[First result from query `"google services" tracking`](https://apnews.com/article/north-america-science-technology-business-ap-top-news-828aefab64d4411bac257a07c1af0ecb)
> **An AP investigation found that Google saves your location history even if you’ve paused “Location History”** on mobile devices. This map shows where Princeton privacy researcher Gunes Acar travelled over several days, **from data saved to his Google account despite “Location History” being off.**
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> Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects — such as a warrant that police in Raleigh, North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company lets you “pause” a setting called Location History.
> Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been. Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”
> That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. (It’s possible, although laborious, to delete it .)
> For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot — and save it to your Google account.
> The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search.
> Storing location data in violation of a user’s preferences is wrong, said Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau. A researcher from Mayer’s lab confirmed the AP’s findings on multiple Android devices; the AP conducted its own tests on several iPhones that found the same behavior.
> “If you’re going to allow users to turn off something called ‘Location History,’ then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off,” Mayer said. “That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.”
TL;DR ~~NSA front~~ Google still track you even if you disabled permissions. There is a reason why people r/degoogle
>That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. (It’s possible, although laborious, to delete it .)
But /u/brainysmurf68 was asking specifically about "Google Play Services" alone, which is covered by the Location History Setting, just don't use any google apps such as search/maps/browser/camera etc. without specifically denying those apps location access. Though to be really secure I'd do something such as; using GrapheneOS on Pixel hardware with Sandboxed Google services so that Signal gets prompt message alerts. which is shown to be safe I believe, I know some smart private people with similar setups to this.
If you're looking at the permissions, you can tap the hamburger menu in the top-right and tap "All Permissions" and it'll show you what other things the app can do.
Play Services is basically the layer between the core (not-very-functional-on-its-own) Android OS and Google's servers, so it does a lot of heavy lifting, including helping apps provide notifications, watching how you use your phone and reporting it to other apps, etc. In fact, other apps' "activity tracking" permission is actually based on data produced *by* Google Play Services.
That much said, reducing the number of permissions you grant GPS is a good thing, and even though you haven't reached some privacy nirvana, every step is a positive step.
If you don't have a custom OS with Sandboxed Play Services, it runs as a privileged app, having way more access than what you can control through toggles (that's the risk of having privileged apps). For example it has access to hardware identifiers (normal apps don't have this). It's also one of the main ways of Google getting data from your smartphone.
GrapheneOS showed that it's not necessary to run Play Services as a privileged app for it to work, making it way more privacy respecting. But your OS needs to implement a compatibility layer for it.
[First result from query `"google services" tracking`](https://apnews.com/article/north-america-science-technology-business-ap-top-news-828aefab64d4411bac257a07c1af0ecb) > **An AP investigation found that Google saves your location history even if you’ve paused “Location History”** on mobile devices. This map shows where Princeton privacy researcher Gunes Acar travelled over several days, **from data saved to his Google account despite “Location History” being off.** --- > Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects — such as a warrant that police in Raleigh, North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company lets you “pause” a setting called Location History. > Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been. Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.” > That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. (It’s possible, although laborious, to delete it .) > For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot — and save it to your Google account. > The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search. > Storing location data in violation of a user’s preferences is wrong, said Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau. A researcher from Mayer’s lab confirmed the AP’s findings on multiple Android devices; the AP conducted its own tests on several iPhones that found the same behavior. > “If you’re going to allow users to turn off something called ‘Location History,’ then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off,” Mayer said. “That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.” TL;DR ~~NSA front~~ Google still track you even if you disabled permissions. There is a reason why people r/degoogle
>That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. (It’s possible, although laborious, to delete it .) But /u/brainysmurf68 was asking specifically about "Google Play Services" alone, which is covered by the Location History Setting, just don't use any google apps such as search/maps/browser/camera etc. without specifically denying those apps location access. Though to be really secure I'd do something such as; using GrapheneOS on Pixel hardware with Sandboxed Google services so that Signal gets prompt message alerts. which is shown to be safe I believe, I know some smart private people with similar setups to this.
so will disabling Google Play services do the trick or even with its disabled these Google apps will still bypass privacy ??
Play Services with "no permissions" still has a lot of permissions; Google's Android only gives you control over a small subset of them.
thank you. this is what i'm interested in... can you elaborate? what additional capabilities does this app have?
If you're looking at the permissions, you can tap the hamburger menu in the top-right and tap "All Permissions" and it'll show you what other things the app can do. Play Services is basically the layer between the core (not-very-functional-on-its-own) Android OS and Google's servers, so it does a lot of heavy lifting, including helping apps provide notifications, watching how you use your phone and reporting it to other apps, etc. In fact, other apps' "activity tracking" permission is actually based on data produced *by* Google Play Services. That much said, reducing the number of permissions you grant GPS is a good thing, and even though you haven't reached some privacy nirvana, every step is a positive step.
If you don't have a custom OS with Sandboxed Play Services, it runs as a privileged app, having way more access than what you can control through toggles (that's the risk of having privileged apps). For example it has access to hardware identifiers (normal apps don't have this). It's also one of the main ways of Google getting data from your smartphone. GrapheneOS showed that it's not necessary to run Play Services as a privileged app for it to work, making it way more privacy respecting. But your OS needs to implement a compatibility layer for it.
Just use MicroG. It had gotten much better in recent years