Why allowing Google Now to track your location is a great idea

You may not think it, but it's not like they need something to hold against you

We’re constantly connected on some level. Whether we like it or not, If you have a smartphone (of course you do) your travels are being logged somewhere - not just the websites you visit or the things you search for, but the physical places too. Our smartphones are so smart, when we show off exactly how smart they are to our parents and their generational associates they all look on with wide eyes proclaiming how big brother is watching us.

Google Now was activated on my Android some time ago - maybe about two years - and the things it has learnt about me were unnerving at first, but I've accepted most of it now. At first it was a card on my Google App that asked, "Is this your home address?" - with a maps picture placed perfectly on the street where I live - all without me ever entering billing info anywhere into my Google account. Next it verified my office, and then the places I would frequent in my daily routine - something I do a lot; I work 'on the road'.

The Now app had eventually- more or less- figured out my weekly visits and displayed travel times to contacts I'd visited regularly, on specific days. All this from me allowing Google access to my location - even without actually using GPS (I actually don't use navigation that often) Then one random Saturday night it told me exactly how far it was to the karaoke bar down the road - a place I'd frequent with friends on many Saturday nights before. 

It had pieced my routine together... Had Skynet used Google we would never have gotten five Terminator films. 

But it was when Google aided me outside of my routine that really surprised me. An invite from friends to a weekend destination a flight away, a google search of the venue's website, a booked flight ticket and three days later - I receive a google card notifying me that the destination I had forgetfully googled was a two hour drive away - continue straight. Now I'm pretty sure it was assuming that this is where we were headed - but it was a damn good assumption and it has only ever assumed wrong once since then. All it took was a search, three days, a change of city and us travelling down the correct highway for the card to appear.

When I share this story with friends many say how they would never allow this on their phones, "what is the world coming to?", which is a fair question - but its not the point. Its not as if the phone is secretly meeting other phones and deviously outlining a plot for me, remembering every single place I visit - everything I search and then one day its going to print it on a billboard for everyone to see. It still leaves all this info and the access to it firmly in the user's control. Something that you could view right now if you have an Android, a Google account and some time to spare.

On your Android device, find and open the Google Maps app and once open, hit the little hamburger menu in the top-left corner. Scroll a little down and you'll see "Your Timeline". If setup correctly you can now view where you were today, yesterday and quite a long time before that - every single day. 

Similarly on your PC in your browser navigate to maps.google.com (be sure to login to Google) hit the menu top-left and down to "Your Timeline" just like before you can now view your daily movements.

  

Occasionally Google won't be 100% sure where you were - all this info is based off Wi-Fi routers it gathered when they drove everywhere imaging everything. So it will ask you to verify some locations which you can edit as you see fit.

Having access to all this has been a great advantage - for one thing It's great to use as a log for fuel refunds or even tax returns - the only downside is it can't be extracted, you need to manually create your own records and use this as the reference until Google gives us the functionality to at least download this info in an excel or some other easily customized format.

More recently I took a few photo's with my phone at a local outdoor venue and the Google maps app asked if I could upload it to it's servers for others to see - I obliged and was promptly taken to the Maps "Your Contributions" area. Now I'm occasionally answering questions along with many others about public places I've visited in a somewhat fun, RPG-like way that could better the results offered by Search on all platforms.

Still - if you ever want Google to stop tracking you, go to your account settings on your phone and turn it off. It's as simple as a flick of a switch. Unlike other smartphone apps that require a ton of permissions at the start - some of which cannot be turned off.

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depicted: No Dragons

For me it's a good enough pay-off: I pay nothing to use the majority of Google's value-adding services such as Keep, Drive and Gmail. The productivity these apps promote far exceed any negative aspects. It also doesn't hurt when I search for anything, the results are quite specific to where I am. When it comes down to it - having allowed Google access to my location has left me better for it.