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

businessinsider.com

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

#181

Post by lrem »

dns_snek wrote: post #119
lrem wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google is not known for respecting user privacy. As a Googler, I’m always confused by this sentiment. We live in times where car manufacturers reserve the right to collect and sell any data the car can sense, up to and including your sex life. But somehow Google does not sell or share any of your data with anyone, makes it public how it fights a lot of law enforcement overreach, even outright exits markets and suns…

I mean, really? Let's see, Google is trying to force through Web Environment Integrity which would eventually obliterate any remaining semblance of privacy on the web, it has historically disrespected GDPR, it's trying to work around GDPR with a so-called "Privacy Sandbox" which is anything but, it's trying to sunset Manifest v3 which will take power away from Chrome users, just to name a few current & recent develop…

Google is a company that, over the years, employed over a million unique human beings. In such a population you’re bound to find some that would sell their own mother for a promo.

WEI is following Apple’s lead isn’t it? But unlike Apple, Google got pushback and abandoned it.

When it comes to GDPR, that’s even funnier. Most companies woke up in 2018 and looked for a way to brush this off. My org in Google was investing serious development (we’re talking engineer-years, don’t know how many) into GDPR compliance in 2015. And that’s not some superficial fronted tweak. I’m talking about adding data removal to analytical storage, something where first design assumption was that it has immutable append-only history.

Manifest v3… I don’t understand what are they trying to achieve.

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

#182

Post by lrem »

realusername wrote: post #125
lrem wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google is not known for respecting user privacy. As a Googler, I’m always confused by this sentiment. We live in times where car manufacturers reserve the right to collect and sell any data the car can sense, up to and including your sex life. But somehow Google does not sell or share any of your data with anyone, makes it public how it fights a lot of law enforcement overreach, even outright exits markets and suns…

> But somehow Google does not sell or share any of your data with anyone Well, except we know about PRISM, so it's not even a theory anymore. And all their ad system tapping into the user data is pretty creepy as well. I don't want to share any data to Google because of their poor track record and Google makes it as hard as humanely possible to not do that.

If PRISM is in your threat model… You can safely assume that any large enough US-affiliated web service, hardware and software manufacturer is in scope of something like this. Good luck evading.

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

#183

Post by woleium »

turquoisevar wrote: post #161
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

still my question remains, so what you give 8 days instead of actually really 12 days spent inside a country. will that affect your application?

There’s a threshold, you need to have been physically present in the US for 50% of the days of the year requirements. For example if you’re applying for citizenship based on the 5 year rule, then you must’ve been physically present for at least 30 months (913 days to be exact) in those 5 years prior to your application. 18 months (548 days) if you’re applying based on the 3 year rule as a spouse of a US citizen. So 8…

Also, it’s possible to leave the country on an unreported date, for example, if you sail across the atlantic.

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

#184

Post by anigbrowl »

londons_explore wrote: post #67
anigbrowl wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn it off on Android, I did so a few years ago. Although my phone has a perfectly good GPS receiver, Google really dislikes having it turned off and constantly pesters me to turn it back on when using their Map product.

I can kinda see why GPS working would be a core feature of a map product on a mobile device...

Sorry, I phrased that poorly. Google dislikes having google location services turned off (eg when requesting directions), although the phone has a perfectly good GPS receiver to figure out where it is currently. It's like they don't want to do any lookups unless they're allowed to store the data, so I find myself manually typing in a nearby address as my starting point to get directions.

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

#185

Post by gitaarik »

lrem wrote: post #103
shepherdjerred wrote: post #25

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.

> Google is not known for respecting user privacy. As a Googler, I’m always confused by this sentiment. We live in times where car manufacturers reserve the right to collect and sell any data the car can sense, up to and including your sex life. But somehow Google does not sell or share any of your data with anyone, makes it public how it fights a lot of law enforcement overreach, even outright exits markets and suns…

Maybe because it's the biggest advertisement company that continually hits the news regarding privacy issues, market position misuse, deceptive marketing, legal issues, etc?

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

#186

Post by amf12 »

dns_snek wrote: post #131
amf12 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google is trying to force through Web Environment Integrity which would eventually obliterate any remaining semblance of privacy on the web, How so?

Assuming good faith, the technology makes it possible for your browser, OS and hardware to attest that the website is running in a certain type of environment (e.g. not a bot/scraper) which could be trivially extended to attestations such as "No, this client isn't using an ad blocker". It takes even more control away from users by having their own hardware snitch on them. You can reference numerous previous discussio…

> attest that the website is running in a certain type of environment (e.g. not a bot/scraper)

> No, this client isn't using an ad blocker

Sure, but I still fail to see how it would "obliterate any remaining semblance of privacy on the web".

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

#187

Post by SoftTalker »

gruez wrote: post #43
hutzlibu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proofing you were not at a crime scene at a certain time. You disabled location saving - that's suspicious? /s More serious, if it would be my data under my control, it can be fun checking the past. Exploring where you travelled and when .. but that is kind of my buisness amd not googles. But since I use a android phone, they have it anyway.

>Proofing you were not at a crime scene at a certain time. You disabled location saving - that's suspicious? /s Having it enabled for years and then disabling it on the night your spouse went missing is suspicious. Having it disabled for years isn't.

In case you're in that situation, it's the job of the prosecutor to prove where you were if that is relevant to his case.

All that your phone data would support is a claim of where your phone was.

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

#190

Post by ffpip »

vore wrote: post #70
ffpip wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because they are not promising to not use it for tracking. They are just offloading the storage costs to you.

Do you actually want them to store everywhere you've ever been on their servers because they would be using their storage instead? Because I don't, and I don't care to guess what the actual reason might be, because I'm just glad they don't want to do it anymore because it's better for everyone – removing remote storage removes a whole host of privacy issues.

I don't. I turned off location tracking long ago.
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