Google always knows your location. Turn off these settings to stop it

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

If you are using any Google app, it's likely you're being tracked. Even if you turned off location history on your Google account, you're not completely in the clear yet. While disabling that setting sounds like a one-and-done solution, some Google apps are still storing your location data. Just opening the Google Maps app or using Google search on any platform logs your approximate location with a time stamp.

Following a 2018 investigation by the Associated Press, however, Google has made it easier to control what location and other data is saved, and what is deleted with features like Your Data in Maps and Search, which give you quick access to your location controls. You just have to know where to look.

Turning off location history only removes where you've been from the Google Maps Timeline feature, which logs your location with certain data at a specific time. Google's support page on the matter says that even when turned off, "some location data may continue to be saved in other settings," like your web and app activity. Google told us that it uses this data to make features more personalized and helpful, and that this information is never shared with third parties or advertisers. But if you still aren't comfortable with that, with a few more steps, you can generally stop Google from knowing where you are 24/7.

Just note that turning off this default setting does have some drawbacks. While Google's settings may seem intrusive to some, they also help cultivate an ultra-personalized online experience, such as helping people find nearby businesses instead of in another city, or seeing personalized ads. They help give users more relevant information instead of random information, according to Google.

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/google-always-knows-your-location-turn-off-these-settings-to-stop-it/ar-AAM5YFv

[48656c6c6f20]

1. This is not a Google specific issue.

To be safe from tracking take phone by the ends, use force to snap it in two. Problem solved.

Additionally this could be an alternative albeit not satellite proof.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_can_telephone

[Srkdqltr]

2. Google sends me email each month telling me where I have been

In case I need an alibi.

[PTWB]

3. What's the negative of them having your location?

[DFW]

4. I would think

The biggest negative is their ability to give it to whomever they want to or will pay to know, and at their sole discretion.

It's one of the reasons my wife and I use cash whenever we can to pay for things. It's not government's business, Google's business or some mafia's business to know everything we spend money on, how much, where and when.

[PTWB]

6. I suspect I am not that interesting.

No one covert government office or mafia enforcer is going to pay for my location. I suspect the worst burden I’ll face is targeted, relevant advertising.

I use credit cards for everything because they’re more secure than cash and the cash back rewards are enticing. I get 6% back on groceries, 3% back on gas, and 1.5% back on everything else.

[DFW]

7. We never know

And we don't want unknown parties to have the option, either.

Just because we don't think we're interesting doesn't mean someone else doesn't think so. Look how many people have been killed by cops raiding the wrong house because they had incorrect information. Information, once out there, doesn't have to be correct in order to harm you. In fact it has been shown it can harm you if it is incorrect, and you never know until it's too late. We would prefer they didn't have the option.

[PTWB]

8. I'm not sure I agree.

I suspect someone paying cash for everything be trying to stay off grid and off their radar will draw far more suspicion than someone whose financial life and location are an open book, so to speak.

[DFW]

10. That would depend on how many people do it.

As long as paying cash is not associated with a name or an identity, it remains anonymous. Obviously if you pay for a hotel room or a car with cash, you are defeating the purpose. But meals, simple local transportation, stops at cafés, getting gas, grocery shopping, public transportation, etc., are matters that fall under most radar. The East Germans drowned in the information their control-freak state accumulated on their citizenry, and they could only concentrate on high-profile dissidents. The Stasi just didn't have the manpower to check on everyone they wanted to in a timely manner. Thirty-plus years later, the tracking technology is far more sophisticated. I see no need to help them out. Let someone else go yell "Heil Honecker."

[MOMFUDSKI]

13. Which credit card do you have

giving you back these numbers?

[PTWB]

14. The gas / groceries card is the American Express Blue Cash Preferred.

The general 1.5% on everything is the Capital One quicksilver. There are better all-purpose cards out there I believe, but it's been a while since I went credit card shopping.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/credit-cards/american-express-blue-cash-preferred

I pay my balance in full every month (and thus never pay interest) so the cash back and consumer protection is a pure win / win.

[greenjar_01]

9. I'm with you...who cares?

I live a boring life. Why am I involved in some wacky ass tradecraft?



Guess what? I'm at home, at work, at the grocery store, or at my kids sports games. Once in a while at the local bar.

That's it. Now you know as much as Google!

[padfun]

5. I HAVE to have it on to bet online

I play daily fantasy sports and bet every day. It checks your location every time you make a bet.
So, I need it on.

[Klaralven]

11. Faraday bags

Put our phone in one of these and never take it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Darkness-Non-Window-Faraday-Phones/dp/B01A7MACL2/ref=sr_1_5

[Raine]

15. Interesting ... Thanks for the link! 👍 nt

[MineralMan]

12. I can't imagine why I'd turn location services off, really.

I use Google maps in my car with Android Auto. When I do searches, Google shows me local results, because it knows where I'm located.

I remain unconcerned with a search engine company knowing where I am. Why would I give a damn?

[Klaralven]

16. So you're not visiting the apartment of your mistress?

I think that sex is the biggest reason for concern about privacy.

[MineralMan]

17. Highly unlikely!

Haven't had one of those in decades. Even then, she was my girlfriend, not my mistress.