I recently upgraded to Android 5.1 on my Nexus 10. One app I often use is Google Maps. This has a "show my location" button:
When I clicked on this I got the following dialog box:
Notice that I have two options: I either agree to let Google track me, or I cancel the request. There is no "just show my location" option.
As a matter of principle, I don't want Google to be tracking me. I'm aware that Google can offer me all sorts of useful services if I just let it know every little detail of my life, but I prefer to do without them. But now it seems that zooming in on my GPS-derived location has been added to the list of features I can't have. There is no technical reason for this; it didn't used to be the case. But Google has decided that as the price for looking at the map of where I am, I now have to tell them where I am all the time.
I'm aware that of course my cellphone company knows roughly where I am and who I talk to, and my ISP knows which websites I visit and can see my email (although unlike GMail I don't think they derive any information about me from the contents), and of course Google knows what I search for. But I can at least keep that information compartmentalised in different companies. I suspect that the power of personal data increases non-linearly with the volume and scope, so having one company know where I am and another company read my email means less loss of privacy than putting both location and email in the same pot.
Hey, Google, stop being evil!
Update: 20th April 2015
A few days ago a new update to the Google Maps app got pushed, and its now no longer demanding I let Google track me. In fact the offending dialogue box has now been replaced by one with a "No, and stop pestering me" option, so this is an improvement on what they had before.
Way to go, Google!
3 comments:
Solution is simple: use OpenStreetMap. There’s also an app for them.
Actually I have the full version of OSM+, which I use for navigation while driving. But its address database is poor and it doesn't have the aerial photographs, StreetView integration and real-time traffic data.
maybe you can use the microg unified location provider and some of its backends and disable the google location services with the disableservice app
That way you can still get your location fast (without the use of GPS) and not be tracked by Google.
The google location tracking is much faster, though.
https://github.com/microg/
Post a Comment