Google is tracking your location—even if you wish it wouldn’t.
The Associated Press discovered that even after you turn off location tracking in Google apps running on Android devices and iPhones, the tech giant will still track your location. The AP asked security researchers to evaluate its findings and those experts said that Google is indeed tracking locations after you request it doesn’t.
In one example, the AP found that Google will take “a snapshot” of your location when you open its Google Maps app, even if you have location tracking turned off. When you search in Google for innocuous topics, like “kids science kits,” Google can accurately determine your location up to a square foot of space, according to the report.
Interestingly, Google isn’t skirting its tracking. In a statement to the AP, in fact, the company said that it tracks location in a variety of ways, including via “Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services.” Google added that it’s clear in how the features work and allows you to delete your location history “at any time.”
The implications, of course, are potentially major. AP’s findings suggest that when you tell Google to turn off location tracking, it’s only stopping the display of location markers in your apps. But when you access one of its many services, it knows where you are and catalogs that.
There would appear to be a privacy concern there, considering some people might not like to know that their every movement is being tracked by a gigantic tech company. It also becomes onerous when Google uses the location history you don’t want to share to identify your location and deliver better advertising opportunities for companies that want to target people around a particular area.
Ultimately, it’s unclear whether Google will do anything about this finding from the AP.
Google did not immediately respond to a Coins2Day request for comment.