Privacy @lemmy.ml floofloof @lemmy.ca 1y ago

Google will no longer hold onto people's location data in Google Maps — meaning it can't turn that info over to the police

www.businessinsider.com Google will no longer hold onto people's location data in Google Maps — meaning it can't turn that info over to the police

Google is making some changes in Google Maps that will increase user privacy.

59 comments

I’ll believe it when I see it.
- It will go to a 3rd party like meta first and then not be stored at google. That way google can’t turn that info over to the police
- And I’ll believe it when I see executives be punished personally for lying. If they are lying. Which hopefully they aren’t.
- And since there's no way for me to "see it", I don't believe it.
- I doubt it too
- Do you have a repository full of meme image you can embed in Lemmy?
  
  yeah, i have one
Just like that? No catch?
- I guess the catch is the fact that they don't really need it. They have real time location from any Android device anyways (because of that feature that sends the lists of wifi networks around you from time to time), no need to storage the timeline on their servers, it's only duplicate data. lol
  
  It was kinda cool for some things.
  
  Like seeing where I went on October 14, 2018.
  
  Or how many times I visited the "Steve's Spaghetti Store".
  
  Turn that off with (on pixel / aosp) Settings, Location, Location services, turn both to off.
  
  Seems unlikely, GPS data is far more accurate and lots of security minded m people turn off WiFi when away from home but still need gps when out and about
  
  Also Bluetooth scanning. Google trys to dark pattern you in to re-enabling them both, but maps will eventually use GPS if you cancel and try again.
  
  Is there a setting to turn this off?
- State to state, no papers?
  
  I think I will live in… Montana.
I actually use timeline. Does this mean it will no longer work on a browser?
- From your desktop browser? Probably. You'll still be able to use timeline from your phone though since the data is still being stored locally
- I thought the same thing, will be interesting to see if that can be done.
I'm not buying it.
- That means that you're the product
- What have google ever done to not trust them?
- It's believable. If 25% of the warrants they receive are for location data, there is a shed load of money to be saved by simply not storing it.
  
  Probably simple math, whether or not the stored location data is more valuable than the cost of legal compliance.
Maybe they don’t store it anymore, they just send it straight to the feds
- With the prism project ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM ) along with things like 641A ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A ), G doesn't need to send anything. The nsa is already swallowing it whole.
  
  Constitutional rights? You don’t need those
When big tech says they no longer need something, it means they have something even better. When they say they give you options, they mean dark patterns. Anytime you click 'Decline' it might as well be 'Accept all'. Rapist mentality of big corpos.
Personally, I use GPSLogger from FDroid on a 15 minute ping interval and then load the files into Location Map Viewer (also FDroid) for my own location tracking. Disabled Google awhile ago.

I back the files up to a home NAS.
- Have you heard of OwnTracks? It's a self hosted google timeline alternative.
  
  I hadn't! I'll check it out.
- Just curious, why do you feel the need to track your own movements?
  
  If you have ever lost something and had to retrace your steps it helps but I guess it's not super important or relatable for most people
  
  It's nice to have a sort of diary sometimes. My only practical application has been to sometimes check which times I arrive to and leave from work when I need to report my hours.
  
  I've used my location history to remember names of places I went to over a year ago, addresses I was given and expected to write down but forgot, confirm for myself I actually went and did something that I couldn't recall fully...
  
  It's great for someone with a shite memory.
  
  Looks like most of the existing replies captured my same use cases!
  
  There have also been a couple of times where my wife and I disagreed about what we did on X day and it's kind of nice to see who is right 😂
  
  I think I also just like the raw data. I also keep spreadsheets of my utility bills over time, for example, because it's weirdly fun to look back and see or compare.
  
  One thing I'd really love is a self-hosted all-day heart rate tracker, but have yet to stumble on such a thing.
- With that measure in place, what likelihood do you think Google still knows your location?
  
  4G masts can triangulate your location quite well based on signal strength and which post you're currently connected to so unless people are planning on removing their sim the government will always have decently accurate localization.
  
  100%
- That's actually a good idea, I might try it
Rare W for google if true. Will lool for sources.
Will the old data be removed from the Google servers?
Curious on the implementation. For example apps like signal and WhatsApp require you to either move or lose your data when you get a new phone. This will have to be the way Google implements or they are storing it somewhere on their servers.
- The aren’t storing it actively in something you can search at all times, but it’ll be in the “backups” and “restore” pieces still
I enjoyed having history in maps on all my devices.

Too bad they didn't just encrypt it.
- It’s not that simple. The user has to hold the key. And with cloud you want it to all be accessible from all of a users devices. And with a public service you can’t count on the user to be savvy enough to use their certificates.
  
  Of course the fix to that is that the key is stored in the account.
  
  But then Google has the key and can decrypt it.
  
  So then the key itself has to be encrypted. And with what? The users weak ass-password?
  
  All encryption has to begin with something that’s known, and the weaker that initial secret, the weaker the entire system below it.
Rare good guy Google?
I don't think people here realize that not holding on to is different from no longer processing the data for their own means... There's no doubt in my mind that Google just simply has no need to keep the old data around anymore once other processing like for ML models and ad targeting are completed

59 comments