Google itself today tries to get you to back up everything online to be used across its ecosystem. If I choose to pause my "Web and app activity" - https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols?pli=1 after which my activity stops getting backed up online, Google also stops storing any sort of history on local device - across all google apps - either allow everything or zero history. No local caching, not even my last search shows up in maps.
Will be interested to see if this behavior changes.
Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure this wouldn't really help given that service providers still maintain records of which phones connected to which towers.
It's still a nice change though, and I like that they allow users to still send encrypted backups of their location history to the cloud.
Gen-z/alpha will lament at millenials screwing them over with crap like this. Same as how millenials lament about boomers and the state of the economy.
The solution is legal not tech. 5G and wifi6 may allow the government to listen in and watch everything we do but it is the law that can prevent them from doing that. Even in public, there is an expectation of privacy. If you look up a woman's skirt, you can't use "she was in public" as an excuse, it's still a crime because there was an expectation of privacy.
Anyone should be allowed to view and record public activities but not in a way that unveils information explicitly hidden from the public. If you have x-ray vision like superman for example, it would be illegal to see under people's cloths or to read information in the journal in their pocket. Now replace x-ray vision with 5G/wifi6 radio.
Maybe a bit contrarian but unless law enforcement is abusing this I think it's good for Google to share this info. I want to live in a society where criminals are caught.
Like the crime of wanting to save your own life? [1]
Edit: forgot to add how abortion is related to location data: after the "Christian" Talibans made abortion illegal, location data became subpeonable to see if someone visited an abortion clinic, if you tracked your periods on an app, this data too, because if you stopped having periods and a few months later it resumed, is that enough proof for a criminal conviction?
Funny to think how the tech companies are slowly realizing, maybe even their 50 domestic markets have regimes that are not liberal democracies, and can abuse laws...
For a more elaborate answer, watch this video: [2], TL;DW your democracy might not last and despots could take over and actually abuse the data they have on you. MAGA 2024, anyone? I mean the whole red states/Taliban-esque "we own women's body" laws is already plenty of steps in that direction...
In the US and most of the west, governments derive their power from the governed, which means their ability to investigate crime is at the consent of the governed as well. It is due to the law not catching up to technology that google has been allowed to share that information.
If cops need information to catch criminals they should get warrants. No company can refuse such a request so long as a magistrate reviews it as being a lawful pursuit of justice.
That's not contrarian, this is an extremely common ignorant view similar to "nothing to hide" (of course they are abusing it and not catching themselves)
advisedwang|2 years ago
risfriend|2 years ago
Will be interested to see if this behavior changes.
nulld3v|2 years ago
It's still a nice change though, and I like that they allow users to still send encrypted backups of their location history to the cloud.
thfuran|2 years ago
ThrowawayTestr|2 years ago
est31|2 years ago
rightbyte|2 years ago
badrabbit|2 years ago
The solution is legal not tech. 5G and wifi6 may allow the government to listen in and watch everything we do but it is the law that can prevent them from doing that. Even in public, there is an expectation of privacy. If you look up a woman's skirt, you can't use "she was in public" as an excuse, it's still a crime because there was an expectation of privacy.
Anyone should be allowed to view and record public activities but not in a way that unveils information explicitly hidden from the public. If you have x-ray vision like superman for example, it would be illegal to see under people's cloths or to read information in the journal in their pocket. Now replace x-ray vision with 5G/wifi6 radio.
ChrisArchitect|2 years ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38660646
jakobov|2 years ago
netsharc|2 years ago
Like the crime of wanting to save your own life? [1]
Edit: forgot to add how abortion is related to location data: after the "Christian" Talibans made abortion illegal, location data became subpeonable to see if someone visited an abortion clinic, if you tracked your periods on an app, this data too, because if you stopped having periods and a few months later it resumed, is that enough proof for a criminal conviction?
Funny to think how the tech companies are slowly realizing, maybe even their 50 domestic markets have regimes that are not liberal democracies, and can abuse laws...
For a more elaborate answer, watch this video: [2], TL;DW your democracy might not last and despots could take over and actually abuse the data they have on you. MAGA 2024, anyone? I mean the whole red states/Taliban-esque "we own women's body" laws is already plenty of steps in that direction...
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/texas-woman-sought-c...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9_PjdU3Mpo
badrabbit|2 years ago
In the US and most of the west, governments derive their power from the governed, which means their ability to investigate crime is at the consent of the governed as well. It is due to the law not catching up to technology that google has been allowed to share that information.
If cops need information to catch criminals they should get warrants. No company can refuse such a request so long as a magistrate reviews it as being a lawful pursuit of justice.
eviks|2 years ago
throwaway14356|2 years ago
The convincing part to me is the bad guys increasingly sophisticated use of technology. They know exactly where the victims are 24/7 (if they want to)