back to article Google Timeline location purge causes collateral damage

A year ago, Google announced plans to save people's Location History, which it now calls Timeline, locally on devices rather than on its servers. "This update gives people even more control over their data – and like before, they have the option to save it indefinitely if they want," a Google spokesperson told The Register. …

  1. Dinanziame Silver badge
    Meh

    If the default had been to keep the data forever, you can bet your arse that people would have complained that by default Google is not respecting their privacy. Ah well.

    I'm glad I noticed a warning about this a couple of weeks ago though. It's been sometimes useful to check which exact date I was in a place, or which exact place I visited on a certain trip. I hope they'll eventually make the backup usable on the desktop.

    1. MatthewSt Silver badge

      It would have made more sense for the default to be to keep it forever, as that was the existing behaviour. By all means have a different default for new accounts but leave existing users be!

      I remember getting the notification and being confused as to what my options were. I didn't think I wanted to keep it on my device as I wanted it in the cloud (so it was cross devices) so I nearly chose the wrong option!

    2. Norfolk N Chance

      There is a hybrid option of using a GitHub project called "scrcpy". This mirrors your android device on a PC screen with keyboard and mouse. It's a bit of a fiddle to set up, requiring developer mode (but crucially not root) and will work over WiFi or usb.

      Unfortunately the android timeline app still feels awkward in portrait mode (I can't recall if it was possible to change to landscape) and although the keyboard and mouse improve usability somewhat, it isn't a patch on the old desktop browser app.

  2. elDog

    Their (google's -- first do no harm) notification was utterly confusing

    And maybe that's on purpose.

    They've really stopped being a service to the community and have devolved into a part of many state's apparatus.

  3. VicMortimer Silver badge

    World's smallest violin

    This should never have existed in the first place. It needed to go.

    1. M man

      Re: World's smallest violin

      In my case they F***ING deleted my data without it being backed up without my knowledge.

      And they KNEW about it.

      Since I never read the emails and they knew I hadn't read the emails.

      They also now ignore any request for data recovery.

      10 years of data!

      I was happy for them to have the data because I also had the data, now they have all the metadata knowledge and I got NOTHING. F## THEM

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: World's smallest violin

        So, let me get this straight. They made reasonable efforts to inform you. You chose not to bother reading the emails. And that's their fault?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: World's smallest violin

        How did they know you didn’t read the emails?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: How did they know you didn’t read the emails?

          Google (and others like Zuck and Musk) know what you had for breakfast yesterday, last week, last year. They probably know your dirty little secret. The one that you think that only you know about.

          They know everything about you. Get with it. That is the world we live in.

          You made it happen by using them. You asked for it didn't you?

          1. Dinanziame Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: How did they know you didn’t read the emails?

            It may surprise you, but since the EU DMA regulations, Google Maps is not allowed to know what emails you read! In the first place, I doubt they would stop the change because somebody somewhere hasn't read the warning emails...

            1. mistersaxon

              Re: How did they know you didn’t read the emails?

              So the lack of response could reasonably be taken to indicate that the default action was OK with the recipient? Of course it could - especially since Google are not supposed to know the end user didn't even bother to read the emails. I'm sorry but I don't have a lot of sympathy with anyone's position on that basis.

              Now a technical foul-up meaning they didn't protect something they said they would? Yes, that's bad. Ok, no, that's annoying. You weren't paying them to keep that data were you? It's like Sam with his memory problem - sounds like an awful condition to have but relying on a free service to safeguard something VERY precious to him? That's not wise.

          2. spold Silver badge
            Joke

            Re: How did they know you didn’t read the emails?

            Definitely asked for it.... I'm sure there was a privacy notice (OK may have been 26 pages long) that you failed to read before you clicked on "I have have read and understood/I agree" in the rush to get your hands on the goodies... I mean if you can't spend an hour doing that you can't really complain later...

      3. Irongut Silver badge

        Re: World's smallest violin

        You are why we can't have nice things.

    2. Norfolk N Chance

      Re: World's smallest violin

      "This" could be read at least two ways.

      Do you mean "this" as in the timeline app, which allowed you to view and annotate your location data? Or "this" as in the storage of location data, allegedly with your consent?

      In either case I'm confident that your data (including location) is constantly being accrued by whatever provider you use, regardless of their publicly declared policy. Companies like Google and Apple believe your personal information has value and is definitely worth more than it's storage cost.

      If you meant the former as in the timeline app, I personally feel that as they are collecting my data anyway, at least I could have the use of it myself, and I and others found the timeline viewer was very useful indeed.

      From this decision by Google I suppose we could infer that they feel the value of such data reduces over time, and 10 year old location data isn't worth the storeage cost at all.

      None of this makes any real difference to privacy. Data will continue to be harvested, but they aren't going to provide any windows for us to use it on their dime.

  4. DS999 Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Google never voluntarily gives up data

    As with cookies, they are giving up this data because they now have other ways to collect it - probably ways that you can't control via a simple on/off for location tracking like before.

    1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: Google never voluntarily gives up data

      No its far simpler than that.

      THey dont need to track anyone, because theres no such thing as effective targetted advertising, thats just a lie they "pretent" so the idiots that buy advertising believe they are getting value.

  5. jokerscrowbar

    Let them eat apps.

    There are several apps that do the same job for joggers, dog walkers etc.

    Off Topic.

    Used my iPhones sat-nav for the first time during the storm and was appalled that the voice is locked on Upper Class Twit instead of Stoned Queensland Girl like my last phone. Anyone know how to change it?

    1. Bebu sa Ware
      Coat

      Re: Let them eat apps.

      "voice is locked on Upper Class Twit instead of Stoned Queensland Girl like my last phone"

      Boris Johnson v. Pauline Hanson? Sorry you meant "is stoned" not (both) ought to be.

      Some visitors from the UK had a woman with a Midlands accent on their phone but surprisingly their maps instructions were terser (abrupt even) but more accurate than the local slightly west coast US accent on our phone here in AU.

      I would guess changing your locale would change the voice eg en_AU if you want Pauline, en_UK for a blithering Boris but unfortunately I have no idea how to do that on a phone.

    2. Zazu56

      Re: Let them eat apps.

      Use the Siri voice chooser.

      Settings - Siri - Voice.

    3. Munkeh

      Re: Let them eat apps.

      I used to have mine set to Aussie, but now use Irish voice 2 which sounds pretty close to "Friday" from Iron Man. Nowhere near as capable sadly.

      1. jokerscrowbar

        Re: Let them eat apps.

        Thank you for the suggestions.

        Siri is set Aus voice 2, The Speak function is set to Aussie Karen and phone Language is set to English (Australian) which works with everything else however the sat nav STILL has Bentest Old Etonian voice.

        I can tell you that 600miles driving a Transit Luton in a Force 10 storm was white knuckle enough and sat nav was necessary because all the bridges were closed and river roads flooded but instructions from that received pronouwcsiasstion prick made it like riding with the Devil himself.

  6. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    If you depend on keeping information on somebody else's computer then remember that:

    1. its continued existence depends on the whim of that somebody else unless

    2. you have a contract with them to preserve it - and maybe not even then*. A contract is a legal arrangement to provide a good or service in return for a consideration or, as we non-lawyers put it, payment.

    You may think somebody else has better skills than you in looking after your stuff. This may be true but they don't have your motivation.

    * If somebody else goes bust, gets taken over or suffers form force majeure your contract isn't going to help.

    1. Blazde Silver badge

      Are there actually any providers who offer contracts which commit to preserve data?

      Did UniSuper get any financial compensation when Google nuked their entire business infrastructure (I'm not aware they did)? They did get Google admitting fault, and the fact that was actually valuable is pretty interesting because, paradoxically, Google and other cloud providers are pretty damn good at looking after data and maintaining uptime so when they fail it's assumed to be their customer's fault. It's sort of a good situation to be in but still an abuse of power.

      Anyway, data you can back up. The nastier issue is when you lose an address or identifier which might be incredibly valuable to you, but which a tech giant controls and has various opaque automated systems for deciding whether or not it should be deactivated without warning.

  7. Tron Silver badge

    Suggestion.

    If Google are moving this data to devices, maybe they should start selling devices with a memory card slot, so the data can be backed up on to it and easily copied across to back ups, so it doesn't die with the device.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Suggestion.

      Why would Google do that when you can back up to Google Cloud? Oh..wait....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Suggestion.

      All my phones have had card slots, but they were still running Android. Each time I switched from one to the next, I couldn't help notice that backing up and restoring data manually is kept intentionally difficult, even impossible for some types.

  8. GNU Enjoyer
    Big Brother

    There is no difference between location data stored on a remote server and location data stored on a device if such device is under control of some other party that can simply command the (usually always internet connected) device to send the wanted location data at any time.

    It does surprise me that such location spying is actually useful and helpful to one single person, but I reckon such person still could be served just as well with free location tracking software, thus there is still no reason for google's location spying software to exist.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Used for business millage

    I used timeline to support busines milage claim.

    It was easier to get Google to snap the route to the road and use the measurement along with date as proof.

    Going to now be a pain.

    1. Zarno

      Re: Used for business millage

      I've been using a service called TripLog (Intended for fleets I think, but it's cheap enough for a single user), and while it's not "always there in the background" it does well.

      The annoying thing is if I forget to "start" the trip manually in a rental car, then it doesn't log the route or mileage.

      For personal cars it checks for a bluetooth connection to the radio/head unit, and starts/stops trips based on that connection and a speed threshold.

      There's also a cheap BLE beacon dongle that you can use to auto-start a trip, which works OK, when I remember to plug it into the rental car...

      I primarily used it to keep track of my fuel expenses, and mpg, but when Timeline got axed I fell more into using the mileage portion.

      It's been pretty accurate vs the car odometer, well within a mile or two on a 1200+ mile trip.

      No affiliation, just a happy customer for (checks account registration) Wow, it's been a decade...

  10. Norfolk N Chance

    Timeline seems to have been of rather niche appeal to most people.

    Occasionally I would read a story where a journalist had stumbled upon it and was horrified to find an accessible window into the location data which is undeniably being collected by anyone who can (Apple Google Microsoft and many others I'm sure).

    However for a few, at a guess 2-3% of phone users, it became incredibly useful. I was one, and my specific use was to keep track of vehicle mileage for tax reasons, which seemed to be a common use. Others myself included, used it to just see where they'd been generally.

    The argument that a free service provided by someone else may be dropped at any time is true, and to rely on it for any matter of importance would be a mistake. But like the others in small minority who enjoyed the desktop browser and let it into their lives, I will greatly miss it's demise

    There are a nother couple of points I'd like to mention.

    Firstly, when following the Google instructions to move the timeline data to your phone, stop. Instead, before going any further, visit Google Takeout and download all your timeline data. Twice if you're paranoid. This is because the data Google sends to your phone has been heavily abbreviated, .and as per article above, some stuff seems to have been deleted. My own experience is that location points have been reduced or decimated by around 75%. If you keep the original Google Takeout files you will be able to import them into other solutions later.

    Secondly, I wonder if this might have been an own goal on Google's part. Sure the service was niche, and possibly the data storage requirements (volume, regulatory etc) didn't seem attractive anymore, but they may have just lost the most useful volunteer map correcting team they didn't know they had. I wonder how many other people spend time correcting location physical positions, adding opening hours, answering a few questions about businesses' services and so on - perhaps this may show in time.

    Lastly, next time - self host, back up and if it's worth doing, learn how to do it yourself. No one else will care as much as you.

  11. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Google will kill anything at any time

    https://killedbygoogle.com/

    Do not depend on a goddamned thing they do. You will get burned.

    It looks like people have learned this the hard way.

  12. dangerous race

    How much . . .

    . . . do people pay Google for the services they provide that includes Timeline? I mean in cash money, not in collected personal data.

  13. Andrew Penfold

    Morgan Freeman Voice

    These walls are funny. First you hate'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on 'em

  14. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Faster than a speeding bullet

    > Google Maps on desktop would tell you when you visited a place.

    It does a lot more than that. For some reason it consistently reports I visit a location in South America. I can only conclude that occasionally the GPS on my phone flips a bit and changes my hemispheres: both north-south and east-west.

    So while it gets my location right most of the time, my ability to (apparently) travel instantly,thousands of miles without worrying any countries' border controls, or airlines, would make Google's timelines useless as a forensic device.

    1. JimBz

      Re: Faster than a speeding bullet

      Any big dataset has errors but that doesn't make it useless. We take into account context, corroboration, reasonableness. If there's a murder down the road and your timeline says you were there you are in serious need of a reliable alibi. Your location blips probably won't do the trick. If the murder was in South America, and you had to travel at the speed of light to get there and return, you're off the hook.

  15. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    opposite isssue

    I've had the opposite issue... i set to not do anything with my location info and within the last few months google's started to ask me tio review places etc. that make it real clear it decided to do so anyway.

  16. spold Silver badge

    Stop complaining...

    We know where you are and we are coming to get you anyway....

  17. Piro

    So.. people wanted Google to track them?

    News to me. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

    I didn't have this feature enabled.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    First Google should not store user's data without it being clear and the user agreeing and it should all be easily accessed by the user so it is clear what is stored. That said for the few that need their geo data stored in the cloud, allow them and charge if required. Isn't it that simple?

    Personally I would like to store mine locally but I can see how that could case a loss of revenue from adverstisers and nosey government. I fully understand Google have to generate revenue or there is no Google.

  19. Confucious2

    All the people

    As with most things, you will never please all of the people. Whatever they did people would complain.

    I didn’t even know this feature existed so am probably better off having my history deleted, not that it would have unduly bothered me if it wasn’t.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They effectively killed the functionality, which was devastating. Visits from a hundred trips over thirty countries gone, with no ability to even opt-in to the cloud-based service, which I'd have paid extra for. Now we have some theoretical support for it locally, which doesn't appear in Maps and is, thusly, irrelevant to a very large group of people of which I am included. This really damaged any hope that I had of Google having anything but a loose grasp of what emotionally affects their customers. Screw them.

  21. fluffymitten

    It used to be useful...

    I liked Timeline a lot but have noticed features and usability eroding. Used to be able to click on a location and see all the visits you had there, which was very helpful when recommending bars/restaurants.

    I made sure data was set to never delete and enabled the back up option when accepting my fate to have the info stored on my phone. I have noticed, since then, that the quality of information on New Timeline is awful. The logic it seems to use when you update missing / incomplete data is bonkers. I keep submitting feedback but I know it just gets binned. I suspect I'm going to just end up turning the feature off if improvements can't be made.

  22. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Being old-school...

    I don't quite see what all the fuss is about. In my day we had things called Diaries and, in generations since people might have had a thing called a Filofax.

    Has society moved on so much that we have forgotten about these things? I appreciate Sam has a further disadvantage than most of us, but sometimes, just picking up an old diary might remind us (him?) of a lot more than what is formally recorded - that hastily scribbled phone number on a beer coaster wedged inside, for example.

    Maybe this is a wake-up call to get your butt down to Rymans to pick up a 2025 Diary - size is your call. Week to a view or two pages per day, or anything in between. Be inspired...

    1. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Being old-school...

      When I travel I always carry a small notebook and pen with me. Small enough to fit in my front pocket along with the cell phone. Never inconvenienced me... whenever I take them out to do some quick annotations, people looks at me like an alien.

      These notebooks (I am on the third one) have a record of all the places I've visited since 2012. Obviously being dead tree slices, they are in danger of being destroyed very easily so I am in the process of digitalizing them.

      I know that if I lose them now it will be my fault, but I am not at the mercy of a Silly-Con Valley company.

      Some of the use cases in the article are noteworthy, and I can't but feel bad for these people, but trusting Google is the dumbest thing one can do online.

    2. Brave Coward

      Re: Being old-school...

      Funny you mentioned it.

      I just happened to re-read this week-end my personal paper diary from 1977, to help fix some memory leakage.

      I *very much* doubt that any of the current smartphone aficionados will be able in fifty years to get *any* sort of clues on what their life has been back then.

  23. Mage Silver badge

    Never rely on Google

    See https://killedbygoogle.com/

  24. sweh

    History

    I guess I must have clicked the right buttons at some point; my phone has timeline data _in maps_ going back to 11th November 2015. The data looks a little wrong (eg it has my "driving" when I was on a train) but it seems mostly OK.

    Not sure what phone I was using back then... maybe Galaxy S4.

    Maps has never been terribly accurate with locations; eg when I walk to the shops (maybe a mile) it can show that it's missed the path I've taken and just drawn a straight line between them. I still see that 9 years later!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sam sounds like an AI hallucination. Are you sure ChatGPT didn't write this article?

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