To stop Google from saving these location markers, the company says, users can turn off another setting, one that does not specifically reference location information. Frank Pallone of New Jersey called for “comprehensive consumer privacy and data security legislation” in the wake of the AP report. Mark Warner of Virginia told the AP it is “frustratingly common” for technology companies “to have corporate practices that diverge wildly from the totally reasonable expectations of their users,” and urged policies that would give users more control of their data. Google’s explanation did not convince several lawmakers. “We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time.” “There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people’s experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to the AP. “That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.”
“If you’re going to allow users to turn off something called ‘Location History,’ then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off,” Mayer said. A researcher from Mayer’s lab confirmed the AP’s findings on multiple Android devices the AP conducted its own tests on several iPhones that found the same behavior. Storing location data in violation of a user’s preferences is wrong, said Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau. The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search. Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude - accurate to the square foot - and save it to your Google account. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app.
0 kommentar(er)
