This is something new (& disturbing) that has surfaced. An investigation by news agency Associated Press (AP) has revealed that many Google services on Android devices & iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used a privacy setting that supposedly tells Google not to do so.
AP said in its report that computer science researchers at Princeton University, USA had confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.
Users can pause their Location History so that tracking comes to a temporary halt, yet, according to this study, that was not happening.
The pause is supposedly to stop Google from remembering where you’ve been. Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”
But despite this, said the AP report, some Google apps automatically stored time-stamped location data of users without asking. There’s a way to delete it but its time consuming & many of the users really are not made aware how to use it.
For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot — and save it to your Google account.
Google Android is used by over 2 billion people around the world, & this new privacy issue affects a majority of them.
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