Google Will Stop Telling Law Enforcement Which Users Were Near a Crime, start saving location data on the mobile device instead of their servers. But not really though. And Why?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

So most of the breathless reporting on Googles “Updates to Location History and new controls coming soon to Maps” is a bit like this below. However Google itself in “Manage your Location History” says that if you have location history on, it will also save it to it’s servers. There is no mention of encryption.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is changing its Maps tool so that the company no longer has access to users’ individual location histories, cutting off its ability to respond to law enforcement warrants that ask for data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime.

Google is changing its Location History feature on Google Maps, according to a blog post this week. The feature, which Google says is off by default, helps users remember where they’ve been. The company said Thursday that for users who have it enabled, location data will soon be saved directly on users’ devices, blocking Google from being able to see it, and, by extension, blocking law enforcement from being able to demand that information from Google.

“Your location information is personal,” said Marlo McGriff, director of product for Google Maps, in the blog post. “We’re committed to keeping it safe, private and in your control.”

The change comes three months after a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation that found police across the US were increasingly using warrants to obtain location and search data from Google, even for nonviolent cases, and even for people who had nothing to do with the crime.

“It’s well past time,” said Jennifer Lynch, the general counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that defends digital civil liberties. “We’ve been calling on Google to make these changes for years, and I think it’s fantastic for Google users, because it means that they can take advantage of features like location history without having to fear that the police will get access to all of that data.”

Google said it would roll out the changes gradually through the next year on its own Android and Apple Inc.’s iOS mobile operating systems, and that users will receive a notification when the update comes to their account. The company won’t be able to respond to new geofence warrants once the update is complete, including for people who choose to save encrypted backups of their location data to the cloud.“It’s a good win for privacy rights and sets an example,” said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. The move validates what litigators defending the privacy of location data have long argued in court: that just because a company might hold data as part of its business operations, that doesn’t mean users have agreed the company has a right to share it with a third party.

Lynch, the EFF lawyer, said that while Google deserves credit for the move, it’s long been the only tech company that that the EFF and other civil-liberties groups have seen responding to geofence warrants. “It’s great that Google is doing this, but at the same time, nobody else has been storing and collecting data in the same way as Google,” she said. Apple, which also has an app for Maps, has said it’s technically unable to supply the sort of location data police want.

There’s still another kind of warrant that privacy advocates are concerned about: so-called reverse keyword search warrants, where police can ask a technology company to provide data on the people who have searched for a given term. “Search queries can be extremely sensitive, even if you’re just searching for an address,” Lynch said.

Source: Google Will Stop Telling Law Enforcement Which Users Were Near a Crime

The question is – why now? The market for location data is estimated at around $12 billion (source: There’s a Murky Multibillion-Dollar Market for Your Phone’s Location Data) If you look a tiny little bit, you see the government asking for it all the time, and the fines issued for breaching location data privacy seem to be tiny compared to the money made by selling it.

Google will be changing the name of Location History as well to Timeline – and will be saving your location to it’s servers (see heading When Location History is on)

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Manage your Location History

In the coming months, the Location History setting name will change to Timeline. If Location History is turned on for your account, you may find Timeline in your app and account settings.

Location History is a Google Account setting that creates Timeline, a personal map that helps you remember:

  • Places you go
  • Routes to destinations
  • Trips you take

It can also give you personalized experiences across Google based on where you go.

When Location History is on, even when Google apps aren’t in use, your precise device location is regularly saved to:

  • Your devices
  • Google servers

To make Google experiences helpful for everyone, we may use your data to:

  • Show information based on anonymized location data, such as:
    • Popular times
    • Environmental insights
  • Detect and prevent fraud and abuse.
  • Improve and develop Google services, such as ads products.
  • Help businesses determine if people visit their stores because of an ad, if you have Web & App Activity turned on.
    • We share only anonymous estimates, not personal data, with businesses.
    • This activity can include info about your location from your device’s general area and IP address.

Learn more about how Google uses location data.

Things to know about Location History:

  • Location History is off by default. We can only use it if you turn Location History on.
  • You can turn off Location History at any time in your Google Account’s Activity controls.
  • You can review and manage your Location History. You can:
    • Review places you’ve been in Google Maps Timeline.
    • Edit or delete your Location History anytime.

Important: Some of these steps work only on Android 8.0 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

Turn Location History on or off

You can turn off Location History for your account at any time. If you use a work or school account, your administrator needs to make this setting available for you. If they do, you’ll be able to use Location History as any other user.

  1. Go to the “Location History” section of your Google Account.
  2. Choose whether your account or your devices can report Location History to Google.
    • Your account and all devices: At the top, turn Location History on or off.
    • Only a certain device: Under “This device” or “Devices on this account,” turn the device on or off.

When Location History is on

Google can estimate your location with:

  • Signals like Wi-Fi and mobile networks
  • GPS
  • Sensor information

Your device location may also periodically be used in the background. When Location History is on, even when Google apps aren’t in use, your device’s precise location is regularly saved to:

  • Your devices
  • Google servers

When you’re signed in with your Google Account, it saves the Location History of each device with the setting “Devices on this account” turned on You can find this setting in the Location History settings on your Google Account.

You can choose which devices provide their location data to Location History. Your settings don’t change for other location services on your device, such as:

When Location History is off

Your device doesn’t save its location to your Location History.

  • You may have previous Location History data in your account. You can manually delete it anytime.
  • Your settings don’t change for other location services on your device, such as:
  • If settings like Web and App Activity are on but you turn off Location History or delete location data from Location History, your Google Account may still save location data as part of your use of other Google sites, apps, and services. This activity can include info about your location from your device’s general area and IP address.

Delete Location History

You can manage and delete your Location History information with Google Maps Timeline. You can choose to delete all of your history, or only parts of it.

Important: When you delete Location History information from Timeline, you won’t be able to see it again.

Automatically delete your Location History

You can choose to automatically delete Location History that’s older than 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months.

What happens after you delete some or all Location History

If you delete some or all of your Location History, personalized experiences across Google may degrade or or be lost. For example, you may lose:

  • Recommendations based on places you visit
  • Real-time information about when best to leave for home or work to beat traffic

Important: If you have other settings like Web & App Activity turned on and you pause Location History or delete location data from Location History, you may still have location data saved in your Google Account as part of your use of other Google sites, apps, and services. For example, location data may be saved as part of activity on Search and Maps when your Web & App Activity setting is on, and included in your photos depending on your camera app settings. Web & App Activity can include info about your location from your device’s general area and IP address.

Learn about use & diagnostics for Location History

After you turn on Location History, your device may send diagnostic information to Google about what works or doesn’t work for Location History. Google processes any information it collects under Google’s privacy policy.

 

Learn more about other location settings

Source: Manage your Location History

 

 

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Robin Edgar

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