I've done this before by exporting the KML of the data and importing it into a Fusion Table[1] which has a built-in heatmap view. I tried to do it just now and not only have they nerfed it by only allowing you to download a 30 day range, the KML file they export doesn't seem to be readable by Fusion Tables. Disappointing.
Looks like you can still download all of your data from Google Takeout[2], though. The format is pretty easy to read, converting it into something that Fusion Tables can read should be pretty easy.
The export limit is limited to 30 days only by the UI, if you do a request but change the timestamps you can get any range of dates. This will get you all your data as a KML from 1/1/2005 to 1/1/2015:
Anybody else have hits from Beiliu throughout October / November? I've not kept enough up on security news but it seems like there's been sporadic access through there.
I remember opening Maps on my Android phone during that period and being localized there (instead of Milan where I live) at least a couple times, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason.
I have a location in New Delhi, where I have never been. But I doubt this is because my account was hijacked. Both because I have two-step authentication, and because I have no log-ins from outside my city. Check yours here: https://security.google.com/settings/security/activity?pli=1
My log-in history isn't going back to when the access was. I've got 2-factor reengaged so I'll see if it pops up. Bizarre that would happen as the closest I've been to China in a few months is northwestern Australia. Funny jumps from Perth to central China.
Elsewhere in the thread somebody mentioned that a particular location in China around when you got your phone is likely the phone being tested before being shipped to you.
You have to enable it. When you have it enabled, they send you reminders every so often letting you know that it's enabled and how to disable it. It's so uncreepy. Customer asked company to do something, company does it but insists on reaching out occasionally to remind you that they're doing it and letting you know how to turn it off.
How can this service exist for customers who want it without being "creepy"?
I can't remember enabling it. That isn't to say that I didn't enable it, but I can't remember actively saying "yes, please track my every move". I don't think that I would have said yes to that if I was aware of exactly what I was agreeing to. It appears that the complete tracking of my life started when I bought a nexus 4 - I'd imagine that I clicked through a box without really understanding what it was saying.
I will categorically say that I've never been reminded that this is enabled. Until today, when I realised that a complete log of every movement I made in the last 8 months was available, I had no idea that this level of information was viewable to anyone logged into my google account (I'd imagine that something similar has always been available to law enforcement regardless of opt-in status).
I'm not arguing that it shouldn't exist (I now understand why google now always uses my exact route when estimating commute times, and I did have a nice nostalgic trawl through this year's activities) but I do think that transparency that it does exist could be greater.
Used it on a regular basis, but since I owned multiple Android devices this tool became pretty useless. You can't filter on devices, so when I'm out with my phone leaving my tablet at home, the location history only displays a bunch of spikes of me traveling with tremendous speeds.
"You have no location history" (cycled various points in time)
I assume this is because I've never given Google permission (eg on my Android phone or otherwise)?
I see occasional attempts to compare what the NSA does and what Google does, as though they're similar. Well this is precisely why Google is nothing like the NSA. Google doesn't have my permission, and they don't have my location history accordingly.
Said another way: just because you don't give Google permission, it does not mean that they don't have the data. This isn't a paranoid outlook, just stated facts: many organizations store information in an unauthorized manner. Just because they say "we have no history," it does not mean that they actually don't have it.
Similarly, Google has a notion of "Web History" which is distinct from what they know about users. The Web History can be displayed to (and deleted by) the user, but that's not the same as displaying or deleting all of Google's records about the user's activity:
Looks like I turned off permission for recording my location history on June 9th. They've got plenty of data before then, but none after that. That was the day that Snowden's identity was made public. I guess I must have had a sudden onset of extra paranoia around then. In hindsight, I was right.
They are probably not explicitly lying about what information they retain. If they say they deleted it, well, it's probably at least inaccessible to production systems.
It's possible that Google is telling the truth. The FTC is paying close attention, especially after the settlements in the Buzz and Safari cookie incidents. Deceptive data collection and use practices--like lying about having location data--would certainly trigger FTC enforcement.
The data Google holds, across all of users, is an incredible wealth of knowledge.
This location data, connected to your other account information, provides the ability to see trends in where people are going - with accurate income estimates. I can only imagine how valuable this information would be to real estate investors.
And that's only a tiny piece of the pie. Google has so much knowledge now, that a lot of it probably goes to waste because they don't even have the capacity to take advantage of it all.
Google could utilize this to make some seriously sophisticated estimates on the revenue a company/store is doing. Therefore the stock market would be similar to shooting fish in a barrel. As I understand it, if it's legal/acceptable for hedge funds to use private satellite imagery I don't see how this would be any different.
Really wish there was a service like this that only stored the data on your computer/server and not at a place that has an open door policy with the USG. In the mean time, where do I go to turn this off?
edit: found it. On Android, Settings -> Location (under "Personal") ->Google Location Reporting
If you're super paranoid and don't use the Play store, you can also install the full featured version from F-Droid[0], the Android FOSS store. I'd suggest buying the plus version or donating to OsmAnd though, if you like it.
I turned mine off recently, not because I am convinced there is a method that guarantees 0% data leakage, but because it is a good idea to reduce the surface area of data that you provide voluntarily to anyone.
Anyhow, what is more amusing for me is when others, like me, turn all this off and tweet away with location turned on or check into various locations on FB/FSQ or comment on what they are doing or where there are at or who they are with at regular intervals.
You can't "turn off" the data you give to these services. It's foolish to believe you can.
Every time you type in an address, it gets logged along with your IP addr and any tracking cookie you may have. This happens regardless of whatever setting you've told the service to respect. It's in their financial interest to gather as much data about you as possible.
Turn off, as in, turned off location tracking in Google.
I do not believe it is possible to break out of the surveillance state by using technology, unless you want to go the RMS route, which I am not that keen on or even sure if it works 100%. I also consider this to be a problem that is social than technological. If society largely agrees to an invasive level of snooping as a valid trade-off for reasonable security, no amount of cyrpto or anonymization will keep you safe. Privacy is a social contract that is enforced using technology. If the contract is flawed, the technology, as always, will only serve to amplify that flaw.
Meanwhile, Google is only one of the players in the data harvesting world. Starting from the ISP that you are on, everyone captures and sells your data. The only saving grace with Google is that they at least admit to doing this and provide some degree of visibility into it. There are companies out there that the average person has little idea about. For example, some of them are shipped billing data of telcos that get mined and profiled on daily basis. And that is just one company.
The surveillance state is already here, we have let it happen and it is unlikely to go away ever again. I think we should instead refocus the discussion. The question is not anymore how to prevent the surveillance state, but how to best live in a world like this.
That's an unproductive, defeatist argument. You could say that about any problem facing humanity today. It just amounts to an excuse to do nothing.
Let's instead start a discussion about shrinking the surveillance state, with the goal of one day overturning it. Even though the odds are against us. Because you gotta draw the line somewhere.
Apparently Google does not use geo IP for this tracking. ( At least it did not show any location data for me, even we I briefly turned tracking on on my tablet.) However, what Google knows and what Google shows may two different things.
I love that I can sit in my car and with just a few swipes and types I can quickly bring up a navigation route from my current location to a new destination. That is why I let Google know about my whereabouts. It seems foolish of me to give all my location history to Google and subsequently to the NSA for this reason. I should probably find a service that lets me do this without giving up all that information.
I have enabled Google Now, just for fun, because I'm impressed by the technology behind that service. That seems even more foolish. I'm handing over my location history to NSA just to test out new, cool Google tech.
I am completely aware of the fact that any information I give up to the NSA or my country's equivalent, the FRA, can and will be used against me, perhaps not now or in ten yrs from now, but at some point in time, if this mass surveillance is not stopped (which seems very unlikely). I am currently not engaged in any political activities and I'm not at all terrified by what someone would be able to find out about me. I have a feeling though that I'm doing a great disservice to my future self.
I once had an awkward experience because of having Google Latitude enabled and shared with contacts. I was supposed to be at a wedding but I didn't go, then a friend caught me near the event. Since then I keep location, search history etc. turned off. I have learned that the underlying technology might be cool, but it is not essential.
For reasonably short distances (a few hundred km), OsmAnd does routing on the device. It's $8 to have access for the maps they generate (it's also possible to fuss with the maps and not pay...).
It uses OpenStreetMap data, the address search probably isn't as complete as Google.
Wow, felt a little sick when I saw how detailed and accurate it was. Effect of having an Android phone with all the Google location bells and whistles turned on?
Would be nice if I could get the location services features without a comprehensive history of my movements being saved (possibly forever?). It it possible?
If you trust Google when they say they won't collect it, you can just disable the location history (settings panel on that page). If you don't, you probably shouldn't use an Android device at all, with or without Location services.
Someone really need to speed up with their Maps app for places outside US. I am in Indian subcontinent and other alternatives are nowhere near as good as Google.
Google, what have you become? Reading lot of Ayn Rand lately?
When I read about the NSA tracking mobile phones worldwide, I decided to put my mobile "phone" in flight mode - permanently.
It's a PDA now. All you need to do is tell your people to call you on your landline. Like we did a few years back. (Reminder: it was actually possible to live like that - plus, you're not on an electronic leash anymore, it feels really good.)
It has much the same effect. You can leave the phone powered on, but whenever it is in the case it is effectively in flight mode but without requiring me to do anything.
It feels quite liberating to be in control of communication like this and to consume when you want to. A form of zero-distraction for life.
I've turned location history off three times now, I want to know why Google think they have the right to silently turn it back on again without asking me.
I had no location history when I visited this page, since I usually do not grant location access to most apps, unless absolutely necessary. However, when I visited the settings page, the location history was shown as enabled.
My only guess is that viewing your Location history automatically sets it to enabled if it was previously disabled. Or, the default radio button selected on the page is the "Enabled" radio button. Either way, it is friggin' suspicious...
My radio button setting was "disable" even after I visited the location history. I think enabling location access and enabling location history are two different things, in that you can enable the detection of your current location to have better instructions from the application, but at the same time disable history.
Having said that, I am still wondering why I had no location history even if the enable radio button was selected. Still, no harm no foul, I guess?
Another thing worth noting is that the dropdown shows only the last 30 days of your location history - does that mean Google shows only the last 30 days or that we get to see only the last 30 days?
It's not the last 30 days, it shows 30 days worth of data on the map at once. So, you can do 30 days, and then go on the calendar and select September 1st. It will then show 30 days worth of location history on the map, starting on September 1st. I think showing any more than a 30 day period would probably just end up being a tangled mess, honestly, which is probably why they did it that way.
If you want, you should also be able to download the entirety of your location history from Google Takeout. It comes in a JSON file, and has locations in Latitude, longitude, the accuracy, and what activities it thinks you are doing (e.g. still, in a car, walking, on a bike), and the confidences for that.
I don't know, but "Disabled" is still selected when I visit that page after viewing my location history.
When I visit the dashboard, there's a notice at the bottom stating as much, as well... "Google Location History is not yet enabled for your Google Account."
Wow. I wasn't even aware I was sharing my location but up until April 2013 (I had a temporary android phone) I've apparently logged everywhere I've been.
161 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 291 ms ] threadLooks like you can still download all of your data from Google Takeout[2], though. The format is pretty easy to read, converting it into something that Fusion Tables can read should be pretty easy.
[1] http://www.google.com/drive/apps.html#fusiontables
[2] https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom
EDIT: I modified a json->CSV jsfiddle I found so it converts the data I got from Google Takeout to something that is readable by Fusion Tables:
http://jsfiddle.net/evan/5w9Hz/embedded/result/
However, Fusion Tables thwarted me again by only showing a heatmap of the first 1000 location records, so I'm giving up on this for now.
https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/kml?startTime=11...
How can this service exist for customers who want it without being "creepy"?
I will categorically say that I've never been reminded that this is enabled. Until today, when I realised that a complete log of every movement I made in the last 8 months was available, I had no idea that this level of information was viewable to anyone logged into my google account (I'd imagine that something similar has always been available to law enforcement regardless of opt-in status).
I'm not arguing that it shouldn't exist (I now understand why google now always uses my exact route when estimating commute times, and I did have a nice nostalgic trawl through this year's activities) but I do think that transparency that it does exist could be greater.
It was 8 months ago, maybe you just forgot.
I assume this is because I've never given Google permission (eg on my Android phone or otherwise)?
I see occasional attempts to compare what the NSA does and what Google does, as though they're similar. Well this is precisely why Google is nothing like the NSA. Google doesn't have my permission, and they don't have my location history accordingly.
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/54050?hl=en
Mobile device = tracking device.
http://www.zeit.de/digital/datenschutz/2011-03/data-protecti...
You mean: they're not showing you any data after that.
This location data, connected to your other account information, provides the ability to see trends in where people are going - with accurate income estimates. I can only imagine how valuable this information would be to real estate investors.
And that's only a tiny piece of the pie. Google has so much knowledge now, that a lot of it probably goes to waste because they don't even have the capacity to take advantage of it all.
Really wish there was a service like this that only stored the data on your computer/server and not at a place that has an open door policy with the USG. In the mean time, where do I go to turn this off?
edit: found it. On Android, Settings -> Location (under "Personal") ->Google Location Reporting
They buy anonymized live location data from telcos for that, called probes, which go for about $1 per year.
Then a few years after Android started Google suddenly came out with a live traffic service with similar resolution for free.
I already had a pretty strong suspicion of what their cheap source of probes was :)
[0]http://osmand.net/
[0] https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=osmand&fdid=...
Anyhow, what is more amusing for me is when others, like me, turn all this off and tweet away with location turned on or check into various locations on FB/FSQ or comment on what they are doing or where there are at or who they are with at regular intervals.
Every time you type in an address, it gets logged along with your IP addr and any tracking cookie you may have. This happens regardless of whatever setting you've told the service to respect. It's in their financial interest to gather as much data about you as possible.
I do not believe it is possible to break out of the surveillance state by using technology, unless you want to go the RMS route, which I am not that keen on or even sure if it works 100%. I also consider this to be a problem that is social than technological. If society largely agrees to an invasive level of snooping as a valid trade-off for reasonable security, no amount of cyrpto or anonymization will keep you safe. Privacy is a social contract that is enforced using technology. If the contract is flawed, the technology, as always, will only serve to amplify that flaw.
Meanwhile, Google is only one of the players in the data harvesting world. Starting from the ISP that you are on, everyone captures and sells your data. The only saving grace with Google is that they at least admit to doing this and provide some degree of visibility into it. There are companies out there that the average person has little idea about. For example, some of them are shipped billing data of telcos that get mined and profiled on daily basis. And that is just one company.
Let's instead start a discussion about shrinking the surveillance state, with the goal of one day overturning it. Even though the odds are against us. Because you gotta draw the line somewhere.
Mine is 26/63/10.
I have enabled Google Now, just for fun, because I'm impressed by the technology behind that service. That seems even more foolish. I'm handing over my location history to NSA just to test out new, cool Google tech.
I am completely aware of the fact that any information I give up to the NSA or my country's equivalent, the FRA, can and will be used against me, perhaps not now or in ten yrs from now, but at some point in time, if this mass surveillance is not stopped (which seems very unlikely). I am currently not engaged in any political activities and I'm not at all terrified by what someone would be able to find out about me. I have a feeling though that I'm doing a great disservice to my future self.
It uses OpenStreetMap data, the address search probably isn't as complete as Google.
Just buy a standalone GPS device. Avoid the ones called "Live". TomTom ones with FM radio traffic receivers are really good.
Would be nice if I could get the location services features without a comprehensive history of my movements being saved (possibly forever?). It it possible?
Google, what have you become? Reading lot of Ayn Rand lately?
It's a PDA now. All you need to do is tell your people to call you on your landline. Like we did a few years back. (Reminder: it was actually possible to live like that - plus, you're not on an electronic leash anymore, it feels really good.)
It has much the same effect. You can leave the phone powered on, but whenever it is in the case it is effectively in flight mode but without requiring me to do anything.
It feels quite liberating to be in control of communication like this and to consume when you want to. A form of zero-distraction for life.
I had no location history when I visited this page, since I usually do not grant location access to most apps, unless absolutely necessary. However, when I visited the settings page, the location history was shown as enabled.
My only guess is that viewing your Location history automatically sets it to enabled if it was previously disabled. Or, the default radio button selected on the page is the "Enabled" radio button. Either way, it is friggin' suspicious...
Having said that, I am still wondering why I had no location history even if the enable radio button was selected. Still, no harm no foul, I guess?
Another thing worth noting is that the dropdown shows only the last 30 days of your location history - does that mean Google shows only the last 30 days or that we get to see only the last 30 days?
If you want, you should also be able to download the entirety of your location history from Google Takeout. It comes in a JSON file, and has locations in Latitude, longitude, the accuracy, and what activities it thinks you are doing (e.g. still, in a car, walking, on a bike), and the confidences for that.
When I visit the dashboard, there's a notice at the bottom stating as much, as well... "Google Location History is not yet enabled for your Google Account."
No harm, no foul, I guess?