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Many Google Services on Android Devices and iPhones Store Location Data, Even if Location Sharing is Disabled From Privacy Settings: AP (apnews.com)
Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to. An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you've used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so. The Associated Press reports that it has confirmed its findings with computer science researchers at Princeton. From the report: For the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information. An app like Google Maps will remind you to allow access to location if you use it for navigating. If you agree to let it record your location over time, Google Maps will display that history for you in a "timeline" that maps out your daily movements. Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects -- such as a warrant that police in Raleigh, North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company will let you "pause" a setting called Location History. Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you've been. Google's support page on the subject states: "You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored." That isn't true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking.
For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like "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. The privacy issue affects some two 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. Storing location data in violation of a user's preferences is wrong, said Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission's enforcement bureau.
For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like "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. The privacy issue affects some two 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. Storing location data in violation of a user's preferences is wrong, said Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission's enforcement bureau.
Cross platform. Fuck Google.
Who cares, as they are making 95 billions a year by spying their users, so a 5 billion fine is a minor cost of a business. Only when the fines from illegalities are more than the profits gained from crimes, the companies will react.
Run your own map server locally (Sailfish server that works with multiple viewers, Android and iOS also have offline map solution, with MicroG providing several solutions for apps that require the Google Map API)
For the location service it self, you can have lots of replacement including offline too .
Fuck online companies.
( ^- that has actual very practical implications when you're abroad and have internet roaming or on a hike away from any connection services)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I've always said, when you disable location on Android it's more likely that you're just toggling your own ability to see the location data that Google is collecting. Just because now your phone won't show you your current location doesn't mean it isn't being recorded, it just means your phone won't share it with you.
I always disable location on my phone, but not because I believe that Google isn't still tracking me. I do it to save battery usage. At least in previous versions of Android, enabling location seemed to trigger background processes. Since these the activities of these processes were largely related to ads and other things that had no direct benefit to me, I turned off location. The battery savings was always immediately noticeable.
The amount of personal, private information that Google has collected and calculated is staggering. Think of the US government having that information but with no semblance of legal checks (no required warrants, no FOIA requests, no need to get Congress to allow data collection, no voting disagreeable people out of office, etc.) on the use/abuse of that information, and that is the current situation with Google. The only comfort users have is the assurance that Google will do no evil.