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Google Spies Your Activities On Your Phone

Google Spies Your Activities On Your Phone

If you're one of the people who think that disabling the geolocation option on their phones will put them out of reach of Google's tracking services, you may be mistaken. According to researchers at Princeton University, the company records our location data even when the position option is turned off.

An investigation reveals an amazing fact
According to a survey published August 13 by the Associated Press, the fact of disabling or not the geolocation on our mobile phone does not change much, our position is still recorded and transmitted to Google.

For this, the agency worked in collaboration with researchers from Princeton University in the United States. One of the researchers did a simple test: for three days, he kept off the geolocation option of his phone. Against all odds, Google had managed to record the majority of his travels and he was able to trace his itinerary with about forty places in which he visited during this period.

By disabling the geolocation option on his phone, it prevents a precise recording of all our movements, but this does not prevent Google from registering our position, less precisely and more punctually, by other means , as thanks to different applications and search engines.

Most of this information would be used by Google for commercial purposes, to provide users with content tailored to the location where they are, a weather report or relevant advertising.

How to disable tracking for good?
To do this, you must first disable the geolocation option on your phone.

Then disable the history of our locations in the Google Maps app by going to the "Menu", then in "Your Activities", and then click on the "Manage Location History" button.

And since, as we have seen, this is not enough, it is also necessary to disable, in the Google Maps application, the default setting "Web and App Activity" in the "Personal Content" menu. This setting allows Google to save a lot of information from your website or the apps we use to your account.

Our privacy in danger
At present, all it takes is a simple internet connection to interfere in the privacy of others through computers, phones, bank cards, cars and television. A proof of this is that every second in the world, seventeen people undergo a cyber-scam: theft of files, photos, identity or bank account. The number of computer attacks by hackers who use some of our personal information at our expense is steadily increasing.

How can we protect ourselves?
There are several techniques to protect our data and our privacy on the internet. Here are a few :

Have good passwords
Having complicated passwords makes hacking our accounts more difficult for potential hackers.

Block cookies
Cookies are files that are installed on our devices when we browse the internet, and that collect various personal information to send them and whose main purpose is to offer us personalized advertising.

Choosing the right search engine
In addition to the near-inevitable Google, other search engines exist, more respectful of the privacy of Internet users, such as Qwant or DuckDuckGo.

Go through the Tor software
This software makes it possible to have access to the network of the same name and to browse anonymously. By browsing the Tor network, our data is not tracked.

Regularly update apps
These updates include security additions that address some of the security holes in software or applications.

Be careful when buying online
Buy goods online only if the website is secure, with "https: //" and a small padlock in the address bar.

Be alert when downloading apps
When we accept the terms of use of certain applications like Facebook Messenger, we automatically give them access to our data, tools such as the camera or microphone, or even our entire phone!

Otherwise, to be sure not to be tracked, monitored, watched, we can also drop everything and go live in a cabin in the woods, far from the civilized world!
Google Spies Your Trips On Your Phone