Google's Location Privacy Practices Are Under Investigation in Arizona: Report (washingtonpost.com)

Google's alleged practice of recording location data about Android device owners even when they believe they have opted out of such tracking, reports The Washington Post, has sparked an investigation in Arizona, where the state's attorney general could potentially levy a hefty fine against the search giant. From the report: The probe, initiated by Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich and confirmed by a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to speak on the record, could put pressure on other states and the federal government to follow suit, consumer advocates say -- though Google previously insisted it did not deceive consumers about the way it collects and taps data on their whereabouts. The attorney general signaled his interest in the matter in a public filing [PDF] that indicated the office had retained an outside law firm to assist in an investigation. The document, dated August 21, said the hired lawyers would help probe an unnamed tech company and its "storage of consumer location data, tracking of consumer location, and other consumer tracking through ... smartphone operating systems, even when consumers turn off 'location services' and take other steps to stop such tracking," according to the heavily redacted public notice.

Comments

Google turns evil

[byteherder]

First, Google starts making a search engine for the Chinese government that censors data. Next, they buy your credit card data from Mastercard. Now, they are spying on your location even after you turn location services off.

Google used to have an ethical code that made people believe that they were not some evil Silicon Valley company. I guess that is gone now.

Re:Google turns evil

[Anonymous Coward]

Google never had such an ethical code, it was only ever some quip from one of the founders, and only literal retards believe in corporate "good guys".

Re:Google turns evil

[hyades1]

They quietly removed "Don't be evil" from their code of conduct some time around May of this year.

So yes, now they're just another bunch of corporate scumbags who desperately need to be regulated.

Re:Google turns evil

[bluefoxlucid]

It looks like a bunch of weird nomenclature stuff.

If you turn Location History on, your phone tracks your every movement. Everywhere you go, they tell Google.

If you turn Location History off, your phone tracks nothing. Put it in your pocket, wander around, nothing gets logged.

If you turn Location History off and open Google Maps at some point, Google Maps gets your location and stores it in your Location History or something akin to that. They're not tracking your every movement, but they do make note whenever you volunteer your location in some manner.

It seems reasonable until somebody who never thought about it much uses it; then it seems unexpected and confusing. This is why we have user testing.

Re: Google turns evil

[Anonymous Coward]

i just read 1984 after much procrastination and is quite nuts the similarities in todayâ(TM)s world.

Re:Google turns evil

[byteherder]

But if I have Location History turn off and then I use Google Maps or any mapping function, why would Google need to store that information for longer than it is needed. Shouldn't the information be erased when I close Google Maps?

Re:Google turns evil

[bluefoxlucid]

Yes.

The problem is the engineer said, "The phone has a GPS and Wifi and figures out where it is all the time; so we'll store that, unless you stop tracking location!" Then, when you open maps, the engineer said, "Ah, you've actually asked us to get your location, so we'll store that."

Everyone else said, "When you turn location history off, the phone stops recording location history." They don't imagine that the phone just doesn't tell Google their location anymore, or that asking their phone to tell Google their location (by opening Google maps) would involve telling Google their location and Google subsequently storing it.

Imagine if disabling location tracking actually left it on, and kept sending your location to Google every 5 seconds, except Google's servers didn't store it anywhere. This is the opposite: disabling location tracking stops telling Google where you are--and when you do tell Google where you are, they store that.

It's obviously-broken to us, but seems reasonable to the engineers who came up with it.

Re:Google turns evil

[reboot246]

Google was evil from its start. If you use any of their services, you have to understand that they will do anything to collect any information about you. They'll lie if necessary.

And Google knows...

[mandark1967]

the exact location in Arizona where it is under investigation.

Re:And Google knows...

[sinij]

Additionally, if found guilty, the verdict won't be searchable from Google, so nobody would know about it.

So people turned off the wrong thing and are upset

[FeelGood314]

People turned off having one app store and record their location, mistakenly thought they weren't being tracked and are now upset? They didn't notice that google maps still worked, that their uber driver still came to get them, that they still got asked to review stores they were in, etc. The app in question didn't even say it turned off tracking.

Maybe google should create an app to turn off tracking but it means turning off your cell phone, GPS and wi-fi. I know many people who might die of facebook/twitter withdrawal if they ever used such an app.

Retaliation for banning Jones?

[rsilvergun]

It's sure what it looks like. The Az attorney general isn't exactly known for NY style offensives against anti consumer practices and the timing is suspect. Plus there's been a lot of chatter on right wing media about doing "something" about the ban. Heck a it's been kind of funny to watch the party of small government taking about regulating private entities to prevent the bans...

Re:Retaliation for banning Jones?

[youngone]

The bit that caught my attention was:

...initiated by Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich...

which may tie in with what you've posted.
It is an odd way to run a country, where instead of rule of law, you have public servants making decisions based on which political party they belong to. And you only have two parties.
Seems a bit weird.

Re:Retaliation for banning Jones?

[rickb928]

You see, when the media identifies a politician or public servant (not equivalent) by their political affiliation, we are being steered towards evaluating their actions, especially the ones being reported on, ans motivated by political affiliation.

Sometimes the media fails to identify a politician or public servant by political affiliation. I wonder why?

And so, for those of you interested in truth and journalism, this is an example of paying attention, considering the source, and evaluating a report based on its content. Recognizing that the reporter made a point of identifying political party affiliation is important. I'll leave it to you to determine if it is for you, and if so, why.

Re:So people turned off the wrong thing and are up

[BitterOak]

My personal Android phone is ancient, with no data plan, is never connected to wifi ... good luck getting location data out of that.

The location data comes from the phone's GPS unit, not the wifi or data.