Also, it's great for trying to fit loose memories in dates and locations.
The government probably has a list of international flights I've taken somewhere. I honestly don't think they will use it they probably don't deny citizenships because I missed a couple of trips (unlike, say, not reporting frequent trips to North Korea).
It's still nice to do the right thing and fill up that data to the best of my knowledge.
Even if I get an e-visa, I get an in and out stamp. Not having these would invalidate the whole reason for having a passport.
Israel famously does not. They’ll give you a small slip with your details on it. I was told that an Israeli stamp on your passport would automatically bar you from entry in many Arab states so they came up with another system
Also pretty much anytime I have entered the UK via the global entry lanes I never got stamped.
For example if you’re applying for citizenship based on the 5 year rule, then you must’ve been physically present for at least 30 months (913 days to be exact) in those 5 years prior to your application. 18 months (548 days) if you’re applying based on the 3 year rule as a spouse of a US citizen.
So 8 days instead of 12 can mean it’s no big deal or it can mean you’re not eligible if those 4 days make or break your required amount of days physically present in the US.
It’s one of those silly things the government already knows but wants you report anyways.
While the US doesn’t do a passport check before leaving via the airport, airlines automatically send over departure information to CBP, that’s how they are able to show this information in the I-94 on the website.
Obviously entry is also recorded.
I suppose it’s a way to make it easier to filter out ineligible people at the beginning of processing applications without having to delve into the records to verify and in part to see if you’re honest.
Then there is the whole topic of oversee territorys... Not sure if those count as international territory but also no passport required..
the US (ESTA).
There is also a bunch of places where I only need national Id and no passport to travel there, I would assume it's the same for the US?
The earliest record I have is from June 16, 2015, anyone have earlier?
The time capsule is amazing and I've referenced it many times over the years
>If you do decide you want that information in the cloud — say, as a backup for when you get a new phone — the data will be encrypted.
So maybe it'll still be available? https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/14/google-...
None of the "constitutional protections" matter if they don't apply to broad classes of situations.
This is especially effective if you're a powerful person or corporation and can find a litigant willing to sacrifice their own assets and/or freedom to pursue a fake lawsuit on your behalf. The justice system is subject to Sybil attacks like any other system.
If your experience is closer to the truth, then maybe the tech industry should retain lawyers to redesign our security systems!
According to the World Justice Project [1] the USA is in spot 26 of 150+ examined nations. Worse than most European countries, but far better than most of the world. And while the general "rule of law" trend for the USA is declining for the last decade, checks on government power have actually improved in recent years.
If you don't believe me or WJP numbers, I invite you to travel abroad and spend some time in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Egypt, or even Hungary. If that's too much to ask, just try doing business there. I was involved in projects in some of the above mentioned countries and I tell you, the contrast is startling.
[1] https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/downloads/...
Remember that the prosecution says anything no matter how trivial can be used to revoke citizenship. Does your HN username count as a nickname? Prosecution might say yes. And again this isn't about you or me. It is the same thing as dragnet surveillance. I don't matter but somewhere in our nation or beyond the next MLK or the next great activist will be born and I want them to be able to develop and achieve their goals without being caught up in gotchas.
It is for that person probably not yet born that I don't want a two tiered citizenship system.
Context from the New York Times
Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked about the failure to disclose an embarrassing childhood nickname. Justice Elena Kagan said she was a “little bit horrified to know that every time I lie about my weight it has those kinds of consequences.”
Mr. Parker said the law applied to all false statements, even trivial ones.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer said it was “rather surprising that the government of the United States thinks” that the naturalization laws should be “interpreted in a way that would throw into doubt the citizenship of vast percentages of all naturalized citizens.”
Chief Justice Roberts added that the government’s position would give prosecutors extraordinary power. “If you take the position that not answering about the speeding ticket or the nickname is enough to subject that person to denaturalization,” he said, “the government will have the opportunity to denaturalize anyone they want.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/us/politics/supreme-court...
What if you can't afford a lawyer?
Though there is a corrolary: occasionally you'll see suits filed against John/Jane Doe defendants. The plaintiff knows they've been wronged and wants justice, but they don't know who the entities are they need to sue for some reason. In those circumstances you can get subpoenas issued to produce e.g. phone logs or security footage, etc... in order to move the case along.
And while it’s mildly interesting or useful to some, it’s dangerous to others, especially given it’s stored in a central location out of their control, and running all the time, not just when you’re using Maps.
I've already looked into OpenTracks and Locus. Trying to find another app I trust to do this anyway...
For EXIF, there's f.e. PhotoMap for Android.
Would never put such data in the cloud. But i'm also neither on social media nor American nor app-loving, so...
Need? Probably not. It was certainly handy though knowing the week I was there and what the interior looked like.
The goal is to know if you visited <insert questionable places>. They almost certainly already know, so it is also about concealment.
Fun: I travel a ton, I love looking at where I went to relive the experience. Especially if it was a recent travel and I'm showing things off to friends asking about it. I just open up the Timeline and say "Okay, well this day we flew in - then we took a 4 hour car ride, then we hung in this town for a few days, then took a boat to this island for some camping, then flew over to this city for a week, and..."
Utilitarian: As a US Citizen living abroad, I apply for the FEIE tax exemption every year to help me keep my first ~$120k as untaxed from the Feds (Should be my entire income, but no - US needs to tax on citizenship and not residency like nearly everyone else.. but I digress). For this rule, I need to have full 24-hour days in foreign territory, so for my documentation to ensure I'm still within my limit, I like pulling up Timeline - snapping a screenshot/export and saving it for later should I ever be audited.
Now I am carrying a dedicated Android phone with me (a Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G) on which I have PhoneTrack [2] installed. The app starts tracking as soon as the phone is moving and saves all the data on device. I used to have an instance of Owntracks [3] running, but now I just run a simple Flask app which pipes the GPS points to a PostGIS database on my local network when I am home. To visualize the tracks, I import them into QGIS. As the phone is solely used for tracking and only when I take it with me, the battery lasts about three days.
[1] http://www.transystem.com.tw/www/product.php?b=G&m=pe&cid=4&... [2] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.eneiluj.nextcloud.phonet... [3] https://owntracks.org
The plus version is on F-Droid for free. It has unlimited map downloads.
If you look at Google Timeline, sometimes the track it records is not particularly accurate, likely because it's only getting updates for significant changes in your location.
I also use OwnTracks to keep track of myself, and there I can see the individual points it gets from the OS notifying it of location changes, and... it's honestly not that great sometimes.
The positions from OSMAnd seem pretty spot on.
I had no idea it did this. Thanks for the tip!
/s
More serious, if it would be my data under my control, it can be fun checking the past. Exploring where you travelled and when .. but that is kind of my buisness amd not googles. But since I use a android phone, they have it anyway.
Having it enabled for years and then disabling it on the night your spouse went missing is suspicious. Having it disabled for years isn't.
All that your phone data would support is a claim of where your phone was.
For work, I have to produce reports of countries I’ve visited and dates. So looking at location history is pretty handy for remembering if I visited Sweden in 2018 or 2019. Etc etc.
But if it's already optional, and being removed entirely, then that persons's existence isn't that relevant; what's relevant is the people who DO like it and are losing something for them.
I've also used it for remembering what I was doing on specific days. It's wild how the location movements can accurately prompt my brain for the activities on those days
Google remembers many places I've totally forgotten about, and it's really nice to be able to revisit the nostalgia when I'm older.
I've been logging this for more than a decade, and it's a lot of fun to go back in time and revisit and rediscover old favorites.
It's one of my favorite features in all of Google :(