Why do "privacy activists" have standing to intermediate between me and a third party, if I want to use that third party's services to remember where I've been? Privacy activists need to check themselves.

No problem if you opt in to it as an option.

Per [1]:

- Location History is turned off by default for your Google Account and can only be turned on if you opt in.

- You can pause Location History at any time in your Google Account's Activity controls.

- You control what’s saved in your Location History. You can view the places where you’ve been in Google Maps Timeline, which you can edit or use to delete your Location History.

And...

- You can turn off Location History for your account at any time.

- You can manage and delete your Location History information with Google Maps Timeline. You can choose to delete all of your history, or only parts of it.

- You can choose to automatically delete Location History that’s older than 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months.

Seriously, I don't see how it could be more flexible and user-controlled than this.

(Disclaimer: Googler, but no relationship with Maps or Geo teams. As an individual user, I use and love my location history, and appreciate the level of control I have)

[1] https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3118687

Google changed it to be opt-in because they were getting sued left and right and investigated heavily for doing it by default. This wasn't a voluntary choice, Google only makes ethical decisions when forced to by an outside party and this was no different.

During some of those investigations, it was revealed that even Google engineers found the way Google handled these controls (like the separate Web and App Activity switch) very confusing, leaving ordinary users no hope of understanding it.

Finally, Google uses a bit of a carrot and stick method to push people to enable it. Rewards reminds you constantly you're eligible for more surveys/money with location history on, and you can't even have Google Maps default a "home" location locally, without pervasive location tracking being enabled that informs the company where you're at every five minutes.

Which is to say, the controls are confusing, the defaults only changed because Google was under investigation, and they make the experience especially on Android if you have it off intentionally terrible.

It's like they are incapable of reading and doing their own research. Regardless, a better solution would be to regulate data collection to make alternative self-hosted services available and easy to use and allow you to opt-out as well.

They changed the defaults in response to the threats from the people you disdain. If this is how you think the situation should be, remember it would not be this way if we had to rely on your judgment or efforts.

Disdain? Only one platform allows you to install and use third-party apps. People that act this way are the ones with an iPhone with TikTok installed while complaining about Google. I'm not on Google's side here, I'm just saying the information being presented is factually wrong.

At least for high-impact locations if they can’t get everything. Women’s shelters and hospitals would be an excellent start.

Neither companies not governments should have people's information at their fingertips. Ok, maybe on foreign spies, yes, by all means, but not for citizens. They should not have that kind of information on people. This is something we used to make fun of the Stasi for --and they didn't have THIS capability. But, yet here we are happy to accept it these days.

Gay bars. The homes of people who have been to gay bars. Synagogues.