It turns out you can find out exactly what info google collects on you, organized by day. Log into your google account and go to http://maps.google.com/locationhistory and you will see a map of everywhere you (or at least your phone) went that day. Here is the map that comes up for a recent random day in my life.
One thing you will notice is that I appeared not to follow the roads! I assure you I was not drunkenly driving across people's lawns all day. My best guess is that they only take data at certain times so the exact route you take from point A to B is lost.
Google offers you the option to delete your history for that day or delete all your history. I am not sure how "deleted" your history really is when you choose this option. You can export your history as a KML file (if you know how to analyze them) and see time stamps of every data point they have.
I don't know if Apple Maps has a similar feature, but I bet they collect similar info if you allow it.
I wonder how much data is collected even if you turn off all location services? I know there are useful services that are enabled by this data yet there are definitely lots of reasons to be wary of abuse by both government and corporate interests.
Now you know why Walter White always used burners!
Posts
12 comments:
Okay, was too distracted by this. I was curious to see some data from my Alaska trip last summer. There is no data for the entire trip! I was on roaming the entire time so I guess they don't collect data when roaming...interesting.
It always feels like, somebody's watching me............
Damn it Mary, that's what I should have titled this blog!
I heard it yesterday Hale. I always thought it was Michael Jackson but I was wrong.
I don't have a cellphone so there's no history for me.
Our technological advances outpace our ability to apply Constitutional limits on them.
There was some discussion in the news recently about police collecting this information in real time from cell phone data to track down and arrest criminals. The counterpoint argument was that they should have to go through a judge to get to those records.
I heard you can just turn off your phone's GPS capabilities and that will do the trick. Of course, if you should go off the road or fall in a pond, they'd never be able to find you.
When you take a picture with your phone, or post something, embedded into the data is your physical location. Criminals can use that data to rob your house when they know you are away. You can run, but you can't hide.
The prophet George Orwell was right on. Not to fear KK , if your phone is on , they can track or find you by triangulating the phone signal between towers. the triangulation method is good to within 1000 feet.
Not worried a bit. My phone is rarely on.
Does It show where you stopped for #1
Anonymous said...1000 feet...I think it's more like 10 feets!
Even if you turn your phone off, it doesn't help, you HAVE to take the battery out of it to stop it be from being located.
I'm waiting for them to come out with a law stating you cannot use potty words on a cell phone!
I was on lake Michigan one day and had the marine radio on. You can listen to all the "ship to shore" phone conversations. Some guy talking to his girl friend was using a lot of potty talk and all of a sudden the marine operator came on, cut of his phone conversation and told him if he doesn't stop she will terminate his call. She disappear and the girl said where did you go, he told her the marine operator scolded him about his language and will cut him off. then he got scolded by her for using fowl language...!!!!
Throwing your cellphone into a toilet also stops them from tracking you.
Wrapping it in aluminum foil is an effective management tool also just sayin laugh'in
Post a Comment