
Google and Facebook and others won’t strike that balance for you, you need to take control for yourself.Įnabling Incognito Mode Google Maps / iOS

You can trade your privacy and your data for convenience, or you can strike a balance.
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No “commute,” no location history or sharing, no search history or completion suggestions, restrictions to Assistant in Navigation, no offline maps or “your places.” This may seem a lot, but it’s another example of where privacy has become a choice. Using Google Maps in “Incognito mode” has its limitations. One can assume from this that data is still collected, but if it’s not linked to users then that’s a major improvement. When I pushed the point, I was assured that this means the privacy label data will not be associated with specific individuals or their accounts.

When it comes to Google Maps, the company told me if Incognito mode is enabled, then data per the app’s privacy label is not saved to a user’s account or timeline. You’ll have seen Google’s incognito (or not) issues, where a lawsuit alleges the company “ secretly scoops up troves of internet data” on Chrome, even when users opt for Incognito mode to keep their online activity private. But they also pointed to “Incognito mode” in Maps. I’ve already pointed users at Google’s “ auto-delete controls” and “ bulk delete” in their personalized “Timeline.” Again, with this story, Google stressed that “we provide many ways for people to manage their data,” citing these examples. And not Maps.įortunately, for millions of iPhone users who don't want to make the switch from Google Maps, there is a little-known workaround. The company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has previously said that it avoids monetizing data in apps “where you primarily store personal content,” meaning the likes of Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Photos. This is a good illustration of the issue, and you can assume this is a broad-brush approach across Google’s other flagship apps, including Maps.Ĭhrome Vs Rivals Apple / is core to everything we do,” Google told me again, when I asked about Maps. There’s doubtless an element of this, but if you take a look at Chrome’s privacy label compared to its rivals, not just Apple, then you’ll easily see the contrast in data harvesting approaches.Ĭhrome collects more data than Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox, and critically, it links all its data fields to user identities, which is unique among all leading browsers. Google’s argument appears to be that Apple collects its data in other ways, as set out in its broader OS privacy policy, flattering its app-specific labels. Just as one of the key criticisms of Google’s cookie replacement in Chrome has been the risk that clever marketeers find ways to identify specific users via their browsers.

One of the most serious questions to come from Apple’s new privacy labels has been the linkage of data to personal identities. More on this below.Īpple Safari Vs Google Chrome Apple / many users, the delineation between linked and non-linked data might seem overly technical, but it’s absolutely critical. And while there are “incognito” settings that can alter this-those require users to manually override a default setting, which is not ideal. Perhaps the company should rethink this as a strategy? It’s fairly blatant. Just as with Chrome, Google Maps does not collect data that isn’t linked to user identities. “Apple,” Moore says, “is thinking outside the box with how it operates.” Its critics argue that it can afford to do so as it’s not dependent on data to make its living-it’s selling tech and a related ecosystem. ESET’s Jake Moore talks of Apple “ramping up its privacy claim, firing on all cylinders to keep its users’ data protected.” He calls data “the currency of the 21st century,” and the staggering profits generated by Google and Facebook certainly back this up. I don’t expect Apple considered these comparisons as an immediate outcome from its privacy labels, but it will have gone down well. Apple has turned user privacy into a USP, and the two rivals are playing into its hands. Privacy Label - Google Maps Vs Apple Maps Apple / while Google says, as an example of users having some data control, that “in Google Maps, you could share audio access if you choose to use Assistant Driving Mode or voice commands, but this data wouldn’t be collected if you choose not to use those features,” the linkage between features and data collection is hard for users to navigate.
