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Google Maps is ditching cloud-based location history for a more private solution
Your location history will be stored locally on your device going forward, but you can still opt for an end-to-end-encrypted backup
It's no secret that Google Maps keeps tabs on your every move with its Timeline feature, which logs all your pit stops and the routes you take. As long as you're signed in to your Google account with Location History enabled (it's off by default), Google collects all this juicy information and secures it in the cloud, promising it's encrypted. But if you're the paranoid type, the company will soon give you the option to stash your trips directly on your device.
Google Opinion Rewards gets a new background location onboarding UI
Precise background location access could supplement Google Location History
For Android users with Google Location HIstory enabled, the Google Opinion Rewards app is a no-brainer — just answer a couple questions and get money to spend on apps and games in the Play Store. Opinion Rewards uses various sources to find relevant surveys to give you, with your Google Search history and the account-based Google Location History being the main two. Now, it appears there will be another option.
Google's making Location History better at automatically deleting visits to sensitive destinations
Just in case you don't want anyone stumbling across your private appointments
Your smartphone is a lot of things, including a super-powered location tracker that puts even an AirTag to shame. That's why it's so important to take the management of location data seriously. Google already keeps your account's Location History off by default, and last year it announced some additional protections for users who do opt in to use it, like automatically forgetting about trips to sensitive medical destinations. Today Google's revisiting that discussion, offering some new insight into this system and how it operates.
How to hack a GPS into your DSLR camera using Google Photos
Make sure your camera's clock is set correctly, though
It's almost shocking the extent to which smartphones have replaced dedicated cameras in many of our lives. Between the advanced optics, next-level image processing, and being able to share pics with just a couple taps, who would ever dream about lugging around an old-fashioned point-and-shoot digicam? But for as far we've come, there's still a lot of appeal in larger, more flexible cameras, with their big sensors and interchangeable lenses. As it turns out, you can use your phone to bring a little bit of extra smarts to even a dumb DSLR, helping to modernize your Google Photos pics with GPS info.
Google shares new privacy-focused features, including a guest mode for Assistant
Plus a cool new security alert that shows up where you're most likely to see it
In the coming weeks, this new way of interacting with Google Assistant will debut on home devices like the Nest Hub and Nest Audio. Guest mode can be activated or deactivated with a quick voice command. While the setting is enabled, none of your interactions with Assistant will be saved or recorded, and personalization features will be disabled. This could be the default mode on those Nest smart displays in hotels. Basically, it's like incognito mode on Chrome, but for voice interactions on Assistant devices.
How to use Google Maps incognito mode on Android in four easy steps
Search for local hotspots while protecting your privacy
Incognito mode for Google Maps has been around since late last year, but if you haven't gone looking for it in recent months, you likely haven't noticed it was even there. For whatever reasons you may want to duck under the cloak of privacy, we'll show you exactly how to go incognito within Google Maps.
New Google accounts will have stronger default location and web privacy settings
Modern history apparently now only lasts 18 months
Last year, Google users could start limiting how long the company could hold on to their activity on apps, the web, and with location logging. But from today, the company will turn on these so-called auto-delete controls by default when people create new accounts and use its services. This is but one of a slew of changes it is making to improve user comfort on its platform.
Google will fix Maps Timeline's disappearing location history
Your data is still there even if you can't see it right now, and it should be fixed in the next couple of days
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Google Maps' Timeline feature might seem a little creepy if you're especially privacy-conscious — and you can turn off the Location History it uses if you are — but it's also tremendously useful, giving you a full timeline with maps showing all your movements. In fact, some folks depend on it for more than just novelty or tracking down that nice-looking restaurant they drove past the other day, many use it as a tool for logging miles and billing. Unfortunately, there have been several reports in the last few days of that location data entirely disappearing in Google's Timeline tool, though a fix is coming soon.
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Human memory is a funny thing. You'll never be able to forget that time you embarrassed yourself in fifth grade, but you probably can't remember where you had lunch a few weeks ago. Google Maps can help with the latter. Your Maps Timeline remembers everywhere you go, but what if you want to remove some locations? That's about to get easier with bulk deletion support.
Google Maps can show you what movies you saw in theaters, as if you needed a reminder right now
It'll probably come useful after quarantine, though
Google Maps has a creepy handy timeline feature that allows you to review where you've been. The latter is already integrated with Photos, allowing you to see pictures you've taken at a specific location. It's now gaining extra functionality, which can remind you what movie you've seen when you've visited a theater.
One of the biggest concerns in our modern online era is privacy — that is, how much you want certain corporations to know about your web habits, app usage, and location data. Some people don't care, others go to extreme lengths to remain anonymous online, and the rest of us fall in the middle. One of the more common concerns is with Google and its nigh monopoly on search and other online products, not to mention how much it knows about us. So to assuage user worries, the search giant is introducing auto-delete controls for location history and web/app activity logs.
It's been a bad year for data privacy — though it might be more accurate to say it's been a bad year for blissful ignorance. User data privacy issues are suddenly erupting into the spotlight after bubbling under the surface for years. While Facebook provided the most scandal fodder so far this year, Google hasn't been immune. One issue that gained widespread attention was its misleading representation of how Location History tracking works. After changing the wording on its support page in August, the company has now once more edited the page, moving to a description that is technically correct, but slightly more vague than its original fix.
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Google's location-tracking practices endured a new wave of scrutiny at the start of this week thanks to an investigation by The Associated Press, which put some meat on the bones of suspicion many users have harbored for a while now. By week's end, Google updated some language on the help page for its Location History setting, though its tracking policies remain largely unintelligible for the everyday consumer. And to be clear, the company has not changed anything about how it actually tracks the location of its users.
Gathering location data just became trickier for authorities. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that accessing a suspect's cell phone location history should require a warrant. The decision came at the end of Carpenter v. United States, the first case about location data the Supreme Court has ruled on.
Google really wants the snapshots you take to have as much contextual information associated with them as possible. So much, in fact, the the Google Photos app can dip into your phone's location history (not just the GPS or other location data supplied by the camera app at the time of the shot) to tag it. At least one Android Police reader noticed that some of his photos had been amended with location data, despite the fact that he says he never turned the Save Location option on in the camera app.
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The app updates from the last week seem to be all about where you are, where you've been, and where you're going. It has only been a few days since Google Play services 7.8 began rolling out with a couple of location-related bits hidden inside, and now a new version of Maps is hitting the scene with a host of new features centered around our location history. We can now look back through the places we've visited, when we were last at certain spots, and the routes we've taken. There are also a couple of new personalization features that will make our favorite spots a little more accessible.
Google Now is pretty amazing, and it just keeps getting better as Google finds new ways to expose knowledge from its massive data repository. It's hard not to become addicted to everything that Now can offer. But what if you just got your hands on Google's latest flagship phone, went through the setup process, and then discovered Google Now doesn't work? Not only have some Nexus 5 owners had this experience, a few of them have even seen Google Now stop working across all of their other devices.
[Update: It's Live!] Google Maps Is About To Get An Update To v6.10, Adds A Ton Of New Public Transit Info And Features
It's not quite live yet, but Google would like you to know that Google Maps 6.10 is on its way to handsets by the end of the day. "What's new for me, the
It's not quite live yet, but Google would like you to know that Google Maps 6.10 is on its way to handsets by the end of the day. "What's new for me, the public transit user?" I hear you ask. Quite a bit, in fact! First off, Google has announced that it now has data on more than one million transit stops worldwide, spread throughout almost 500 cities. In an effort to make that information more usable, the Transit Lines map layer can now me narrowed down to a single method of transportation. Um. Yes please.