Google Timeline

[Deleted member 4366]

I was just having a play with Google Navigation when I came across Google Timeline, that's in the Maps menu. It shows everywhere you've ever been whenever you had your Android Phone with you and location services switched on. It goes back years. Cycle journeys are shown in green, walking in light blue and driving in dark blue. I was looking at my last cycle ride. It even shows that I stopped for 10 minutes when I had a drink by a lake.

 

[tommie]

.. and it poses the question who has access to your Google data as well as you??

 

[Benjahmin]

Well yes. Rather scary implications, another reason to be glad I've got a dumb 'phone.

 

[Woosh]

when a company like google offers something for free, ask yourself the question: how do they make money out of it? the answer is usually 'you are the product'.
I don't mind being the product but always set the privacy to maximum.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/07/24/worried-about-googles-your-timeline-heres-how-to-disable-tracking/

 

[tommie]

How to cancel....


On Android

• Open App drawer. Select Settings, then Location.
• Find Google Location Settings and individually switch off both Location Reporting and Location History.
• Underneath Location History, select “Delete Location History” to wipe clean the cache of locations.
• Repeat the steps for every Google account you have registered.

On iOS

• Open Settings. Select Privacy, then Location Services.
• Either disable all Location Services using the slider at the top, or scroll through the list to decide, case-by-case, which apps you want to allow.
• At the bottom, select “System Services” and decide what features you want to allow.

Also note that using Google Search and Maps will still cause some location data to be saved as part of your private Web & App Activity.

 

[Gubbins]

Here's something I can't get my head around.. a secure password generator? All I see is letting Google do it for me and the question is how is it secure?
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/965085/Google-Chrome-password-generator-feature-guide

 

[Woosh]

a secure password is a long password, even simple stuff like: 'my old password was 1234X'

 

[Gubbins]

Yes but why would I let a website create and store my unrememberable passwords when it seems that any website could be hacked at any time. Is that any different from writing it down?

 

[Woosh]

do you want someone else to know all your passwords? It takes nearly as long to crack an easy to memorise password as a complex one with the same length. There are techniques but by and large, it's the length of the password that makes the password hard to crack. Anything over 8 characters or symbols is safe, even '1234=1234' is.

Try this:

https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

 

[Gubbins]

I don't have a problem with passwords but I do have a problem with letting Google do it for me..
I use one basic password for everything except banking. It's a short password and I add on to it whatever the password is for and mixed in is a 4 digit pin that replaces the first 4 vowels. For banking I have a memorable phrase.. again with the vowel/pin mixed in.
On the surface this timeline thing seems inocent enough, even useful at times.