Google admits to unauthorized location tracking

Ever feel like your Google apps were tracking your location, even though you never gave Google permission to do so? Well, they were – and they are. Google revised its “Location History” description, and in the process disclosed that Google was tracking the location of its users, even when the setting was supposedly disabled.

“With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored,” the description read days ago. Now the description reads: “… some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps.” The change was prompted by an AP investigation into Google’s tracking practices.

The admission comes as a new study finds that Americans want regulation of the tech platforms like Google and Facebook. Eighty percent of Americans “agree that Internet companies should be regulated like news media,” a survey from Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation found.

These points are the latest clear signs that US lawmakers aren’t doing enough to protect Americans from the power of the tech giants.

Links:

APNewsBreak: Google clarifies location-tracking policy (TampaBay.com, Aug. 17, 2018)

Should Platforms be Regulated? A New Survey Says Yes. (The Knight Foundation, Aug. 15, 2018)