So I tried to avoid this for the longest time. But I’m an Android user. In fact, many of our computer repair customers are Droid users. And just about everybody uses Google. Then I have to ask the question: Is Google still tracking us?
So the AP (associated press) came out with an investigative report this week. Google is supposed to stop recording our location when we turn our location history off. However, an AP report says Google is not honoring that. This could affect around two billion Android users (I told you there were many of us). Also, this could affect countless iPhone users, because many of them use Google Maps on their iPhone.
What’s happening is apps like Google Maps and weather apps take snapshots of your location, even when you turn off location history. We can thank a feature they call Google Web & Activity for this. By default, this is what takes your location, whether you want it too or not. As you can bet, lawmakers and privacy rights advocates are not letting this one slide. In fact, one researcher in New York City turned off his location history. But whenever this researcher checked the weather on his Android, he found Google still tracked him. This happened to him several times in just a matter of days.
Everywhere, IT support experts expressed disappointment in Google for this flaw. And quite frankly, so do I. Google is a company that prides itself on privacy rights and tech ethics. At least they did answer have an answer to these shortcomings. Of course, this spokesperson says yes Google offers a turn off option, and this is just a flew as we continue to improve Google location. What I wanted to hear is how they’re going to make this right. Is Google still tracking us?