Then don't turn it on. It's completely optional.
Rooting and install another Android OS is no easy task for a normie and comes with it's own maintenance baggage. And even then you have to install Google's proprietary software to even use the App Store.
A phone without the app store is a no-go for 99% of people.
The solution is allow the customers the option to "turn it on" (especially after they pay $300-900 for a phone) rather than being omnipresent.
"Location History is not on by default. Google prompts users to enable it when they are setting up certain services — traffic alerts in Google Maps, for example, or group images tied to location in Google Photos.'
Maybe you don't remember it, but you can look at old version of Android and they all ask very clearly if you want it or not.
I guess maybe you didn't understand what was implied? But it was definitely asked.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/433742-google-takes-he...
It's been stretched by media to make it sound nefarious, but no one has shown that they're actually sending location data when history is disabled and you're not using maps.
The only thing location history toggles is whether your location data is branched off to the location history product line. It does not toggle the existence of that data or the fact that it's archived at several other points.
Take the time to watch the congress hearing and note the very carefully worded answers and why they are worded that way.
Ultimately though, you're still not getting around being tracked, your cell provider collects that location data even if Google doesn't. Just having a cell phone and a SIM puts you in a pretty awful state privacy wise.
> For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app
Yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. In order to download map tiles around you, show nearby stuff, traffic, etc they need to know where you are. So yes, that means they get your location.
But that has nothing to do with the sort of periodic background location reporting used in Location History that people are concerned about. Disabling Location History and not using Maps or other Google location based apps or APIs means they won't get your location.
Also note that there's no mention of play store access, phone calls or any other sorts of usages which seem like they shouldn't ask for location in that article.
They make a bit of a big deal about searching for "chocolate chip cookies" not requiring localized results, but from a technical perspective I think it's obvious that they just send it with the request regardless, they don't know . Trivial to disable if you don't want that though. In fact, both this an the Maps example will happen even on iOS devices as the article points out.
When I said I found those claims exaggerated last time I looked into it, this is exactly what I meant. They must get a lot of clicks by making this stuff out to be more nefarious.
Which is impossible unless you don't use the phone at all, hence the 3 hour long congressional hearing[1]. Turn off location history, turn off location services, it doesn't matter, your location tracks are being logged.
I'm not sure what you're trying to argue about since you seem agree with the premise. You think the news outlets exaggerated the fact that Google grossly underplayed the language around their always-on tracking and mislead hundreds of millions of users into thinking they're not being tracked when they in fact were? Okay then.
Achieving this on an Android device isn't impossible by any means: deny location to all apps and those apps won't be able to call the Google Fused Location API. If you want location without using Google's API, allow only select apps which use direct on-device GPS access, it's readily available in the Android API without the need to pull in the Google Play Location Services package.
Yes, there's literally a button you can press. No rooting, no reflashing necessary.
Google Account -> Data & Personlization -> Location History
Done. In fact, as is mentioned in this article even, Google explicitly alerts you when you first enable it and allows you to opt out of it.
Once you've done this, the only time Google will get your location is if you use Maps or Location API services.