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Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

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Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#71

Post by r_singh »

I wonder what would happen if the world somehow managed to boycott Google, Facebook and Amazon as a protest against privacy issues and anti-competitive practices by these cos.

We already have the alternatives ready, network effects so strong smh

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#73

Post by Buge »

avh02 wrote: post #60
techntoke wrote: post #5

This! They used to allow you to, but now I don't save my home address and can't use a lot of Google features because they want you to enable activity tracking. WTF... why do I need all my activity to be tracked to use basic features?

My favorite part has been them pretending they no longer store your address, but when search results on the web places a pin they somehow manage to suggest it's an "x minute drive" from home... Which is it Google? Do you have the address saved or not? You forget where my address is only when it's inconvenient and coercive?

Are you sharing your location? Maybe nothing is stored, but your current location is used for searches you make.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#74

Post by fireattack »

balladeer wrote: post #67
dmitrygr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you can easily uninstall it

Can you please tell us how unless it's a custom ROM/non rooted Android phones? (Not disabling)

Well the original statement is just "an android phone", and majority of Android phones (think China) don't even have Gmaps installed.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#76

Post by murukesh_s »

Looks like google has hit a gold mine with some algorithm to better sell ads or is under pressure from competitors (Facebook) to gather more data than they have currently.

Their lack of presence in social media will hurt them in the long term. In Facebook you upload pictures, you like stuff, you spend more time on someone's profile, you hover more on an ad even if you don't click all these while you are logged in. Google doesn't have that graph unless they link gmail with search. No one logs into Google search and give their identity, but we do pretty much the same in Facebook.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#77

Post by grogenaut »

ux-app wrote: post #68
esaym wrote: post #25

I won't give them my home address any way. If I want directions to "my house", I google an address on a block down the street.

they still know where you live. Your phone stops moving for 8 hours in the same spot every night. That's where you live. Unless you also leave your phone in a neighbor's letter box in which case you fooled 'em good.

Sure, they know but they're putting usability behind "accept us tracking everything" for anyone who has "opted out of tracking" several years ago. Basically they're turning off more and more usability so that they can get you to accept their tracking agreement.

They do this with btle as well, you have to turn on location services because they can't bother to randomize bluetooth tags (like apple) and want this setting on all the time.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#78

Post by belltaco »

lvs wrote: post #34
digitaLandscape wrote: post #26

There was a lot of uproar about this internally but nothing changed. They told us that this was the only "practical" option. The company has rotted.

From the outside, it seems to have reached a tipping point in the past year that is now getting quite dramatic. A whole string of heavy-handed, anti-user, and privacy-hostile decisions. What just happened to the culture that would allow all this evil behavior? Or did we misunderstand it all along?

The bean counters have been taking over slowly at first, but now it's pretty fast.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#79

Post by nazgul17 »

I noticed this a few weeks back, when I disabled all tracking. The easy solution on Android was to have two shortcuts, one to home and one to work. That's ignoring the fact that I am still using Android and probably I am still being tracked some way.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#80

Post by jchw »

digitaLandscape wrote: post #26

There was a lot of uproar about this internally but nothing changed. They told us that this was the only "practical" option. The company has rotted.

Was there internal uproar? Did they say this was the only "practical" option? I have missed all of this if so, I thought this is how Maps worked since this feature first popped up.
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