Google Tracks Users Even When “Location History” Is Disabled

Journalists from the Associated Press have published the results of an investigation showing that Google services track mobile device users even when they have disabled the “Location History” feature. Every time a user wants to use a service like Google Maps, the device requests permission to access location data (for example, if it’s needed for navigation). According to the Associated Press, even if users of iOS or Android devices deny this permission, many Google services still track them. This happens even if “Location History” has been intentionally turned off. In reality, disabling this feature only means that the information is not added to the Timeline and is not visible to the user.

“For example, Google records your location as soon as you open the Google Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android smartphones can give a rough idea of where you are,” the journalists write. “And search queries that have nothing to do with your current location, such as ‘chocolate chip cookies’ or ‘science kits for kids,’ can determine your latitude and longitude (accurate to within a square foot), and [this data] will be saved to your Google account.”

To confirm their concerns, the journalists enlisted the help of scientists from Princeton University. Together, they were able to recreate a map of all the movements of one of the researchers, even though the Location History feature on his Android smartphone was disabled.

It turned out that to completely opt out of tracking, you need to dig into your account settings and find the “Web and App Activity” option, which is enabled by default. Only after disabling this option does data collection stop.

Google representatives have already commented on the Associated Press publication, stating that the company is not violating any rules and provides users with all the necessary tools to disable data collection and clear their history. Google also noted that location data helps improve the quality of user services.

However, Princeton University experts and Associated Press journalists still call this “tracking” and insist that disabling “Location History” should turn off tracking, and that the company is misleading users. According to the researchers, the privacy of two billion Android users and hundreds of millions of iOS users is at risk.