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Comment by crikeyjoe | Hacker News Reader

Wait, what? They were saving it all before?

They have been saving it for years. How do you think they give so much away for free? By selling the information they collect.

When you say selling the information , do you mean actually selling the information or selling ad slots to target specific people/groups based on data.

Would it be overly cynical to say that I assume they'll do whichever gets them the most money?

Within reason. Data is valuable. You make far more money gathering data, keeping it private but selling the ability to advertise against that data , than outright selling it. Think of it as “Data-As-A-Service”. Your data loses value if you’re just outright selling it.

That's the juiciest data they can get, why wouldn't they?

If you pushed the consent button when prompted on your Android phone, yes.

It is not as easy or silent as you are implying. If you enable Location History you get a monthly email reminding you that it is enabled, with a link at the top of the email to go turn it off if you want.

Google Maps won't let you set a home or work location without enabling location history. It's bullshit tying.

False. Prove it to yourself. Visit https://timeline.google.com/ to verify that it is off, or to turn it off. Now go to https://www.google.com/maps/ , click menu → Your places → Labeled to see your home and work, or to add one.

He might have web and app activity off, as everyone should...

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3093979?hl=en&co=GENI...

Fix problems with home and work in Maps

To use home and work when you search or use directions, you must turn on Web & App Activity. If you can't find home and work in Maps, learn how to turn on Web & App Activity.

Oddly enough, I do have "Web & App Activity" disabled (everything disabled except YouTube history to sync watch progress across devices), yet I'm still able to register a home address and ask the Maps Android app to route to it.

...I wish you could delete YouTube history on a 1-week basis, yet Google only allows you to delete it after 3 months at minimum. More tying.

This was definitely the case as of ~1 year ago, in the Google Maps Android map. It appears to no longer be the case on the web or Android interface now. I'm glad Google has stopped doing it, but at this point my trust in cloud services has been spent and I won't be adding my home address or enabling location history (until I travel enough to make it helpful for direction-finding).

Another creepy incident that's happened with me is, with Location History off, the Maps app would prompt me to leave a review for a restaurant I visited and left. So Google (either the app locally, or the servers) is stalking you even with Location History disabled.

Also if you didn't push the consent button:

https://futurism.com/google-admitted-tracking-location-when-...

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