Is Google Tracking us when we have Location History Disabled?
Many of us have our Location History Disabled thinking that we are not being tracked. Unfortunately, even when you turn off your Location History in your Google Account Settings, Google is still tracking your location.
But they do need that information for Search and Maps. In your Google Account Settings, for the Location History setting you are only able to control some of your location history.
So if you really want to keep your Location History private, you will have to go to your Google Account on your My Activity Page and then select Activity Controls in order to Pause Web & App Activity and Pause Location History. I'm sure they make it confusing so you won't do it. Of course it's in a different location on iOS and Android.
This is going to be a challenge since so many apps also rely on Location Data.
You might be interested in seeing what Location Data has already been collected on you by Google - you can check it out by going to your Google Account to the My Activity Page and then click on Other Google Activity and then click on Visit Timeline. You can delete the history but you will get a warning from Google that it might break some of your services.
I really don't think there is much privacy anymore - all of our devices are interconnected and they know much more than our location history. They know our shopping history and they also know what we looked at and didn't buy.
At some point we might need to decide just how much we want Google to know about our lives, where we go and what we do, where we shop and what we buy, etc.
To Success!
Kathy Perry
Social Media Consultant
www.kathyperry.com