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Google to start permanently deleting users’ location history (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 5 months ago by neme@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 147 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

That’s fascinating, it sounds like the cost for Google to store, categorize, and disseminate this information is higher than the profit. Morals are unlikely to be relevant, after all. Or are they simply using devices as their storage medium?

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 42 points 5 months ago

The data has costs associated with it: they'll want to back it up, they need to migrate it when they change formats, they need to maintain the hardware it resides on.

And, as the article mentions, there are liabilities around law enforcement requests, costs due to data breaches, and regulatory requirements.

Three months is plenty for them to target ads.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Or are they simply using devices as their storage medium?

Why would they care if they use up all the space on YOUR device?

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

Because u have no storage on ur device cos they want to sell u cloud storage.

[–] pop@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's likely now your device does the initial processing of your data (store, categorize, and disseminate) and the aggregate is sent through as telemetry. They save on processing costs and users think it's privacy friendly.

But it's Google we're talking about here and smartphones are more than capable these days.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

It is privacy friendly.

They don't want any more headlines of governments using their data to victimize people receiving abortions than they need to. I'd be shocked if that continued trend isn't the instigator of this.

That tracking is super invasive and gross, and not having it tied to an ad profile is a good thing, regardless of their motivations.