TECH

Google crawls where you really go with deleted location history
When a user chooses to pause the Google location data tracking in the "Location History", the search giant is still collecting and storing such information. It is almost a trick of illusion, enough to make those who care about security and privacy take more drastic measures.Following a post from K. Shankari, a researcher at the University of Berkeley, Associated Pressdecidiu verify what exactly to do to disable the recording of your location history when you use Google products. The news agency has found that user controls can be very confusing if you're not paying attention.All Google apps have an option to disable tracking and storage of your location data one way or another. You can go into a maze of own data, search history, ad settings and more things in the privacy controls management hub.The easiest way to adjust location preferences is to go to the activity controls using a browser - it can be on a computer or a mobile phone. You will see various types of activity traces with power buttons. One is "Location History." Apparently, this should be the obvious setup for whoever Google stops remembering the times it has followed its movements around the world.
But that is not enough. Based on the category and the description, it is entirely understandable that anyone believing that turning this off is enough to protect their location information. In fact, the Google Support for Location History page says just this: "With Location History turned off, the places you go to are no longer stored."
In fact, this is not quite what happens. This setting only causes Google to stop placing your location data in a visual timeline, based on your interactions with services. To make the company stop storing places you've been while using your various apps, you need to pause the setting called "Web & Apps Activity."
The description of this preference might make you believe it has more to do with custom search results. However, the same option also controls the tracking of location data that, associated with some searches, may show more accurate advertisements when you look for something like "chocolate cookies".You can find here for detailed instructions on how to delete the full history stored by Google. After going to "My activity" and "Delete activity by", the process is very self-explanatory.The AP approached Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton-trained computer scientist and former chief technology officer of the FCC's executive office, to make sure his understanding of Google's practices was correct. Mayer placed one of his postdoctoral researchers, Gunes Acar, to travel around New York taking a phone with paused Location History. After that, he uploaded a map of the activities that were recorded.
Mayer told the AP that he thinks what Google is doing is wrong. "If you allow the user to turn off something called 'Location History', this should turn off all things that record a location history."

But the truth is that an analysis of Princeton researchers and direct evidence is not so necessary. Google itself admits that this is how the system works. A spokesman told the AP:There are several different ways Google can use location to improve the user experience, including Location History, Web and Apps Activity, and Location-level Services at the device level. We provide clear descriptions and robust controls on these tools. Thus, people can turn on or off as well as deleting their histories at any time.

"Clear descriptions" and "robust controls" are the central phrases here. Google has a lot of controls, menus, explanations, pop-ups, terms of service and privacy policies throughout all of its products. It's objectively confusing.When I did a review of what Google was collecting about us and tried to disable all of the location history using an iPhone, my experience was quite different from that of the AP.They received a popup that reads "None of your Google apps will be able to store location data in Location History - a sneaky message, which is technically true.
We saw a longer notice, which was slightly clearer about Google's intentions to continue collecting location data. It may be simply because we access the controls by a different method than the AP used in their tests. But the question remains: this should not be so confusing.Wanted on the subject, Google sent the following statement to Gizmodo:Location History is a Google product that is entirely optional, and users have controls to edit and delete information or turn it off at any time. As a matter of fact, we ensure that users of the feature know that by disabling the product, we continue to use the location to enhance the Google experience by doing things like searches or routes.It is not a pioneering discovery, made by a denunciation or a denunciation. It is basically a practice that was hidden right in front of our eyes. It was enough to pay more attention, and hardly anyone did it. And, let's face it, it should not be necessary to be so attentive.


Gizmodo.com