The FA presents a good argument and as a consequence I deleted Google Maps and a few others. I also turned off Location Services for a few apps, notably WhatsApp. I'll try Apple Maps for awhile which in the Bay Area should be a low bar to clear. I'm also looking at OpenStreetMaps apps.
Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
101–110 of 247 posts
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#102Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe especially for medium sized cities (in big cities apple works fine but still a lot worse then google). For me it seems like fair exchange to give some data, for free and very good service that have no real competition :)
Apple Maps is even worse? Because in my pop 200k city (somewhat big for Germany), OSM has far better information already.
I think Germany is kinda special case in Europe (privacy laws etc) so google maps are probably a lot worse then in the rest of Europe :) [Never use google maps in Germany and i only visited Germany once in my live :)]
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#103What a tight rope this author has to walk. You want commute suggestions but you don’t want google to know where you live or work? I’ll bat for google on this one, the value I get from Gmaps vs the value they get from my data seems like a fair exchange. Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact.
you don’t even need bluetooth. there’s license plate readers on all highways which feed into traffic indicators on apps or those road signs that say how many minutes away places are
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
...not to mention they whip out a credit card to make every purchase. And let's not get started on what their ISP records.
I don't think succumbing to defeatism is the correct response to the gross privacy invasion. Take the victories where you can, and fight who you can.
I don’t see how voluntarily letting a service see your location is an invasion of privacy.
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#105I haven’t used Google maps since 2017. I started using Apple maps once they fixed their issues in California and took the stance on privacy.
I have never missed Google maps.
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down, where I was at a given time. So can Google. I'd love to have these features but the price is just too high. The price would be too high even if I trusted Google (which I don't), because every company that collects personal information will be hacked because no company is properly incentivised to protect users' data.
You know your phone service provider has that location information in resolution that’s almost as good, right? The only way to opt out is to turn your phone off (equivalently, leave it at home). For some people, the fact that google also knows it is no big deal. For some it is. But if you are worried about your whereabouts being leaked, how can you justify using a phone in the first place? Verizon and AT&T are more l…
You know that most people don’t have a choice in whether or not to have a cell phone, right?
Privacy fatalism helps no one. Demanding that someone who is concerned about their privacy to “justify” their situation — one which they have no practical way of opting out of - is victim blaming.
Some people don’t want to be tracked. Any steps they take to reach that state are valid. Absolute privacy is impossible in this dystopia we now inhabit —- much of which has been built by the people who frequent this board —- but these doesn’t make Google’s absolutely trash privacy practices any less egregious.
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#107i would be in a minority here but i use osmand+ on my phone. in my city, openstreetmaps is still in its infancy relatively speaking so what i do is, if i go somewhere and i see problem spots, wrong turn or missing road or a point, intersection or something. I just mark it and once home, i update the map for everyone. while this might not be for everyone. It is time consuming for me but i find this a good exercise for…
100% this spirit. I like how I can take an active role in my community helping with this kinda stuff. I ask business owners all sorts of missing details you can't add to the other maps. Some people have laughed when my maps are appear empty in some places, but when I show them how easy it was to meaningfully contribute and the aforementioned details, I hear comments of jealousy.
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#108Apple's driving coverage has been improving and is now as good as Google's in the SF Bay area. Google is still better at walking directions (especially involving building access), and I'm sure their coverage is superior globally. Apple doesn't support multi-point itineraries and doesn't have depart at / arrive by functionality, which can be very useful.
Apple has generally copied Google's mobile UI approach, which has been devolving for a few years now (2018 brought the large and useless bottom "explore" panel IIRC). Google's iOS app is almost impossible to use as an actual map now -- it's exceedingly difficult to pan, orient, or zoom to inspect things. Everything you do has to be part of some flow that somebody designed, while it flashes surveys at you. Trying to do anything else just bounces you between flows in a loop. It's become and idiot app to the point that I wonder how those involved sleep at night.
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#109What a tight rope this author has to walk. You want commute suggestions but you don’t want google to know where you live or work? I’ll bat for google on this one, the value I get from Gmaps vs the value they get from my data seems like a fair exchange. Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact.
> Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact. Can you say more about this? I've never heard of it.
Sure, here's the one I've had experience with: https://addinsight.com.au/
They put powerful bluetooth sensors on poles or in roadside cabinets. They're pretty cheap to deploy so have become widely used.
Pretty much if you have two bluetooth devices talking to each other, you can be tracked by your bluetooth mac address. (Same as wifi networks and sniffing with wireshark etc)
Or if you have a device pinging with a non-random mac (ie your car).
If you've got an iphone and it's not actively being used, you get a random mac, no problems.
Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps
#110Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe especially for medium sized cities (in big cities apple works fine but still a lot worse then google). For me it seems like fair exchange to give some data, for free and very good service that have no real competition :)
Yeah, the data on Apple Maps is just not good enough here. The opening hours are frequently just wrong and can’t be trusted. Part of the reason for that is they use Yelp as a data source which is pretty much non-existent here. If I look at a popular local restaurant on Apple Maps (one which has thousands of reviews on both Google and TripAdvisor) then the opening hours are just wrong and seemingly pulled from Yelp wh…
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