Re: [PLUG] do no evil

[Rich Freeman <r-plug@thefreemanclan.net>]

On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 8:26 AM, jeff <jeffv@op.net> wrote:
> https://twitter.com/musalbas/status/775261347122671616
>
> according to this, Google Maps is on, tracking your location, even if you
> uninstall it. 'Fix' is to turn off GPS and use it only if/when you need it.
>

Some corrections:

1.  This tweet doesn't even suggest that "Google Maps" is on and
tracking your location if it is uninstalled.  It alleges that Google
Play Services is doing so.
2.  While it seems obvious that Google Play Services is determining
the location, whether it is "tracking" it is another matter.  As
others have pointed out, it provides APIs so another application could
have asked Play Services for the location, and Play Services didn't
necessarily retain this information or transmit it elsewhere.
3.  I believe there is a separate setting somewhere for location
history/etc which has nothing to do with Google Maps.  Google Maps is
just an application that makes use of the GPS, it isn't the GPS
framework itself.  I think you actually go into Google Plus to view
the history, though it seems like something Google is constantly
moving around.  If you don't want them tracking your location I'd
check the history setting at the very least, though that depends on
Google to follow it (seems likely that they would, but who knows).


Personally I think the common attitude towards this stuff is
backwards.  People trying to keep their location and information
private are like the RIAA trying to stop people from downloading mp3
files.  This information is becoming easier and easier to get and
distribute, and most people just want to put the genie back into the
bottle.

I think the eventual solution is for privacy culture to change.
Sooner or later people will be recording everything that happens
everywhere, this information will be available to everybody in
well-indexed form, and so on.  Anybody who cares to look it up will
know everybody you talk to, every person you give money to, every
place you've been, and so on.  When you apply for a job at age 40 your
employer will see the video of you shoplifting at the age of 15, and
smoking pot at a party at age 20, and pictures of the first person you
slept with.  So will your mother.  At some point society will have to
learn to deal with the fact that most people don't live their lives in
exactly the way they would want people to think that they do, and
we'll have to get over it, unless nobody wants to talk to anybody else
ever again.  And at that point, the fact that nobody has any privacy
won't bother us so much.

The upside is that we'll also have recordings of every time a lobbyist
takes a politician out for lunch.  It seems like our culture has
already adjusted to accepting this.

-- 
Rich
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