Showing posts with label Google Maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Maps. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 7, 2023


Everything you do on Google Maps get sent back to Google's servers that allows them to learn more about you and, it turns out, that Google is tracking your movements even when you explicitly tell them not to.  There's an AP article titled, "Google Tracks Your Movements, Like It or Not," Ryan Nakashima, AP News, August 13, 2018.  For example Google Maps stores a snapshot of where you are every time you open the app it's so difficult to prevent your location from being tracked when you have Google apps installed.  "Google sued by multiple States over how it handles your location data," Sean Keane, CNET Tech, January 24, 2022.  That's a pretty good reason to not have any Google apps on your device including Google Maps. 

So what are your alternatives? Apple Maps is surprisingly good when it comes to privacy they don't collect personal information associated with your map usage and GPS tracking in their Maps app is something to opt in to rather than opt out of location services can be easily turned on information about routing traffic in nearby points of interest used to improve maps is all anonymized.  Apple has a process called "fuzzing."

2:46.  Where rather than requesting a specific route they send off multiple requests with multiple identifiers which helps hide where you're trying to go.  Apple doesn't store any information about where you where you've been or what you've been searching for personalized features in maps such as parked car like upcoming destinations are created using data generated on your device and stored on your device not sent off to Apple's servers for them to see and you can delete it at any time.

3:22. And any information that is sent out to an external server is disassociated from your Apple ID and anonymized.  One way they anonymize data is when you search a route, a random identifier is created and exists just for the duration of your navigation session.  This means the route isn't tied to your Apple ID or phone ID and is therefore not tied to you.  On top of that, after 24 hours Apple Maps converts your precise location to a less exact one.  Individual usage metrics are associated with a temporary identifier that rotates multiple times per hour and is not tied to your Apple ID there are no longer lived identifiers used to