Sophos Cloud Optix
Shock horror – it appears Google can track the location of anyone using some of its apps on Android or iPhone even when they’ve told it not to.
That’s according to an “exclusive” from the Associated Press (AP) which describes how researchers at Princeton University have confirmed that Google’s ability to record a user’s location history goes deeper than many realise.
Officially, Android users can turn off tracking using a slider button in the Location section under Settings.
Once deactivated, Google no longer stores a timeline and a precise record of a user’s movements when they take their Android device (or iPhone running Google services and apps) with them.
Checking this in Maps can be done by visiting Google’s Account Settings >My Account Activity > Other Account Activity > click ‘Visit Timeline’ under Location History. This should show a history of a user’s movements while using their device.
But according to AP’s research, turning off Location History doesn’t stop certain Google apps (Maps and Weather for instance) from storing a timestamped location when you open them.
Confusingly, this isn’t the same as Location Data, which uses a range of techniques (cell towers but especially Wi-Fi geolocation) to track where people are, sometimes to within a few metres.
It’s not clear how regular this location polling happens but it’s clearly more regular, and therefore precise, than the type of location data Google picks up when users occasionally open an app.
From the tests carried out by Princeton on AP’s behalf, the latter method can still generate enough data to record someone’s locations during a given period of days without necessarily making it clear how they moved between them.
AP quotes Princeton researcher, Jonathan Mayer:
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. That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.
Google’s answer to the accusation that it’s being overbearing in its desire to know the location of its users is that this can be paused under “Web and App Activity”.
As Google told AP in response to its findings:
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.
It appears, then, Google draws a distinction between general high-accuracy location data and that collected less frequently by its apps. While this might be an anomaly from the way these have developed historically, Google’s failure to simplify location tracking will sound like a convenient oversight to privacy advocates.
In Google’s view, this is fine because it does inform users that apps can track their location even if those messages are hard to find or rarely encountered.
The most surprising aspect of this story is possibly that anyone is still surprised.
In 2017, a report from Quartz found that Android devices were still having their locations tracked via cell towers even after location history had been turned off, their SIM cards were removed and a factory reset had been initiated.
And it’s not just Google of course – numerous apps are at it, albeit after asking for permissions to do so. It’s not clear how many users decline or turn off location access for apps, but it’s likely to be a minority.
It’s a trade-off in the end. The usefulness of smartphones depends to some degree on navigation apps such as Maps, which require location data. Ditto apps that help to locate lost devices.
The lowdown is clear: if you own a smartphone, you can limit location tracking but for now you can’t turn it off completely.
“The lowdown is clear: if you own a smartphone, you can limit location tracking but for now you can’t turn it off completely.”
Is this strictly true? My Android has a setting for “Location” and under that a separate list of app-based settings for “Use Location History.” If I turn the top-level “Location” setting off, then all the “Use Location History” settings turn off and I can’t turn them back on without re-enabling “Location” first. Seems that if you don’t want to be tracked, turning “Location” off turns off GPS and stops any app from accessing the location API.
From the article I am not sure whether you mean “if you have location turned on then some apps still collect that data if you have history turned off”, or whether you mean “even if you have location turned off altogether, you are being tracked by your phone anyway.”
Obviously I can be tracked by other means if I am online – by IP number when I connect to a website, by tagged QR code if I scan one in, by in-store Wi-Fi if i choose to go online via their access point, but if “Location” is off on the phone (not just “location history”), surely no apps can ask the phone OS to tell them where I am at that instant, not even Google apps?
AFAIK, the “Location” setting controls solely the GPS radio. That’s pretty much the point of this article; turning off Location won’t preclude other means of tracking. Check out the 7th paragraph, which begins with “Confusingly.”
To address your initial question:
The only way to prevent your mobile phone from tracking location is to turn it off and leave it at home. If you own one at all, they already have your address anyway. And probably photos.
That “confusingly” is where i got confused, actually, because that paragraph isn’t about GPS and the article doesn’t explain what the “Location Data” setting actually does. On my phone it’s “Location”, and when I turn that option off it turns of “Location History” as well.
Yeah. To save battery I leave “Location” off until I go running, and my training app reminds me if I forget to enable it. It’s GPS (and not likely anything else).
“Location Data” is everything else–and probably encompasses GPS for good measure (no pun intended).
well… to save battery and other reasons. :,)
Which government agency is google? and does the NSA get jealous?
“We don’t have better algorithms; we just have more data” – Google
I wonder whether Google (et al) would make this location information available to the security and law forces, if requested, or is this solely for their private usage and sale to advertisers?
Purely for Government and Security Service use!
Turn off every location setting. Force stop Google’s Fuse location. Go to the National Weather Service on a browser that blocks tracking and fingerprinting. Put in the zip code you are at and in the weather report you are given they show where you are within that zip code. They have a map below the weather report. And it does not show the whole area of the zip code, they pinpoint me within a five block area
My phone is a Pixel 3 XL. The browser I use is Brave. It history and cookies are deleted. It was in Private Tab. It is rather shocking to see my general location was still tracked. And if the NWS is doing it then everyone else is too.
Oh. I use expressVpn. My shown IP address was Chicago. So how are they tracking me yet and how do I block it. Turn on the location settings and use a Fake GPS app?
What happens if you put in some other zip code? It seems weird that this “accuracy” depends on you putting in your general location first…
Checking other zip codes puts the green box in the basic geo center of the zip codes area. My zip code search moves it right on top of my location. Been reading more and next i will start force stopping and disabling apps to see if one is doing more then it should.
If you have told Android not to let an app access the geodata from the phone itself, there shouldn’t be any possibility for it to do more than it should…
…can’t think where else the data might come from. Cookies, perhaps, or their app equivalent?
Well, from zip code and IP number alone they can probably make a pretty good guess to within 1km or so…