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Comment by pxoe | Hacker News Reader

this location timeline page https://timeline.google.com/maps/timeline should be included up along in there. if not deceptive, it's certainly badly designed and confusing enough for you to overlook what options are available to you. in dark mode, these little buttons (that actually manage your data and obscure important options) are almost unnoticeable. and this is somehow the only way to delete your location data, both web and mobile. even on android it's still just a redirect to that same web page. there is no native 'delete location history' button. (and if you do open that page on android, you might have to sign in to your account again before even seeing anything lol. as always, burying and obscuring controls. it couldn't be that hard to implement a 'delete all' button on activity controls page right before, but oh nooo, what if people would actually deprive google of location data.)

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For me there's a big "Manage Location History" button on the main page, which has a clear option to turn off or turn off and delete, as well auto-delete setting. Not sure how dark mode would affect how visible it is, but in the default view, it's pretty in your face.

I'd say the trickiest bit is probably finding your timeline in the first place if you don't regularly make use of it, but I get periodic emails about it — at least a monthly summary.

EDIT: Looks like, at least in Firefox, the page doesn't respect Dark Mode at all.

EDIT 2: Here's the top and bottom of my monthly email from them: https://imgur.com/a/oUez8ZC — multiple direct links to the page to turn off and delete location data.

Also, on Firefox Android Mobile, it flags private mode as an unsupported browser, and only displays the "Delete All" button at the bottom.

This has to be the most visible privacy control Google offers. Nobody is in Location History unless they turned it on, and if you have it turned on you get a reminder every month by email that says right at the top, in the snippet, "You're receiving this email because you turned on Location History, a Google Account-level setting that creates Timeline, a personal map of your visited places, routes, and trips. You can view, edit, and delete this data anytime in Timeline."

well, try going for deletion of all location history and see how that goes for 'the most visible control'

I deleted my history several times back when I used a google account. It can be done in two places, but the easier is, starting from any google application, click ProfileImage > Manage your Google Account > Data and Privacy. On that page is Location History, in the Things you've done and places you've been category. In there your options are Delete all, or Delete activity older than <range>. And it can be recurring deletion as well.

In the same Privacy page, you can easily delete or download anything you want.

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