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Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by dwaltrip on Sunday March 18, 2018 @03:05PM (#16613629)
Holy shit. So my paranoia about turning off Google location tracking was completely well-founded, and way more quickly than I would have hoped.

GDPR can't come soon enough...

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by petilon on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:08PM (#16614010)
You live in Los Angeles (according to Google). How will GDPR help you? Companies such as Google and Facebook aren't going to implement European laws for their American customers!
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by ocdtrekkie on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:10PM (#16614744)
Google and Facebook may choose not to, but plenty of others will. Consider the technical challenges of implementing one set of compliance rules in one place, and one set elsewhere. The profit gain from not following GDPR in an area must exceed the cost of maintaining separate rulesets.

LinkedIn's new policy that goes into effect in May appears to grant GDPR-like permissions across all users, for instance, though it does specify that EEA countries may have additional rights under the law. I suspect the majority of companies will end up complying with GDPR globally.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by btown on Sunday March 18, 2018 @10:12PM (#16615764)
Under a hypothetical US version of the GDPR, Google might be prohibited from sharing that data with non-governmental third parties. But it wouldn't be prohibited from collecting and storing that data, as showing someone their location history (with clear opt-out language) is actually in the legitimate interest of providing better mapping services for that individual. And law enforcement wouldn't be subject to those third-party restrictions.

There are additional laws that could protect citizens against overreach. But something like the GDPR alone would not do the trick.

This is especially dangerous given that there is already overreach in which data on the correlation of travel and behavior with crime, is being used to unlawfully detain people: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05/568351544/teens-arrested-on-g... This data would only serve to multiply that problem. It's not an easy problem to solve.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by drb91 on Monday March 19, 2018 @09:31AM (#16618189)
How is remembering where I have been useful to me at all? Hopefully something like a us GDPR would make them excplicitly ask my permission before stalking me.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by dwaltrip on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:32PM (#16614147)
Laws are ideas, and ideas spread.

Hopefully it affects U.S. policy in the next decade or so.

P.S. I'm curious how you found my city. LinkedIn?

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by hollander on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:49PM (#16614239)
@Petilon works at google maybe? (Joking of course!)
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by bigiain on Sunday March 18, 2018 @07:28PM (#16615137)
Not really all that funny though...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/silicon-v...

'“When you first get to Facebook you are shocked at the level of transparency. You are trusted with a lot of stuff you don’t need access to,” said Evans, adding that during his induction he was warned not to look at ex-partners’ Facebook accounts.'

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by ChaseT on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:39PM (#16614551)
I'm not the original commenter, but I could find it by getting your name from Github, then googling it. Your LinkedIn was the first result, and there was LA.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by dwaltrip on Sunday March 18, 2018 @07:17PM (#16615087)
Ah ok, thanks, that makes sense.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by gt_ on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:02PM (#16614315)
It’s pretty hard to imagine those laws coming to the US in our lifetimes with all the corporate interests that would oppose them.

It’s probably obvious but our best bet is in voting for Bernie Sanders.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by tzs on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:09PM (#16614733)
> It’s pretty hard to imagine those laws coming to the US in our lifetimes with all the corporate interests that would oppose them

...or with the large number of ordinary citizens who would oppose them or be indifferent to them. People here tend to have their privacy/safety balance set quite a bit more toward the "privacy" side than do most people.

Where most people draw the line, I think, is when surveillance is looking into their homes. Being surveilled when they are out and about in public does not bother them much.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by joering2 on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:18PM (#16614078)
VPN settings - location - Europe - Germany.

GDPR enabled.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by chmars on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:31PM (#16614137)
Not really, the GDPR is applicable to persons in the EU (not just in Europe) and not to persons using a VPN server in the EU.

Anyway, the GSPR does not ban American-style surveillance in Europe. Most European countries have used the Snowden leaks as a blueprint to increase surveillance in almost every aspect, especially online and with many related obligations for Internet companies.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by bertil on Monday March 19, 2018 @01:41PM (#16620770)
I’m not sure how other companies will implement it but I certainly expect most to bluntly use geo-IP to locate customers and apply GDPR-compliant practices without digging too much whether that particular customer is likely to lawyer-up. European services probably will blanket apply it to all their customers.

It’s possible (if unlikely) that after a militant based in Europe but geo-IP located elsewhere by accident notices something unsavoury and complaints, that companies implements an “Are you based within the EU?” toggle in account settings to avoid headaches.

For social services, I’m curious on how processes based on your friends’ will be implemented when your friends are partially in the EU and elsewhere. But I don’t expect this will be much harder than it currently is to circumvent, say, Netflix geo-blocks.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by walshemj on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:50PM (#16614964)
Not sure that pc plod in Europe gets the wide access that American cops do
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by inetknght on Sunday March 18, 2018 @03:08PM (#16613647)
Now sit back and think about what else people get called paranoid for.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by jonathanyc on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:00PM (#16613956)
Every time this happens, the same people magically transform from saying “What, are you paranoid?” to “What, are you naive?”

The NSA’s surveillance dragnet is a very different situation because they are a government agency, but you could see the same exact phenomenon happened when the Snowden revelations came out.

“Do you really think the government cares enough to log all your phone calls? You must be paranoid.” became “Well, obviously the government does this. How could you not expect this?” in the blink of an eye.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by megy on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:21PM (#16614819)
> Every time this happens,

I love these comments, you seem them all the time (Everytime this happens if you will). And they are phrased as though they are above questioning.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by thinkingemote on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:26PM (#16614455)
I think both reactions are for psychological comfort. It is that it's comforting if someone else is in charge, in control in the face of chaos, and it's comforting to place trust in those above you and thus happily mock conspiracy theories.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by dwaltrip on Sunday March 18, 2018 @03:09PM (#16613655)
Ehh. I am using the term paranioa a bit loosely. Post-snowden, it really wasn't very far fetched at all. But still upsetting.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by joering2 on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:20PM (#16614085)
Any reliable source of your allegation that all phonecalls in USA are being recorded? As far as I know such dragnet is allowed only outside of USA.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by shpx on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:13PM (#16614369)
https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

You're looking for "Location History".

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by thomasahle on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:13PM (#16614773)
I don't think he wants a copy. I think he wants it deleted.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by bduerst on Sunday March 18, 2018 @10:38PM (#16615864)
Google already allows you delete your account-linked location data: https://myactivity.google.com

Just be aware that deletion isn't instant though. From the TOS:

>We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you delete information from our services, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by bertil on Monday March 19, 2018 @01:44PM (#16620828)
I believe that many on-line services are not allowed to delete user data for a significant period of time (because terrorism & child exploitation).
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by pmoriarty on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:02PM (#16614316)
I've taken to just not carrying a cell phone with me, or just keeping it off.

I don't really need it most of the time, and I find the sense of privacy liberating.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by yorby on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:53PM (#16614639)
If you are traveling in a modern car, they can be pretty bad too: http://archive.is/0VUAf
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by muro on Sunday March 18, 2018 @03:46PM (#16613875)
Google tells you regularly that you have it enabled - you get emails with your full history. How would anyone not know it's recorded?
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by djrogers on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:53PM (#16614260)
I’ve never once received, nor heard anyone else who’s received such an email. Are my family and friends the anomaly or are you?
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by brerlapn on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:15PM (#16614382)
Replying to cbr/muro - those are emails about specific people that you have allowed to see your location data. The NC police are getting warrants for everyone in an area's location data. It doesn't matter if you've shared it - GPS, cell-tower data is passively collected by Google and then provided en masse to the police when subpoenaed. Nobody receives periodic emails from Google saying "you have your location services turned on [which we will nag the shit out of you about if you don't] and thus Google has a running log of everywhere you go [and if you happen to be in a jurisdiction that wipes it ass with the Fourth Amendment we'll also turn over all the data we've collected to the police]."
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by muro on Saturday March 31, 2018 @07:04AM (#16722792)
Ah, you are probably right.

Is there by chance another one with location history or am I imagining things?

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by brerlapn on Sunday April 01, 2018 @01:39PM (#16729442)
You can go into your account settings under Personal Info and Privacy\Manage Your Google Activity and toggle your location history if you want to turn it off, but I've never had them update me via email. Given how much information is in that, I'd be surprised if they prompted anyone to go review it since most folks would likely feel like it's creepy to see a map of everywhere they went.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by muro on Monday April 09, 2018 @04:44PM (#16796831)
In maps.google.com (just tried on phone), make sure you are logged in, then settings -> Google Location Settings. Then open "manage activity".

I'm sure I get it by email approx once per month.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by cbr on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:07PM (#16614341)
The email reminders I get look like:

Subject: You are using Google Location Sharing to share your real-time location.

Hi Jeff,

To protect your privacy, we would like to remind you that you are sharing your real-time location using Google Location Sharing with [wife] and [close friend and housemate].

If you didn't enable this or want to stop sharing your location at any time, please go to your Google Location Sharing settings.

Thanks,

Google Location Sharing Team

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by ocdtrekkie on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:15PM (#16614780)
Sounds like this is a reminder that you're sharing your location history. People who just have it on (which means, "just" sharing with Google), do not get these notices.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by megy on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:22PM (#16614825)
This isn't the same thing at all.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by cbr on Monday March 19, 2018 @12:18AM (#16616165)
But it may be what the grandparent recalls receiving
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by thomasahle on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:11PM (#16614754)
> GDPR can't come soon enough...

GDPR was approved on 14 April 2016. Google appears to have been complying for a while, starting to remove search results year ago.

I have heard of people getting a copy of all the data Google stored, but I haven't heard of location deletion requests yet. Will be interesting.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by ams6110 on Sunday March 18, 2018 @03:14PM (#16613682)
Yeah I'm typically not a very paranoid person but I only have location services on when I'm actually using Maps to navigate.

My main reason is to squash the annoying notifications about "heavy traffic in your area" at 5:00pm. Yeah, I would never have guessed...

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by notahacker on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:17PM (#16614071)
Law enforcement can triangulate location from a mobile phone signal via your celluar network provider with or without Google's help, and has been able to do so since the very beginning.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by bigiain on Sunday March 18, 2018 @07:51PM (#16615235)
That's what the cops tell judges - and sometimes use that inaccurate assertion to lock up innocent people for a decade...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-your-cell-phon...

"On May 28th, Lisa Marie Roberts, of Portland, Oregon, was released from prison after serving nine and a half years for a murder she didn’t commit. A key piece of overturned evidence was cell-phone records that allegedly put her at the scene."

If it's as accurate and straight forward as law enforcement tell us - how did _that_ happen?

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by ThrowawayR2 on Sunday March 18, 2018 @04:52PM (#16614256)
Bingo, knowing the location of each phone at all times is intrinsic to how the cellular network works.

The interesting question here is why law enforcement is going to Google instead of the cellular network providers directly? By definition, they're missing out on data from all non-Android phones.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by lemming on Sunday March 18, 2018 @05:51PM (#16614626)
From the top comment here: The precision is greatest when GPS is on, but less precise data from cell towers and WiFi sources is used almost any time a Google app is being used on an Android or non-Android phone.

I haven't read the original article since the website doesn't work without off-domain scripts running, but I assume that's why - they do have data for iOS users running Google apps, and that data is often higher resolution than cell tower triangulation. I'd also assume they're getting the cell information as well and correlating the two.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by lopmotr on Sunday March 18, 2018 @06:04PM (#16614706)
Why don't you want the police to be able to find your when there's a crime? What if you're the victim of a kidnapping? Or murder that goes unsolved because Google wouldn't tell them who did it?
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by groby_b on Sunday March 18, 2018 @08:21PM (#16615334)
The incident rate of kidnappings is so low that it's not anywhere close to ranking in the first volume of "List of Things I Worry About".

The government abusing data it collected on its citizens to silence dissenters, however, is something I've seen on a daily basis. And so, we set priorities.

Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by dwaltrip on Sunday March 18, 2018 @07:18PM (#16615089)
My main concerns are how such tools may facilitate automated injustice, as well as providing the means for heavy-handed political/intellectual influence and control.
Re:To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google by htoooh on Monday March 19, 2018 @01:44AM (#16616377)
Waltreezy! Hope you're well buddy