4 things to know about how Google tracks your location

Despite the convenience of Google's location-aware devices and services, the technology has increasingly become a tool employed by government agencies to track users - and potential suspects - during criminal investigations.

Posted 10:00 p.m. Jul 25, 2019 — Updated 10:00 p.m. Jul 25, 2019

Tyler Dukes

, WRAL investigative reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Despite the convenience of Google's location-aware devices and services, the technology has increasingly become a tool employed by government agencies to track users – and potential suspects – during criminal investigations.

That's raising privacy concerns among civil rights advocates, who worry about the implications of fine-grained location information and what it can reveal about people swept up in broad searches.

Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown, whose detectives have used so-called "geofence" or "reverse" search warrants in eight investigations in the last few years, says her department takes steps to protect the public's Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

But she also notes that users have a choice.

"I think it's important, first of all, to know what you're pressing on your smart devices, because when those requests are asked by those devices, there's usually an indication that this information and location can be shared," Deck-Brown said. "The flip side of that is, if you're in danger or you've lost a loved one, you would be appreciative – and most are – that we're able to use that data as a possible means by which to locate the individual or locate the individuals who have committed the crime."

Understanding what your device knows about you can be complicated, so here are a few things to remember when considering whether to disable location tracking for your phone or tablet.

There are several types of location tracking

Location information law enforcement agencies have demanded over the past few years is contained within Google's SensorVault database, which stores device coordinates collected using both WiFi and GPS.

GPS is much more accurate. But it can still vary, as evidenced every time you pull up Google Maps and click the "my location" icon. Around the dot representing your device, you'll see a wider, faint blue circle. Your true location can be anywhere in that circle, a reflection of the uncertainty.

Data turned over in discovery by prosecutors in one of the Google warrant cases, obtained by WRAL News, shows that the handful of devices picked up by GPS could vary by between 9 and 42 feet in any direction.

For WiFi devices, which are far more numerous in the data, that inaccuracy ranges from 65 to almost 1,000 feet.

But devices also ping Google's location servers multiple times, depending on your settings and app usage. The more locations captured, the more certain someone can be about the device's true location.

Phones usage can also be tracked by cell tower, and so-called "cell tower dumps" have become common techniques for law enforcement to determine if a device holder was in the same general area. This method is the most imprecise, since devices ping cell towers that cover wide areas.

In 2017, online news site Quartz revealed that Android devices were capturing the addresses of these cell towers and transmitting them back to Google even when users turned their location settings off.

Google says it has changed its practices, and company officials told WRAL News that such data isn't captured by SensorVault.

'Pausing' Location History doesn't stop all tracking

Nearly a year after the Quartz story, the Associated Press revealed that several Google apps capture location data even when the "Location History" setting is disabled.

Google changed the wording on its location control settings just days later, and it now specifies that "some location data may continue to be saved in other settings" if Location History is turned off.

This separate location tracking is done via the company's "Web & App Activity" setting.

Both controls are now on one page under your Google Account information's "Activity Controls," where users have the option of turning off both "Location History" and "Web & App Activity."

You can delete your past history of interaction with Google's apps – whether it's search, location or even voice commands – on your MyActivity page. In addition to being able to delete items one by one, you can also delete them by app or by time period.

In June, the tech company also announced a feature to allow users to automatically delete the data from Web & App Activity every three or 18 months. That's available under your account's Activity Controls under "Web & App Activity" and "Choose to delete automatically."

Beyond Google, individual devices also have their own location settings you can turn on and off or limit access to certain services.

You should be notified if your data is accessed

The so-called "geofence" or "reverse" warrants law enforcement agencies have issued to Google over the past few years demanding device location data are different than your typical search warrant.

If a detective wants to search a suspect's house, for example, the suspect is notified when the officer shows up at his door to serve the warrant.

But search warrants to Google demand data owned by Google, even though it's data we typically consider ours. As such, law enforcement doesn't have an obligation to notify people swept up in one of these warrants, whether their information was provided anonymously or not.

Google, per its own policy, does have that obligation. Yet, in many cases, a review of warrants issued in Wake County shows, a judge orders Google as part of the warrant process not to notify users for up to 90 days.

"It's our policy to notify the user via email before any information is disclosed unless such notification is prohibited by law," Google says on an FAQ about its data-release practices. "We will provide delayed notice to users after a legal prohibition is lifted, such as when a statutory or court-ordered gag period has expired."

That notification will likely come from Google in an email saying someone has requested information related to your account. But the company says they might not have complied automatically.

"Just because we receive a request doesn't necessarily mean that we did – or will – disclose any of the requested information," the company says in its FAQ. "We have a rigorous process for reviewing these requests against legal requirements and Google's policies."

You can download your own data

Google also gives users tools to manage and view their data beyond what they see in the My Google Activity Page.

That page alone may be enough for most users – especially if you use any of the voice apps and want to see every snippet of your voice the company has ever recorded after you say "Hey Google."

But if you want a better idea of just how many times the tech company tracks you, check out your Location History Timeline. From there, you can see places you've visited, look at actual trip routes and set your home and work locations.

This is visible only to you as the account holder.

If you want to share it, or analyze it on your own, Google gives you the option of downloading your data directly from a number of different products, from Location History to Gmail.

The archive is available in a variety of formats, depending on the products you choose to access, and you can even schedule downloads to occur at regular intervals.

Some of the data can be used to import to other services – just in case you've grown less inclined to trust the company with extensive data on each of its millions of users.

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