According to a Sky News report, a new timeline feature for Google Maps is beginning to make its debut and it’s called “Your Timeline” — a tool which tracks your every step, so long as it has your permission.
The app displays results with crisscrosses across your map, showing all the places you’ve visited. For users with Google Photos, you will have geotagged pictures appear on your map according to the places you’ve visited. Your most frequently visited places can also be customized with names.
Now this only works under certain circumstances, if you are not logged into Google on either your mobile or your computer, it wont collect location data. Instead, Google will prompt you asking to “use your location,” but if you opt out, such location-specific information will not be collected, reports Tampa’s News Channel 8.
Privacy concerns are, rightly, a concern with the app. There have been comments saying that there isn’t an actual way to protect your privacy; however, Google has released statements to effect that you are always in control of what gets stored. Google has said that “you control the locations you choose to keep,” so “you can easily delete a day or your full history at any time.”
Your Timeline is private and visible only to you; and you control the locations you choose to keep. This means you can easily delete a day or your full history at any time. You can edit any place that appears in Your Timeline, including removing a specific location.
Now whether this app will truly be a boon to those who are constantly forgetting where they were or when, is yet to be seen. One thing is clear however: Google is pushing hard to revolutionize the way we use technology.
And in other tech news, a new GPS tracker called the Smart Tracker 2 has raised over $180,000 on crowdfunding website Indiegogo.
