Is your location services set to low, this means no active GPS unless maps is on, and then its only wifi points. This is why they are so pushy to have it active all the time. Targeted advertising etc. and annoyed people!
GPS, phone tracking
- Thread starter Greenpeace
- Start date
I'll have to go through my phone. Every time a site asks for my location I say no.
When I got my phone (a Motorola Android) I went through ALL the settings and turned off heaps off things I didn't want. In the menus under the toggle 'Use location' I restricted which apps could use Location when it was on to things like nrma, waze, etc and NO google apps. Today I was just rechecking these and under 'Scanning' I find these settings now enabled as per screenshot below. I had allowed the device to install an update labelled 'Security Updates' after I had read the release notes that it was security related. I'm more than a little annoyed that these new settings got enabled under my nose.
I think that is the most annoying things that does happen, the reversal of things that you deliberately turn off, Your decision, your choice but the almighty entity thinks it is entitled to change under guise of improvements of wonderbar things they want to add, even if you don't specifically desire to give them access.
Probably somewhere in their fine print, you giving them access to your phone to do a security upgrade makes it legally right (for them) to correct your obvious (to them) mistake in turning that function off.
Welcome to the new world of control by the new world information order.
Ken.
My wife and I visited some friends who had just moved into a retirement village.
Next day I started getting emails about retirement villages. Goodness, what a coincidence....
BP
Next day I started getting emails about retirement villages. Goodness, what a coincidence....
BP
Just as as follow up as I couldn't remember the exact name of the notification I received when I did the OP (as I'd deleted it).
I just received another one.
It is titled: "Google Maps, Your May Timeline"
I just received another one.
It is titled: "Google Maps, Your May Timeline"
I suppose in one way we aussies should be proud, Google Maps started life in a Hunters Hill house in Sydney circa 21 years ago and the startup was bought out by Google in 2004.
This link has the steps you can follow to view, delete and then disable this 'feature'.
I don’t get a google timeline for some reason.
I just get persistent warnings that without Google Play Services my phone won’t work, the sky will fall and I’ll be doomed for all eternity.... or something like that.
I ignore the warnings (and most of my phone calls) and everything is hunky dory 
I just get persistent warnings that without Google Play Services my phone won’t work, the sky will fall and I’ll be doomed for all eternity.... or something like that.
I ignore the warnings (and most of my phone calls) and everything is hunky dory 
Google maps timeline is not a separate app. It is one of the many features provided for free with a Google account. If you don't have a Gmail account then you don't have a Google account therefore Google maps timeline does not exist for you.
And if you don't have a Google account there's no need to disable anything. All of the things you have disabled their, require a Google account to do anything in the first place.
Why so many people are all paranoid about Google maps timeline is beyond me. Where you have been is already stored by telcos. And unless you're committing crimes no one cares where you've been. However, using Google maps timeline to work out where you were sometime in the past can be very handy indeed.
And if you don't have a Google account there's no need to disable anything. All of the things you have disabled their, require a Google account to do anything in the first place.
Why so many people are all paranoid about Google maps timeline is beyond me. Where you have been is already stored by telcos. And unless you're committing crimes no one cares where you've been. However, using Google maps timeline to work out where you were sometime in the past can be very handy indeed.
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I hate to break this to you but Waze is owned by Google. Now what are you going to do to avoid cops and cameras‽
I do have a Gmail account and have done for quite a number of years. My initial post was more around "who would think it's a good idea to remind you every move you make is being tracked and stored"? I got the Timeline message in April for the first time. Why after all these years, and without consultation with me, does some techno geek at Google decide (for me) "Greenpeace's life just won't be complete without these notifications"?
I raised the question, "how long before you simply get a speeding fine in the mail because your phone's GPS was tracked over the limit"?
Some say "it's easy leave your phone at home".
Well once everyone is compelled to have an EV (yes I know many ICE cars have the same tech too) with not only GPS but also the software to enable remote shutdown etc?
You'll always get "it's for safety", "what if someone steals your car" and "you can prove where you were", blah blah.
If the powers that be were serious about road safety wouldn't they ensure that all new vehicle's would be equipped with tech that wouldnt allow said vehicle to exceed the posted speed limit in the first place? But wait that would be turning off a pretty big "income stream" wouldn't it?
It's actually included in the state budget for f#ck's sake. QLD's 2021/22 state budget anticipated $596 million in revenue from speeding fines alone.
The seat belt/mobile phone camera's put on trial in QLD were recently declared a "resounding success" because they issued $18 million in fines in Nov/Dec 2021.
So now there's loads more on order.
It's not about safety, taking your photo not wearing your belt or on your phone doesn't instantly make you "safer" does it, (no more than taking your photo speeding does)?
But wait there is a plan to make us safer, in line with adding more cameras, the seat belt fine in QLD is going up 150% from July 1st as well.
It's a licence to print f#cking money is what it is.
"Well wear your belt, don't use your phone", is the usual "rationale".
Why not mandate tech in new cars that means your phone won't work while you're driving unless it's 000? Sensors in the vehicle that won't allow the car to move unless seat belts are on?
Because that would mean killing off the cash cow that we the public are viewed as, that's why.
It's only a matter of time before all this "convenient" tech in our phones starts getting seriously scrutinised for its "bovine" usefulness as well.
I have no problem with telcos storing cell site ping data for police access as I haven’t been burying bodies.
I do have a problem with corporations storing my location and usage data to sell for profit without my consent or knowledge of where my data is going. I know that if I use a store card or credit card my purchase data is recorded. I know that Google knows what I’ve been watching on YouTube. I accept these things.
I know that if I don’t sign in I can restrict some of my data but the device IP is still logged. I would like to uninstall the apps and files I don’t use but Google has permanently embedded them in my device so disabling is my protest, albeit largely ineffectual.
If I want to buy something I’ll look for it; I don’t want direct marketers telling me that “people in your demographic/location NEED THIS PRODUCT!!!!!”
The only advertising I want thrown in my face is quality content like this:
I do have a problem with corporations storing my location and usage data to sell for profit without my consent or knowledge of where my data is going. I know that if I use a store card or credit card my purchase data is recorded. I know that Google knows what I’ve been watching on YouTube. I accept these things.
I know that if I don’t sign in I can restrict some of my data but the device IP is still logged. I would like to uninstall the apps and files I don’t use but Google has permanently embedded them in my device so disabling is my protest, albeit largely ineffectual.
If I want to buy something I’ll look for it; I don’t want direct marketers telling me that “people in your demographic/location NEED THIS PRODUCT!!!!!”
The only advertising I want thrown in my face is quality content like this:
But, you do consent.
If you have, say, a Google account, you have specifically agreed to the T&Cs when you created the account.
It is all there to read at any time in great detail, so none of it is done without your knowledge or consent.
If you do, what you get in return for them 'selling your data at a profit', is a vast array of very useful apps and features, which cost many $billions to develop, for free. And the ONLY thing you have to suffer, is seeing advertisements when you are voluntarily making free use of those apps and features, by using google, facebook, youtube and so on.
GP, I completely get all the privacy/control issues where government is concerned, as per the rest of your post.
But google has no part in you or me receiving a speeding fine or having our cars shut down remotely.
The answer to your question above, however, is that a/ google wants you to be aware of its features, as that is how they keep you as a customer, and b/ tech companies have a strong interest in keeping users fully informed about anything that could be viewed as a privacy issue, so other people don't complain about their privacy being invaded, even though they actively consented to it.
Yes, it's usually detailed in the T&C nice and explicitly as "subsidiaries, affiliates and third parties" and that's fine. Your choice is to consent to being used or don't sign into an account.
And the timeline notification is an interesting illustration of the corporation telling the user "this is what you shared this month."
Which is a good thing, right?
Not that one could be unaware of it, but it is better that they remind you your location history is On.
I don't see why you say "consent to being used". Used, how? This is an exchange; information about you, goes to fund the staggering cost of developing all the free services provided. When you go to / went to, work you are providing services. I am sure you don't do that for free, and nor do I. It's no different to using Google's services; someone has to pay. What is different, is that you, the Google user, doesn't pay anything. Except for seeing advertising. Like, for instance, you had to watch on tv for decades. Or plastered all over newspapers.
Not that one could be unaware of it, but it is better that they remind you your location history is On.
I don't see why you say "consent to being used". Used, how? This is an exchange; information about you, goes to fund the staggering cost of developing all the free services provided. When you go to / went to, work you are providing services. I am sure you don't do that for free, and nor do I. It's no different to using Google's services; someone has to pay. What is different, is that you, the Google user, doesn't pay anything. Except for seeing advertising. Like, for instance, you had to watch on tv for decades. Or plastered all over newspapers.
I had an instance (I can only presume) from this site only last week. Can't remember the thread and can't remember the item, but someone put up a link to a supplier of a random product that I personally had no interest in. Because I had zero interest I didn't open the link, however guess what started showing up among the ads at the bottom of the page while I was on Gumtree later in the day?
Yeah, we want the devices and the services and trade information in exchange. It’s a barter.
The tracking notifications can be viewed as a positive interaction that reminds us as users to occasionally review the permissions we’ve granted to the apps we use. If I choose to restrict permissions then I also limit the specificity of services.
The tracking notifications can be viewed as a positive interaction that reminds us as users to occasionally review the permissions we’ve granted to the apps we use. If I choose to restrict permissions then I also limit the specificity of services.