(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google is changing its Maps tool so that the company no longer has access to users' individual location histories, cutting off its ability to respond to law enforcement warrants that ask for data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime.Most Read from BloombergNetanyahu, Under Pressure Over Hostage Deaths, Vows to Press OnMike Johnson May Be the Next House Speaker to Lose His Job‘Underwater’ Car Loans Signal US Consumers Slammed by High RatesUS Navy Shoots Do

Google Will Stop Telling Law Enforcement Which Users Were Near a Crime::(Bloomberg) – Alphabet Inc.’s Google is changing its Maps tool so that the company no longer has access to users’ individual location histories, cutting off its ability to respond to law enforcement warrants that ask for data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime.Most Read from BloombergNetanyahu, Under Pressure Over Hostage Deaths, Vows to Press OnMike Johnson May Be the Next House Speaker to Lose His Job‘Underwater’ Car Loans Signal US Consumers Slammed by High RatesUS Navy Shoots Do

  • Ethalia@feddit.chEnglish
    154·
    11 months ago

    Aha. For sure they won’t do that anymore. Nah I won’t buy it.

    • random65837@lemmy.worldEnglish
      275·
      11 months ago

      Then you don’t grasp what’s happening, You think the Goog wants to be in the middle of that shit? That’s time and resources that don’t benefit them. Providing that data puts them in a bad spot Everytime, simply not having the data to provide obsoloves them of that and is in both their and the end users best interest. The push getting worse is because current Stingrays don’t work on 5G, so the internal police spying is very limited now, and getting location records from telcos requires more of a papertrail than going to Google and Apple in the past, and when cops are asking for shit they don’t really need, they don’t want to be in the books for it.

      • ruplicant@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        i get what you’re saying, but you did not mention the benefit Google itself got from that data, that they’ll have to forfeit so that they won’t be able to provide it to the police

        • random65837@lemmy.worldEnglish
          19·
          11 months ago

          Honestly, these days there probably wasn’t much benefit. At one point, sure, but looking at it from the standpoint of a non privacy aware person, they’re handing so much data over, ignoring the line of their travel probably does near nothing for them, while having and holding that data is a huge negative since they’ll always be harassed for it from law enforcement. Without it, they can probably dissolve whole departments of people that had to be dedicated to LE ass kissing so the police didn’t have to do their jobs or so they could cast their dragnets and put tons of innocent people through hell while they figured out everything later.

      • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        321·
        11 months ago

        You said a lot without saying a lot

        What id ahppening that google doesnt want to be in the middle of?

        Also, didnt know that about stingrays, might have to finally upgrade my 4G phone now. Thanks for that

        • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          There’s zero benefit for Google to hand over this information, and potentially face a lawsuit because it actually turns out that no it wasn’t legal for this information to be handed over. Google are of course aware that cops don’t necessarily obey the law, so just because you’ve been asked to by a cop to provide something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s legal for you to hand it over.

          It’s much simpler if they just don’t have this data. That way they can’t hand it over, so there’s no problem.

          In this case an issue avoided is very much an issue solved.