Google knows a lot about you and, if you use Google Maps or other Google apps, it stores a copy of everywhere you go. I recently performed Google’s “Privacy Checkup” to learn a bit more about what it knows about me, and was pretty surprised at the level of detail it had on my exact locations.
I picked a random date: April 16, 2019. It knew everywhere I went, including that I took Interstate 95 to our office in northern New Jersey and that I arrived at 7:58 a.m. It knew that at 1:02 p.m. I drove to Jersey City and took a train in to Manhattan to the New York Stock Exchange before returning home at 4:38 p.m. And it has a copy of the pictures I took at each location.
It’s a creepy level of detail.
Google says it uses location history to “create a private map of where you go with your signed-in devices even when you aren’t using a specific Google service.” It also says the “map is only visible to you.” The data, it says, provides “improved map searches and commute routes, as well as helping you to rediscover the places you’ve been and the routes you’ve traveled.”
I don’t really care about that information. I know the roads I drove on April 16, and I can’t see any reason why Google should store it, even if it’s only for my use. I never know who might be able to access that data, even if Google promises it’s private.
You can stop Google from storing your location history and delete what it has already stored. Here’s how.
To delete your history, do this:
- Tap the settings button on the “Location History” map.
- Select “Delete all location history.”
That’s not it, though.
Google will continue tracking your location unless you also turn off a separate “Web & App Activity” tracker. Google says it tracks your location from apps to provide “better recommendations, and more personalized experiences in Maps, Search, and other Google services.”
To turn off web and app activity, do this:
- Go to myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
- Turn off the “Web & Activity” toggle.
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So I realize that y’all think I’m nuts, but for sure this is not going to work. Google will track you even if the phone is off. You certainly can’t do anything that would corrupt the amount of data that they need to make you a worthwhile product, and that is what you are. Even when the phone appears to be off it is still transferring data on your activities to the mother ship. If you don’t want them to track you then you can’t have a cell phone.
And by the way, they track all of the cell phones. If you can receive a cell phone signal then you can be tracked through the cell towers and the local wifi in the places that you visit and all of that is happening whether the phone is on or off.
Oh, and you can’t buy a phone that doesn’t track you. They are all digital now and all digital phones can be tracked.
You can absolutely wrap the phone in metal foil or place it in a metal box. That will stop it completely. No signal in or out. I do this when I sleep, place it in an aluminum foil lined box while charging. Go ahead test it, no calls get through.
I carry a flip phone, the battery comes out when I want it to. The fact of the matter is unless you only use a landline, ride a bicycle for transportation and use the public library for the internet, (even then no guarantee) you are always tracked.
Google’s Infinite Reach – How Google Builds a Profile on Everyone
Google knows you even if you don’t use Google.
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/04/googles-infinite-reach-how-google-builds-a-profile-on-everyone/
The author asks: “I can’t see any reason why Google should store it”; the reason is so when they want to come after you they know exactly where you are.
i rarely do more then talk/text so i don’t care much about fancy phones–my wife on the other hand uses the hell out of her phone & likes better & better phones so when one of our phones goes bad & we have to get a new phone i let her take the new phone & i take the old one–
a couple of months ago my phone went bad & we got her a new phone & i took hers–she had google on her phone & they constantly tracked her–every time we went somewhere i was being asked to rate where i had been or suggest this or that,etc.–
i don’t know if people actually read the replies or if they just have an extremely sophisticated algorithm/search engine but once i finally made a reply i have never had another request 4 info–
we have 2 long private driveways on our property but they look like the typical shell road you’ll see out in the country–
i received a request just as soon as i turned off the hardtop onto my road for the name of the street–i said what the hell,let me throw something at them,so i sent back pussy wallow road–
good link there ,jack–here’s another one from the same site–
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/04/how-to-use-a-freedombox-to-regain-control-of-your-online-privacy/