as they can too.
Silence is a state of mime.
If I have my GPS turned off, is it still recording my location? Or is the article saying that it records your location if the GPS is on, even if you're not actively using Maps? Big difference there.
It won't be long before they start selling intrusive ads based on location, time of day, etc. It's around lunch time and you're walking on the street? Your phone buzzes to recommend a restaurant for you. That kind of advertisement could be sold to restaurants based on location, time of day, implied salary, whether you frequent a competitor, etc.
To be obnoxious, I've never actually given any app my location on my phone. And I use Google Maps often enough. But rather than using it for navigation, I use it for -- you'll never guess -- looking at maps. No facepalm needed!
There are non-google app stores.
And they are useless, and frequently riddled with malware. I use Google services because they have a value to me. Samsung services (for instance) do not.
I don't want carob instead of chocolate just to "prove a point". I bought an Android phone because I prefer it to Apple's walled garden, and have more freedom to use my hardware as I choose.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
I'm sure a GPS location spoofer, if such a thing exists, is highly illegal and would get you in big trouble to use it. GPS signals are on a licensed part of the spectrum, and interfering with those frequencies can cause not just your GPS device to fail, but possibly others around you. GPS is used in in some life or death applications, such as air navigation, so I imagine the feds would take this kind of spoofing very, very seriously.
I believe schle means a software-based location spoofer that feeds a false location to the app in question, instead of messing with the actual connection to the GPS satellites.
No need to broadcast or jam on licensed spectrum or buy a device.
Silence is a state of mime.
software. on the phone. spoofing.
he's not saying hey i'm gonna try and fake a half dozen satellites using a swarm drones or something hovering around him and his phone. ...
I followed the instructions to turn off google play's permission to use my location, but this was already turned off. Am I missing something? The article only says the "latest Android build".
Are you positive that "Location" wasn't already turned off in Settings when you went to look at Google Play Services permissions? On my phone (6.0.1), if Location is turned on and I try to set Google Play Services location permission to "off", I get a popup informing me that Google Play Services is the source of location services for all other applications, and that if I want to deny location privileges to Google Play, I have to turn off Location (in Settings). If Location is turned off, the location permission is off in Google Play Services.
This is why I've said over and over... Anyone who complains about Windows 10 thinking that it is the "big bad" when it comes to privacy simply hasn't been paying attention...
That doesn't make Windows 10 spying all good, it just puts it into the same league as Apple and Google...
I can't tell if you're being serious.
If yes: The person you were replying to is most likely talking about GPS spoofing software for phones that allows you to change your GPS coordinates that the OS reports. There is an option in Developer options that lets you change the program used for location.The 3rd party software usually lets you just point to a map to set the coordinates, and that's what the OS uses as your GPS coordinates. Nothing to do with actual GPS signals or frequencies :)
It's primary use is for development and testing, but unless software checks for the use of these programs users do use them for less legit reasons. (Like cheating in location-based games such as PokemonGo or Ingress)
Have you ever wondered how Google Maps has near-real-time display of traffic maps on surface streets that don't have monitoring equipment set up by the DOT? *THIS* is exactly how they do it. They track the relative speed and location of smart phones traveling down various streets to figure out current traffic patterns. This is simply another case of giving up a piece of privacy for a free service in return. Love it or hate it, that's how this shit works.
Try to understand. Google is a company. They need to make money.
They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone. If they don't feel like they made *enough* money, they should have charged more for the phone and/or licensing Android, not spying and selling out and digitally violating all of their users 24 hours a day.
You won't even know where you are.
Try to understand. Google is a company. They need to make money.
They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone. If they don't feel like they made *enough* money, they should have charged more for the phone and/or licensing Android, not spying and selling out and digitally violating all of their users 24 hours a day.
Samsung, HTC, et al made money when you bought the goddamn phone. Google makes money in services, like the one this article is about.
Are you new to the concept of publicly traded corporations? There is no such thing as making enough money. They have to find new revenue streams every year or else their shareholders bail.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
> They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone.
No, no they didn't. Google doesn't charge money for Android. That's why you can get an Android phone for $15. They made nothing when you bought your phone. They make money while you use your phone.
If you prefer to pay for your phone in cash at the time of purchase, you can buy an iPhone for $650. Apple makes money when you buy your phone.
Of course, the iPhone also tracks you by default, but by paying $650 you can turn location tracking off. Well you can turn it off completely on Android too, but anyway, no Google didn't make money when you bought your phone. The store you bought it from made money, the company that made the phone made money, hell even Microsoft made money, not so much Google.
I only turn on GPS when I want to use it, why waste the battery?
Cheap storage VM.
You can try to deny Google Play access to your handheld's location by opening the Settings app and digging through Apps -> Google Play Store -> Permissions, and flipping the switch for "location." But you'll be told you can't just shut out Google Play services: you have to switch off location services for all apps if you want to block the store from knowing your whereabouts.
Is this something new in Nougat? (Does anyone even run Nougat on anything yet?)
I'm on Marshmallow (6.0.1), and I can turn off location permissions for the Google Play Store, and wasn't "told" anything when I did. Everything else works just fine. I can even turn on location for games or other apps, and they still work, and Google Play still doesn't have access to location. So I'm not sure what the summary is talking about, here.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Because due to the way that capitalism corrodes market choice and reduces product quality, I have two viable choices for a smartphone
Translation: you want to have your cake and eat it too. No one owes you anything. You are not entitled to cheap wonderful smart phones. There's nothing in the Bill of Rights guaranteeing all citizens cheap, wonderful, feature rich smart phones. There are products on the market. Some gather usage stats. Others have more walled gardens than others. Others yet are more expensive and less feature rich. You get to choose one of these based on your criteria.
Why don't you look into Ubuntu phones? http://www.ubuntu.com/phone
What a wonderful 1st world problem we have here huh?
If in doubt just install Google Maps...
This should be modded way down. "Not buying the product" on an individual level does SHIT to change corporate behavior.
Yes you are right. Keep buying their shit and giving them money, but come here and whine about it. You know how to affect change. You are truly a revolutionary my friend.
Plus, giving up that fancy smartphone would be HARD. No Angry Birds. No Snapchat. It's not a life worth living.
The so called 'security researcher' got confused with Google Nearby https://support.google.com/acc... . Google also moved core android OS functions into Google Play Services so core functions could be updated without rolling an entire android update(which the oem would never do). Moving the location provider was part of the this rework, so everyone could get the latest google maps turn by turn directions and provide a consistent api to developers http://lifehacker.com/why-goog....
That data was stored only locally. And an update reduced the size of the local cache significantly.
Also Apple is going to great lengths to keep data they collect locally on the phone or anonymize as much of the data that needs to be sent back to its servers, instead if selling it to the highest bidder like Google.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
I find this absolutely reprehensible. I truly wonder why people put up with this. It's one thing to not care that google tracks you. I don't mind. But I'd be absolutely incensed if I had no way to prevent it and I'm locked into a 2 year contract with no way to have a usable phone and usable maps without granting google this prying eye. One of my kids has a phone which doesn't even allow google play to be turned off (the phone relies on it). Each week we notice data charges when he has used no data. When we trace their origin, it's google play. Now I know why.
Boycott google.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
There's a lot of misunderstanding here of how location and tracking on Android actually works.
First of all, google play store has nothing to do with it. It's google play services that provides location services and implements location tracking in Android. That's the service that is used to retrieve AGPS data from the net, to correlate nearby wifi and mobile masts with lists held on google's servers to give location without GPS, and yes to provide tracking data on your location to google. Setting the location mode to "GPS Only" or similar is supposed to disable much of the tracking, but I'm not sure how much I'd trust that.
Play services is a pretty core component of Android, and an awful lot of things will cease to function if you manage to remove it. You can block play services from accessing your location using 3rd party tools like XPrivacy, but location for most apps will cease to function without a complex set of workarounds.
If you genuinely don't want your Android phone calling home with your location while still being able to use GPS, you need:
Thanks google...
I don't recall any differentiation made between necessities and non-necessities. Is fast food a necessity? Because we sure seem to have a lot of selection when it comes to that. On the other hand, Epi-pens must not be a necessity, because only one company seems to sell them and is able to jack the price up to whatever they damn well please.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
> Is there a reason you can't pay the true cost up front, instead of giving up privacy?
Perhaps you missed this:
>> If you prefer to pay for your phone in cash at the time of purchase, you can buy an iPhone for $650. Apple makes money when you buy your phone.
> Could it be that Google is an advertising company, and makes far more money over time through third-party sales of your location data to sleazy marketers?
Not quite. They are an advertising company, NOT a marketing data broker. They don't do "third-party sales of your data to sleazy marketers" because that would be giving up the cow; they'd rather sell the milk. Google sells ad placements (called Adwords), they do not sell the data, the data is their treasure.
There is an alternative which performs way better than OEM or Stock Android, Cyanogen. The issue is, other app stores (Amazon, various Chinese) does their own evil things if not switched off.
Google maps is and has always been overrated, disconnected from real World application, its walk and bicycle navigation is a joke compared to "Here" (Nokia) maps.
The only issue here is a good app store, everything else can be achieved with Cyanogen without Google Services.