Recently Google has released incognito mode on google maps for iOS. This feature had already been released for Androids earlier this year. When you have this feature turned on you “can search for a location or navigate somewhere, and Google won’t save that information to your Google account.” In the article on The Verge it also stated that Google has announced that next month they will be releasing an update for Androids where they can mass delete information from their Google Maps timeline and location history. I think that what Google is doing hits on a major part of technology: privacy. Privacy is and always will be a huge issue, especially as more and more parts of our lives involve technology. Google is smart because they realize more people are worrying about what information is being tracked and who can access this information. This move made by Google is in the long run creating better customer relations with the millions of people who use their service every day.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/21003127/google-maps-ios-incognito-mode-android-bulk-delete-location-history-timeline
This feature has been out for a while now and I feel like many people love what they have done to the incognito mode on google maps. It allows you to go anywhere and google does not save that information. These days the internet is becoming really advanced, and being able to have this mode where nothing is saved is a big step into the future. These days incognito mode on google maps is not allowed to track any of the following; “Commute, Following, Location History, Location Sharing, Notifications, and messages, Search history, Search, completion suggestions, Google Maps Contributions, Offline Maps, Your Places, and Media integration.” All of these are tracked when not using incognito mode and google is able to track all of that and more. overall I feel like this feature has been a great success when it comes to privacy on the internet.
source- https://support.google.com/maps/answer/9430563?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS
It’s interesting to see Google develop such a feature, but what would be the real point of this? I understand the point of incognito mode is to avoid data being shared and to avoid cookies but I don’t see the point of it being correlated with Google Maps.
Recently I’ve been e-mailed by google showcasing that they’ve been tracking the places that I’ve been within the past 5 years and wanted to display where I’ve been based on their project called “Google Timeline.” I was so shocked to find out how much Google has been tracking me throughout these years and it came to my suprise of how easy it was.
With that being said, I felt like my privacy wasn’t safe anymore and felt like I was being tracked the entire time which makes me feel like it could be this easy for a hacker to do the same thing and know where I am.
So, I suppose in that regard, Incognito mode for Google Maps could be very useful.
I did not know that google had a feature like this. I think that new innovations like this are going to help people in the future. This type of technology is also going to make people feel safer since they are not always being followed by google. As we learned in class, we are being watched a lot more than we realize. I think it is important to maintain a boundary such as this one. This will also help people go places without their family or friends knowing about it which can be useful.
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I think that this idea of Google having incognito mode is very interesting. Pretty much everything we do on the internet is saved and that information can be accessed by other people. This is how companies collect data for advertisements and other things of that nature so they are tailored to you and what you have been searching. I know that when I search a certain location or directions on Google maps, I always see adds or online content related to whatever it is that I searched. I think that this incognito mode that Google has launched shows that people really value privacy when it comes to the Internet today.
Source: https://www.rd.com/culture/truth-google-incognito-mode/
In my opinion this is pretty great news. I knew that Google tracks lots of information but I never know how much was from Google Maps until last year. I opened Google Maps on my computer and was shocked to see my walking patterns mapped, with the locations I visited. It may not be very malicious but it came as a surprise to see how much was being tracked. This is good news for those who are wary of their information.
According this article you can turn off your location service while you aren’t in the Google Maps app. This is a pretty simple fix but they will still track the restaurants and locations you search. As others have noted this a step in the right direction for Google in terms of privacy. It will also be interesting to see how they stack up versus privacy first competitors like DuckDuckGo.
https://mashable.com/article/google-maps-ios-incognito-mode/
Wow, I didn’t know that Google was planning to role something like this out. While I do think it’s a step in the right direction, it kind of irks me that they waited this long to do so. Google brashly siphoned data from all of its consumers, and while they didn’t sell it off to data brokers like Facebook did, they used that data for exceptionally well targeted advertising to make the troves of money they have today. Now that they are starting to receive a bunch of attention from the media regarding this, they go ahead and “go against” data collection in a way as strong as this.
I believe their intentions aren’t bad. Or at least I’d like to believe that. Google isn’t the first or last company that will make a “save” decision like this when it comes to receiving fire from the masses. However, I think it speaks to the culture that we have created around our consumption of data that we glorify institutions for simply righting the wrongs they made in the first place.
https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/google-data-collection-is-more-extensive-and-intrusive-than-you-ever-imagined/
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