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Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

nytimes.com

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Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#21

Post by wendigo »

amaccuish wrote: post #18
darren_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Google Maps now remembers searches you've made without location history or app activity tracking being active. This wasn't the case about a year ago, when I last tried it, a dark pattern of sorts. They probably changed the behavior being forced by the GDPR or something similar. Location history wasn't ever needed for remembering searches, FWIW.

> Location history wasn't ever needed for remembering searches It absolutely was. When I tapped on the search bar, there were no results and it told me to turn on location history.

Nonetheless, I actually don’t enjoy seeing my search history accumulate on my device. Half of my searches are just spell checks anyway, the next 40% are just wikipedia shortcuts. Probably less than one in ten searches are genuine queries, to scour for a real result.

The number is small enough that I pretty much can directly remember the thing I was thinking about, and why I searched for it. I don’t even want my device saving my recent searches.

Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#23

Post by jacquesm »

bad_user wrote: post #9

iOS now forcing "While Using" option on all apps is the greatest thing ever. Before this, some apps where forcing the "Always" option on users. Uber and Waze come to mind. iOS also gives you a warning from time to time about apps using your location in the background. I think iOS right now has the best location management. --- People are surprised when seeing the Activity section in Google's account details, then fre…

You can't turn it 'off', you can 'pause' it. That's a linguistic difference, sure, but it is quite telling that there is no respect at all for a users desires even in the language that is hardcoded in. It's as annoying as 'not now' for 'no' or '10 different things you should know about "x"', when you really should not.

Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#26

Post by shaki-dora »

shubb wrote: post #22

Anyone know where to get the kind of dataset that the times has?

If you use Google Maps to share your location with friends, you can find an URL (using the browser’s devtools) that is stable and gives you location data in JSON.

Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#27

Post by bad_user »

jacquesm wrote: post #23
bad_user wrote: post #9

iOS now forcing "While Using" option on all apps is the greatest thing ever. Before this, some apps where forcing the "Always" option on users. Uber and Waze come to mind. iOS also gives you a warning from time to time about apps using your location in the background. I think iOS right now has the best location management. --- People are surprised when seeing the Activity section in Google's account details, then fre…

You can't turn it 'off', you can 'pause' it. That's a linguistic difference, sure, but it is quite telling that there is no respect at all for a users desires even in the language that is hardcoded in. It's as annoying as 'not now' for 'no' or '10 different things you should know about "x"', when you really should not.

I agree, the language is annoying and they've also been guilty of dark patterns for getting users to re-enable it.

But being an EU citizen, I'm confident that they can't turn it on, legally, without explicit permission.

Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#28

Post by throw2016 »

Here is an idea for online advertising. Use IP and text based contextual targeting. No stalking required.

Stalking everyone and building increasingly creepy online profiles to target better is an abuse of basic human privacy, if you stop to think about it, and completely unethical and takes your hurtling down the path to a surveillance society.

The only reason its even possible because of the lacuna in a new space and laws catching up, and when they do, it won't be possible. The idea that making money makes everything ok is a primitive and fundamentally antisocial ideology. And if everyone thought like that would end civilization as we know it.

Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#29

Post by bad_user »

wendigo wrote: post #21
amaccuish wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Location history wasn't ever needed for remembering searches It absolutely was. When I tapped on the search bar, there were no results and it told me to turn on location history.

Nonetheless, I actually don’t enjoy seeing my search history accumulate on my device. Half of my searches are just spell checks anyway, the next 40% are just wikipedia shortcuts. Probably less than one in ten searches are genuine queries, to scour for a real result. The number is small enough that I pretty much can directly remember the thing I was thinking about, and why I searched for it. I don’t even want my devic…

Your preference is not very relevant for people that need to remember their searches though.

Re: Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

#30

Post by SalimoS »

esc861 wrote: post #20
mariusmg wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That does nothing for IP based geo location though Of course, since ip "geolocation" is just ip data + location agregatted from ISPs. How can the OS maker "fight" this ?

Android requires apps request location permissions in order to access Wi-Fi IP info.

He was talking about the server knowing your ip not your application requestion WiFi ip info
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