Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my abortion clinic visit

Re:Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my ab... by GeekyBear on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @11:24AM (#35875770)

> In all cases except one, the feature seems to be working as intended:

This is not supported by the article text.

>To test Google’s privacy promise, I’ve been running an experiment. Over the last few weeks, I visited a dozen abortion clinics, medical centers and fertility specialists around California, using Google Maps for directions. A colleague visited two more in Florida.

In about half of the visits, I watched Google retain a map of my activity

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my ab... by brightlancer on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @11:36AM (#35875986)

"Often, Google kept my location on its timeline but only labeled it as the name of a neighborhood rather than a specific clinic. One time, it labeled my visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic as the coffee shop next door, and kept the record."

IOW, Google saw the author going to places _other_ than the abortion clinics or did not identify that the author had gone to the abortion clinic, so Google did not delete those entries.

Should Google delete all entries of anyone who at anytime passes within X feet/miles of an abortion clinic?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my ab... by GeekyBear on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @12:16PM (#35876597)

> Should Google delete all entries of anyone who at anytime passes within X feet/miles of an abortion clinic?

Should Google tell people they will proactively delete location data when people visited "particularly personal" places including abortion clinics if they didn't intend to keep their word?

Geofence warrants are a real danger and Google told the public they would delete their location history to protect people from this threat.

[ Parent | on HN ]