Google is pretty clear about collecting location data of its users and for the privacy cautious, the company even provides the option to turn of location history in case they don’t want the company to keep a record of their whereabouts.
The report states:
The issue affects nearly two billion Android users and hundreds of millions of iOS users worldwide, specifically those who rely on Google Maps and Search. While Jonathan Mayer, Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the FCC’s enforcement bureau, claims that storing location data in violation of a user’s preference is wrong, Google has denied any wrongdoing. A Google spokesperson was quoted as saying:
In order to prevent Google from collecting location data even when Location History is turned off, you’ll have to dig through Google’s settings and turn off ‘Web and App Activity’.
As long as the ‘Web and App Activity’ setting is enabled, the company will be able to store your time-stamped location data. In case you wish to delete the data stored by the company so far, you can head on to this link and delete all location stamped entries displayed there.
