• Ethalia@feddit.ch
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    1 year ago

    When big tech says they no longer need something, it means they have something even better. When they say they give you options, they mean dark patterns. Anytime you click ‘Decline’ it might as well be ‘Accept all’. Rapist mentality of big corpos.

    • TCB13@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I guess the catch is the fact that they don’t really need it. They have real time location from any Android device anyways (because of that feature that sends the lists of wifi networks around you from time to time), no need to storage the timeline on their servers, it’s only duplicate data. lol

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Personally, I use GPSLogger from FDroid on a 15 minute ping interval and then load the files into Location Map Viewer (also FDroid) for my own location tracking. Disabled Google awhile ago.

    I back the files up to a home NAS.

      • cannache@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        If you have ever lost something and had to retrace your steps it helps but I guess it’s not super important or relatable for most people

      • worldsayshi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s nice to have a sort of diary sometimes. My only practical application has been to sometimes check which times I arrive to and leave from work when I need to report my hours.

      • phobiac@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve used my location history to remember names of places I went to over a year ago, addresses I was given and expected to write down but forgot, confirm for myself I actually went and did something that I couldn’t recall fully…

        It’s great for someone with a shite memory.

      • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Looks like most of the existing replies captured my same use cases!

        There have also been a couple of times where my wife and I disagreed about what we did on X day and it’s kind of nice to see who is right 😂

        I think I also just like the raw data. I also keep spreadsheets of my utility bills over time, for example, because it’s weirdly fun to look back and see or compare.

        One thing I’d really love is a self-hosted all-day heart rate tracker, but have yet to stumble on such a thing.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        4G masts can triangulate your location quite well based on signal strength and which post you’re currently connected to so unless people are planning on removing their sim the government will always have decently accurate localization.

        • csm10495@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I would imagine without the sim, they could still get the location considering emergency calling would work.

          Probably would use the IMEI at that point.

    • EarthlingHazard@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      From your desktop browser? Probably. You’ll still be able to use timeline from your phone though since the data is still being stored locally

    • silentknyght@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s believable. If 25% of the warrants they receive are for location data, there is a shed load of money to be saved by simply not storing it.

      Probably simple math, whether or not the stored location data is more valuable than the cost of legal compliance.

    • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      It’s not that simple. The user has to hold the key. And with cloud you want it to all be accessible from all of a users devices. And with a public service you can’t count on the user to be savvy enough to use their certificates.

      Of course the fix to that is that the key is stored in the account.

      But then Google has the key and can decrypt it.

      So then the key itself has to be encrypted. And with what? The users weak ass-password?

      All encryption has to begin with something that’s known, and the weaker that initial secret, the weaker the entire system below it.

  • epyon22@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Curious on the implementation. For example apps like signal and WhatsApp require you to either move or lose your data when you get a new phone. This will have to be the way Google implements or they are storing it somewhere on their servers.

  • Pectin8747@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think people here realize that not holding on to is different from no longer processing the data for their own means… There’s no doubt in my mind that Google just simply has no need to keep the old data around anymore once other processing like for ML models and ad targeting are completed