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”.
I use it to make documentation easier for work. I have to log visit times, travel time and mileage for each patient I visit. So much easier to pull up the info of my phone after work than to remember to track miles and log time getting in and out of my car.
I refuse to believe this isn’t a problem easily solved by a separate app. Perhaps one that even logs to your device only for some additional security.
Well, there is a “solution” in the works. It’s currently not required for my position and will only initially apply to Medicare (or Medicaid - don’t recall which) patients.
The hospital provides field staff with cell phones. There’s an app we’re just getting training on that will time stamp our visits, travel, and mileage, as well as track GPS for verification of visits. It will also flag and ask for clarification if travel time exceeds expectation.
Currently we self report, so if I stop at McDonald’s because I have to pee, it’s nobodies business. Many of my coworkers are less than thrilled with the new app (honestly most aren’t that fond of tech or changes to begin with) even though management is attempting to reassure that they’re really not intending to track us, it’s just for patient verification (for the very small percentage of patients it applies to.)
As much as I’m careful about Google keeping my data, I have to recognize that this has helped a friend tremendously. He was separated from his ex, she had left with their daughter, and he was trying to get split custody. She testified he was a deadbeat dad, and she put it in writing that he had never been to pick up their daughter at school, never taken her to her regular weekend club activities, etc.
He reached out to me asking if his location history could help prove she was full of shit. It took me an hour or so to figure out the right way to process the data, but then I was able to give him a detailed list of dates and times he had been to his daughter’s school, poney club, etc. His lawyer attached that to their rebuttal. I like to think it made a significant difference. He did get joint custody in the end.
I like to see how many miles I drove for work everyi month. I drove 2400 miles so far in December
Or creepy, because others see your timeline too.
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
GPS by itself is actually less accurate than whatever magic location composite Google does.
No, this is not true in general, but especially with newer devices compatible with several satellite constellations and frequency bands. Also, it’s more autonomous.
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.
Even Apple is now doing that thing where they’ll re-enable both after a while.
im sure they have something, to be discarding data like this?
some big catch
Is there a setting to turn this off?
No, your only option would be to move to something like GrapheneOS if you can. Note that other alternativa ROMs like Calyx will also share some location data with some companies.
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.
Me too. This is a useful feature I actually chose to opt Into.
It’s not like Google won’t still do the same data processing on you and attempt to work out where you live/work. They just can’t be bothered to store that data for you anymore long-term.
I’m not buying it.
That means that you’re the product
Sure…but, they’re still going to profile you based on your location… only now they’ve removed the part where you got to use (and control) that data too.
What have google ever done to not trust them?
Gestures towards the entirety of their business decisions since inception
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.
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.
In this case it’s because they would prefer not to have to deal with subpoenas (is that the plural of a subpoena?) from law enforcement.
Although it is very possible it’s also because they have something better as you say.‘dark patterns’?
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
Rights? You don’t need those
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
Ah, makes sense, that’s a use case I hadn’t thought of.
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.
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.
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.
One thing I’d really love is a self-hosted all-day heart rate tracker, but have yet to stumble on such a thing.
Using a Gadgetbridge-compatible device with Gadgetbridge? I use a Xiaomi Mi Band 7 for that purpose. Needs an initial connection to the Xiaomi-servers in order to extract a key, but you can do this with an account with a throwaway e-mail address, and after that you delete the app and pair it with Gadgetbridge. I sync data after a workout or once every two-three days, but you should also be able to keep it connected via Bluetooth all the time if you like that.
I used it to record field surveys and banking them up immediately to a Nextcloud server, for example.
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.
I would imagine without the sim, they could still get the location considering emergency calling would work.
Probably would use the IMEI at that point.
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.
Somehow I doubt that’s true…
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
I think you are exactly right.
Google will still track you at all times and profile you and advertise and know where you live. They just aren’t going to share that data with you anymore.
Many people find the feature quite useful, clearly including law enforcement.
We can’t have nice things anymore unless you subscribe to a specific app. I really miss the optimism of old Google and early internet.
Google anyway know your location with it’s services and in Android. The police don’t need to ask Google, if they need, they’ll ask your ISP.
