Google knows your movements, despite you like it or not!

A recent investigation by Associated Press found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that prevent it from doing so.

Ever wondered how Google tracks your movement even if you've disabled it in your privacy settings? 

A recent investigation by Associated Press found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that prevent it from doing so.

These findings were confirmed by researchers at Princeton, on AP’s request. This was further confirmed by a researcher at Mayer’s lab on multiple Android devices and AP conducted its own tests on several iPhones that revealed the same behavior. 

What AP’s research found?

According to Google, if you turn off Location History, the places you go are no longer stored.

(Screenshot of Google's Location history web page)

This isn’t true at all. As per the AP’s research, despite turning off the location history on your device, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking the user. For instance, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are.

The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search. 

“There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people’s experience, including Location History, Web, and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to the AP. 

(Screenshot of the Google's Web & App Activity webpage)

 How to prevent Google from accessing your location?

To stop Google from saving these location markers the users have to turn off another set in their Google account called the Web & App Activity. If Web & App Activity setting is turned on, searches and activity from other Google services and applications are saved to the user’s Google Account.

When paused, it will prevent activity on any device from being saved to your account. But leaving “Web & App Activity” on and turning “Location History” off only prevents Google from adding your movements to the “timeline,” its visualization of your daily travels. It does not stop Google’s collection of other location markers, the investigation found.

Turning off the “Web & App Activity” setting not only stops Google from storing location markers but also prevents Google from storing information generated by searches and other activity.