51–60 of 166 posts
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Holy shit. So my paranoia about turning off Google location tracking was completely well-founded, and way more quickly than I would have hoped. GDPR can't come soon enough...
Now sit back and think about what else people get called paranoid for.
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>Google stores location history data for more of its mobile users than you might expect What do you mean by this?
You don't have to be using Maps or an app that obviously uses location for Google to be collecting location related information. I have no idea when they do or don't but I'd bet people would be surprised if they found that the gmail app was relaying their location to Google. On the other hand few wouuld be surprised at all if you told them the maps app was sending their location.
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Arguably, this leaks everyones data. Anyone who was not in the area will be excluded from the list, therefore letting the police know where I wasn't at the time. I wonder how Google show that on their transparency report? Hopefully "Accounts searched: 1.5 Billion"
> Anyone who was not in the area will be excluded from the list, therefore letting the police know where I wasn't at the time. No, at best this only shows that your google linked device (presumably a phone) did not have location information for that area at the specific time. Alternatively it suggests the device could have been switched off/disconnected from the network to hide your presence - making you really a sus…
This seems to me to be a major revelation: police in North Carolina have successfully requested Google account information on all phones near a crime scene. While Google routinely responds to search warrants, this is a much broader type of data request.
For example, Sparkfun received a subpoena[0] once and they ended up having to turn over customer details of anyone from Georgia who purchased a particular Sparkfun product that was used in some crime.
Another example, we've all seen movies or heard where someone sees a vehicle that flees the scene of the crime and they knew the make and color or the first few digits of the plate but not enough to identify the vehicle so they go and pull all DMV records matching the vague description and use those leads to narrow things down from there.
This Google thing is really the same thing in this case they have a vague description of a person and a narrow time period and area in which to search. They also are getting a warrant. Seems like an application of an old technique to modern technology.
This is an important story, but a little difficult to summarize. Here's my attempt at an overview: 1. Google stores location history data for more of its mobile users than you might expect. The precision is greatest when GPS is on, but less precise data from cell towers and WiFi sources is used almost any time a Google app is being used on an Android or non-Android phone. There have been cases in the past where Googl…
Holy shit. So my paranoia about turning off Google location tracking was completely well-founded, and way more quickly than I would have hoped. GDPR can't come soon enough...
My main reason is to squash the annoying notifications about "heavy traffic in your area" at 5:00pm. Yeah, I would never have guessed...
In principle and with some caveats, I support this use of tracking information: it's usually quite specific, it has a very positive efect for law enforcement, it's not a breach of fundamental rights of the suspect as confirmation of the physical location at a certain time is not secret and can be obtained by the police from CCTV cameras, eyewitnesses etc. The privacy of the bystanders is not significantly reduced if…
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I can't imagine them managing the overwhelming temptations to quietly abuse the data, especially as time goes on.
Edit: I realize this is a crude analogy that glosses over a lot of important details, but it gets at the heart of my intuition on the matter. The lack of restraints found in the child-candy system seems to mirror very well the weakness of restraints found in the dynamics between government apparatuses and fancy tools.
For many tools, this is fine. But I'm worried about the long tail risks and externalities of large-scale privacy destroying tools.
I don't think this is exclusively an issue with government organizations. However, in America they are the only organization with the ability to forcefully restrict the actions of individuals and groups. So extreme vigilance is required to balance out this immense power. If a random company overuses a fancy tool, the potential damages are more limited.
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You don't have to be using Maps or an app that obviously uses location for Google to be collecting location related information. I have no idea when they do or don't but I'd bet people would be surprised if they found that the gmail app was relaying their location to Google. On the other hand few wouuld be surprised at all if you told them the maps app was sending their location.
No idea if this is true, but could be for security. If you log in to Gmail in Des Moines and then an hour later from Moldavia, something might be up.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't have to be using Maps or an app that obviously uses location for Google to be collecting location related information. I have no idea when they do or don't but I'd bet people would be surprised if they found that the gmail app was relaying their location to Google. On the other hand few wouuld be surprised at all if you told them the maps app was sending their location.
No idea if this is true, but could be for security. If you log in to Gmail in Des Moines and then an hour later from Moldavia, something might be up.
This seems to me to be a major revelation: police in North Carolina have successfully requested Google account information on all phones near a crime scene. While Google routinely responds to search warrants, this is a much broader type of data request.
Police have used this sort of investigative technique for ages this is just an instance of it being applied to Google and phones. For example, Sparkfun received a subpoena[0] once and they ended up having to turn over customer details of anyone from Georgia who purchased a particular Sparkfun product that was used in some crime. Another example, we've all seen movies or heard where someone sees a vehicle that flees t…
This is an important story, but a little difficult to summarize. Here's my attempt at an overview: 1. Google stores location history data for more of its mobile users than you might expect. The precision is greatest when GPS is on, but less precise data from cell towers and WiFi sources is used almost any time a Google app is being used on an Android or non-Android phone. There have been cases in the past where Googl…