“Google Tracks Your Movements, Like it or Not” (AP Exclusive Report)
UPDATE August 18 Google Sued Over Misleading Location Tracking Setting (via Bleeping Computer)
UPDATE August 16 Google Clarifies How It Tracks You Even If Location History is Turned Off (via News.Com)
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From the Associated Press:
Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.
An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so.
Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.
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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. 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.
Read the Complete Report (approx. 1400 words)
UPDATE Google Tracks You Even If Location History’s Off. Here’s How To Stop It (via Wired)
Filed under: Data Files, News
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.