Google – My Location History • Hacker News Board

Re: Google – My Location History

#11

Post by nabla9 » Thu, May 30, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

KukicAdnan wrote: post #3

Honestly, I find this really useful and love being able to see where I've been, especially since I travel on almost a weekly basis. It's an invaluable tool for me and I trust Google to safeguard the information. They haven't failed me yet, and if they ever do, it should be easy enough to delete the info.

Google services may benefit all individuals using them but net negative whole the society as a whole.

The "what it is for me" attitude of consumerism requires something else to balance it out.

Re: Google – My Location History

#12

Post by haecceity » Thu, May 30, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

KukicAdnan wrote: post #3

Honestly, I find this really useful and love being able to see where I've been, especially since I travel on almost a weekly basis. It's an invaluable tool for me and I trust Google to safeguard the information. They haven't failed me yet, and if they ever do, it should be easy enough to delete the info.

Also useful if you lost your phone.

Re: Google – My Location History

#13

Post by philips » Thu, May 30, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

Finkregh wrote: post #10

McDev wrote: post #6

I've been wanting to disable this for years now but find it too interesting and sometimes useful to look back on. I've ditched many Google services due to Google being Google yet I still have this enabled which is somewhat ironic. One day I'd like to figure out how to implement some sort of private alternative to this without using Google.

Try https://owntracks.org/

That page needs a bit of help. The call to action to install could be more front and center and the docs link is buried in the last sentence. Arguably the docs link is way more important than github or Twitter

Docs here: https://owntracks.org/booklet/

Re: Google – My Location History

#14

Post by WilliamEdward » Thu, May 30, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

nabla9 wrote: post #11

KukicAdnan wrote: post #3

Honestly, I find this really useful and love being able to see where I've been, especially since I travel on almost a weekly basis. It's an invaluable tool for me and I trust Google to safeguard the information. They haven't failed me yet, and if they ever do, it should be easy enough to delete the info.

Google services may benefit all individuals using them but net negative whole the society as a whole. The "what it is for me" attitude of consumerism requires something else to balance it out.

Why are they a net negative? Genuine question.

Re: Google – My Location History

#15

Post by gonzoflip » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:00 PM UTC

My location history showed me as being on the strip in Las Vegas for 40 minutes while I was at google's Next conference in SF this year, which i found to be interesting. As far as I can tell my phone must have registered an SSID that caused google to think i was in Vegas. My history no longer shows this, but i did save some screen caps.

https://imgur.com/a/eNBP5t7

Re: Google – My Location History

#16

Post by avocado4 » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

KukicAdnan wrote: post #3

Honestly, I find this really useful and love being able to see where I've been, especially since I travel on almost a weekly basis. It's an invaluable tool for me and I trust Google to safeguard the information. They haven't failed me yet, and if they ever do, it should be easy enough to delete the info.

I had a bike stolen once from the bike garage in my apartment, and I used my Google location history to prove to the garage owner that I indeed arrived there on the bike and never left afterwards.

Re: Google – My Location History

#17

Post by A7med » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

I disabled it a long time ago

Re: Google – My Location History

#18

Post by taborj » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

helloguillecl wrote: post #8

I know it is not really advisable to share this info with third parties in general, but I'd love to have this data under my control, since it is has proven very to my-self. A few examples on why it has been useful to me: - When did I go to the dentist last? - Where did that credit card charge I see in my bank statement originated? - Where did I go on the day I lost my umbrella?

Another user mentioned OwnTracks, coupled with a broker like Mosquitto. That might fit your needs.

Re: Google – My Location History

#19

Post by m0dest » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

I used to willingly enable this and enjoyed this page. But it was recently revealed that Google shares bulk location data with law enforcement, offering the list of all devices that were in a certain area. That was the line for me. Disabled.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/13/us/google-loc...

> The new orders, sometimes called “geofence” warrants, specify an area and a time period, and Google gathers information from Sensorvault about the devices that were there.

Re: Google – My Location History

#20

Post by taborj » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:16 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #7

Be sure to click on the nodes to get your full history. This is why I 1) switched back to Apple Maps and 2) never say yes when Google asks for my location in Safari on iOS (it doesn't change the query results anyway)

Similar, though I switched to HERE WeGo on Android (but they have an iOS version as well).