Many Google services on Android and iPhone devices record location information even when those devices are set in a way that should prevent Google from doing so.
Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed the findings of the Associated Press, the publication reported Monday. According to AP, even when the Location History setting is paused, which means your location is “no longer stored,” according to Google’s support page, Google apps stores time-stamped location data.
Google shows a user’s location when the user opens the Maps app, for example. Android phones also have automatic daily weather updates that display the user’s approximate location, and random Google searches will show a “precise latitude and longitude,” which is saved to a user’s Google account, according to AP.
[Opinion: Is Google an evil monopoly? The EU thinks so]
Google said users can turn off a different setting, “Web and App Activity,” which is enabled by default, that prevents any device activity from being recorded on a user’s Google account.
“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. “We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time.”
A current computer scientist at Princeton who is also a former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau told AP he disagrees with the the company’s tactics.
“If you’re going to allow users to turn off something called ‘Location History,’ then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off,” Mayer said. “That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.”
AP’s findings come after a series of privacy scandals at Facebook, and a Quartz finding last year that Google tracked Android devices even when location services were turned off by recording location information of nearby cell phone towers.
According to AP, around two billion people use Google’s Android operating software, and hundreds of millions of people around the world use iPhones for Google search or maps.
