- Dec 30, 2012
- 4,809
Google can pull off some impressive tricks, such as correctly guessing what type of information you want in a search before you finish asking; showing you news you're interested in; letting you know when there's heavy traffic on the way to your usual Friday night hangout spot; and plenty more. However, the trade-off is that Google has to know a lot about you.
It's a trade-off many people don't want to make, especially when you get into areas like your smartphone being able to recognize you from your walk and voice. Of course, that's in the future, but what we're going to reveal today might already be more than you're comfortable with.
It's no secret that Google monitors and stores a lot of information about you, such as your search history. It does this for two reasons: service improvement and targeted advertising. Unfortunately, they're tied together.
In other words, you have to be comfortable with Google knowing a lot about you if you want it to help without you asking.
We've talked about Google location tracking in the past. It used to be Google would store your location history for 30 days. This information came from Google apps on your Android or Apple smartphone, or Android's built-in location tracking.
If you were interested in getting location-aware searches and other features, the 30-day time limit was a nice compromise between service and privacy. However, things seem to have changed, especially if you use Google's personal digital assistant Google Now. You might not know that Google has made a few changes, some of which are going to give you pause.
First, Google has updated its location history site and now calls it Timeline. It even changed the address. You can find it at Sign in - Google Accounts. You'll need to be signed in to your Google Account to see your location history. Once you do, you'll see something like this:
Further reading
It's a trade-off many people don't want to make, especially when you get into areas like your smartphone being able to recognize you from your walk and voice. Of course, that's in the future, but what we're going to reveal today might already be more than you're comfortable with.
It's no secret that Google monitors and stores a lot of information about you, such as your search history. It does this for two reasons: service improvement and targeted advertising. Unfortunately, they're tied together.
In other words, you have to be comfortable with Google knowing a lot about you if you want it to help without you asking.
We've talked about Google location tracking in the past. It used to be Google would store your location history for 30 days. This information came from Google apps on your Android or Apple smartphone, or Android's built-in location tracking.
If you were interested in getting location-aware searches and other features, the 30-day time limit was a nice compromise between service and privacy. However, things seem to have changed, especially if you use Google's personal digital assistant Google Now. You might not know that Google has made a few changes, some of which are going to give you pause.
First, Google has updated its location history site and now calls it Timeline. It even changed the address. You can find it at Sign in - Google Accounts. You'll need to be signed in to your Google Account to see your location history. Once you do, you'll see something like this:
Further reading