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Comment by potatosoup | Hacker News Reader

Useful feature, yes, but I see this as a license to track locations of more people at all times. Also see: Uber's recent "always track" update

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So, I've got some bad news for you:

Google is already tracking your location all the time if you're in the market for this product. This just exposes that data for what seems like a very useful user feature.

I realized this (well, "realized"... I knew it, but it became very creepy) the other day, when my phone popped up a notification while I was in a restaurant, saying "enjoying <restaurant name>? Why not take some photos for people to see?" or something like that.

I've lately been getting into the habit of turning location services off unless I actually need them on, and I would recommend it. It's a shame my phone gets my location behind my back without any indication by default.

I actually really like answering the questions they'll give you sometimes about places you've been. Did that restaurant last night have a great cocktail selection? Was the store handicap accessible? Great info for people to be able to look up and it makes a lot of sense to crowd source, and is probably more reliable than reviews which are so heavily selected for people with extreme opinions.

You're lucky. A more creepy way of getting enlightened is having Google Now tell you, "I see you're at work, and it's about your usual time to head home. Traffic is heavy on the usual route, though, so it might take 15 minutes longer than normal."

(This all without you ever telling which location is your work and which is home.)

That's actually pretty awesome, tbh. I imagine you could turn off the location permission from Google Now if you don't like it.

Do you see an issue with this?

When it comes out of the blue, yes. It's a useful feature, but also very intrusive, and that should be gated on a very, very clear opt-in.

Isn't Google Now opt in to begin with? Doesn't it give you a huge EULA to read before you activate it?

It always has for me, and not in tiny-font or legal language either:

"To help you through your day, Google needs to: Use and store your location for traffic alerts, directions, and more. User your synced calendars, Gmail, Chrome, and Google data for reminders and other suggestions."

This topic does come up a lot here, and yet this is as direct and concise a way to put it as I can imagine. I wonder what those who have been surprised by the services they have opted into would suggest to improve their understanding of what they are potentially agreeing to?

Yes, it is opt-in, which is good. But I feel that for a casual user "use and store your location" doesn't fully get across the point that it's going to track your location in near real-time and make inferences like "this place is your home" about it.

And this is a general problem - people share all kinds of private information about themselves, without full understanding of the kind of analysis that is possible on that data these days.

I personally don't have a problem with the tech (and I've used Latitude way back, so it's not like any of it is new).

While I agree you shouldn't use Google now in the first place if you find it creepy... Or Android.

And if you're worried about being tracked in general, then mobile phone. That's the sad truth.

They're doing this based in wifi networks for the most part.

"location services" = wifi, GPS, and/or cell tower information. Bluetooth beacons may now be a part as well.

I usually have GPS and Wifi turned off when outside the house (and only Wifi on when at home).

I'm sure GCHQ can track me, but hopefully Google only gets minimal location data.

Hey! No politics!

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