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Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

businessinsider.com

151–160 of 193 posts

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries don't stamp your passport anymore, many that do don't put a date, and even if I relied on that information stamps are messy, out of order, and fading. The government probably has a list of international flights I've taken somewhere. I honestly don't think they will use it they probably don't deny citizenships because I missed a couple of trips (unlike, say, not reporting frequent trips to North Korea).…

Really? Which ones? Even if I get an e-visa, I get an in and out stamp. Not having these would invalidate the whole reason for having a passport.

USA to Scotland I didn't get a stamp!

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries don't stamp your passport anymore, many that do don't put a date, and even if I relied on that information stamps are messy, out of order, and fading. The government probably has a list of international flights I've taken somewhere. I honestly don't think they will use it they probably don't deny citizenships because I missed a couple of trips (unlike, say, not reporting frequent trips to North Korea).…

Really? Which ones? Even if I get an e-visa, I get an in and out stamp. Not having these would invalidate the whole reason for having a passport.

USA to New Zealand last winter nobody stamped anything.

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Which ones? Even if I get an e-visa, I get an in and out stamp. Not having these would invalidate the whole reason for having a passport.

So many, really. It seems to depend on the agent. I’ve passed through US customs and not gotten stamped. Israel famously does not. They’ll give you a small slip with your details on it. I was told that an Israeli stamp on your passport would automatically bar you from entry in many Arab states so they came up with another system Also pretty much anytime I have entered the UK via the global entry lanes I never got sta…

Canada same way. Really Anywhere moving to e-gates or kiosks where you just hand a print out to an agent.

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#154
post #135

Tangential: Is anyone else getting burned out from having to transfer data between phones? Let me explain. I’ve been rocking the same iPhone backup since 2010 and I never lost anything… but now if I lose my phone I will lose my eSIMs, as well as any non-passkey 2FA. What next? Just recently I was unable to reinstall my eSIM for an hour and my headache was growing stronger as I imagined what all the services that (sti…

I recently moved my wife to a new phone. It took only a couple of minutes to transfer the esim. But SMS was blocked for 24 hours. Some kind of security measure? So I couldn't activate any apps that required 2FA via SMS. Quite a hassle.

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries don't stamp your passport anymore, many that do don't put a date, and even if I relied on that information stamps are messy, out of order, and fading. The government probably has a list of international flights I've taken somewhere. I honestly don't think they will use it they probably don't deny citizenships because I missed a couple of trips (unlike, say, not reporting frequent trips to North Korea).…

Really? Which ones? Even if I get an e-visa, I get an in and out stamp. Not having these would invalidate the whole reason for having a passport.

Japan from the US, and also Guam (US territory, I know)

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#156
post #53
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't anyone that dislikes you file a lawsuit and subpoena the data too?

Discovery is subject to oversight. The court signs off on the subpoena and your lawyer gets to argue why it's not valid before it does. No, "because I dislike you" isn't going to fly. But if you're in a legitimate feud with someone and they can make a real case that your location information is important evidence for the court to see, sure.

You can allege anything you want in court and proceed exactly like someone having a "legitimate feud." You might be punished later for making up a bunch of bogus claims, but you still got the information you shouldn't have.

This is especially effective if you're a powerful person or corporation and can find a litigant willing to sacrifice their own assets and/or freedom to pursue a fake lawsuit on your behalf. The justice system is subject to Sybil attacks like any other system.

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#157
post #156
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discovery is subject to oversight. The court signs off on the subpoena and your lawyer gets to argue why it's not valid before it does. No, "because I dislike you" isn't going to fly. But if you're in a legitimate feud with someone and they can make a real case that your location information is important evidence for the court to see, sure.

You can allege anything you want in court and proceed exactly like someone having a "legitimate feud." You might be punished later for making up a bunch of bogus claims, but you still got the information you shouldn't have. This is especially effective if you're a powerful person or corporation and can find a litigant willing to sacrifice their own assets and/or freedom to pursue a fake lawsuit on your behalf. The ju…

Again, no, because courts don't as a general rule treat with "bogus" claims. If you try to lie to get a subpoena, the other counsel calls bullshit and the judge agrees. This just isn't a thing. This is another angle of the "Hackers Think The Law is a Computer" disconnect. People don't try to hack the courts like this because they tend to get disbarred if they try.

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#158
post #157
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can allege anything you want in court and proceed exactly like someone having a "legitimate feud." You might be punished later for making up a bunch of bogus claims, but you still got the information you shouldn't have. This is especially effective if you're a powerful person or corporation and can find a litigant willing to sacrifice their own assets and/or freedom to pursue a fake lawsuit on your behalf. The ju…

Again, no, because courts don't as a general rule treat with "bogus" claims. If you try to lie to get a subpoena, the other counsel calls bullshit and the judge agrees. This just isn't a thing. This is another angle of the "Hackers Think The Law is a Computer" disconnect. People don't try to hack the courts like this because they tend to get disbarred if they try.

My personal experience is inconsistent with your broad confidence in the justice system's resilience to abuse, and in fact is one of the main reasons why I retired from active practice as a litigator. I've found that concepts like "bullshit" in civil law have many shades of gray, especially when you're dealing with a genuinely angry client seeking justice.

If your experience is closer to the truth, then maybe the tech industry should retain lawyers to redesign our security systems!

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#159
post #5

I sometimes query this to help me recall details from years ago, so I'm sad that the encroachment of very broad government surveillance and the rise to power of extremist politicians makes it unacceptably dangerous to continue to provide the service.

I wish I could opt out of this change. I've been asking Google to remember my location for more than a decade, and it's an amazing record of where we've been, when. I don't care that the government or Google can see it, it's still super useful. I'd pay to keep it in the cloud.

Hopefully there's some way you'll be able to get it out of your device. Obviously not as ideal as a simple checkbox in Google, but to me making you have to set up some sort of export/sync yourself is an acceptable tradeoff for what the rest of us get from this change. Of course, it's easy for me to say that, because I don't use the feature basically at all ;)

Re: Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

#160

I disabled location history a while ago for privacy reasons. It was _so_ cool to look back and see where I went during trips, or where I was on a given day in college, but it felt weird that it could potentially be exposed to everyone in a leak. It's great to hear that Google is making such a big move. Google is not known for respecting user privacy.

I did the same thing, and this is a really great development.

Several features in maps that would be super useful are unavailable if you have location history disabled. I'll be glad to turn it back on.

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