5 ms·

Also interested. Could you describe the process?

RosanaAnaDana 7y ago
Sure. I pulled my data in the standard takeout.google.com/ process. The result is a json (? iirc). I parsed the json into x, y, and rasterized it using gdal. https://imgur.com/a/ZhyTsDV https://imgur.com/a/ZhyTsDV See I wasn't sure if I lost it in the couch in the living room, the office, or the bedroom. This got me within a few feet.
- icelancer 7y ago
  Ha, this is an awesome use of the data. What a cool plot showing the "density" of pings.
- crazygringo 7y ago
  That's amazing, so cool. Is that something Google's not doing with the data, but could? (E.g. they don't because their maps don't show most houses precisely enough or whatever, so it wouldn't be useful?) Or is it relying on the fact that you are triangulating or similar from the known exact position of your WiFi routers or similar down to the inch, and Google doesn't have any way of knowing that?
  - Phlarp 7y ago
    Or they do and have internally assessed that it would be too creepy to provide to users, but are happily using it to better target advertising.
    - HALtheWise 7y ago
      Or they have decided that it's too creepy to use at all, so they don't use it for targeted advertising. Seriously, why does everyone assume that companies are evilly cackling in volcano lairs? They know that violating user trust is really expensive and a bad idea. By the way, I'm pretty sure I've seen that Google's advertising targeting is only allowed to use "neighborhood level" location, which is designed to be coarse enough to not allow specifying individual people.
      - Phlarp 7y ago
        Because time and time again it is proven that "these companies" (Facebook and Google) will use any signal they can get their hands on to make money? I'm pretty sure they've both been caught with their hands in the cookie jar doing things they swore they never would.
        LordDragonfang 7y ago
        Genuinely curious, could you provide an example of Google "doing things they swore they never would" with consumer data? Because I know they do plenty of things with data that people think are creepy, but I don't recall ever seeing a story about them doing things they swore they wouldn't (besides the nebulous "don't be evil") or even lying about what they were actually doing with consumer data. If it's happened time and time again, it should be easy to pull up a source, right?
        close04 7y ago
        Random example: when Chrome logged you in the browser without any warning, because you logged in to Gmail it also swiftly synced your local data (like browsing history) to your Google profile. That’s akin to stealing your data and I think at some point they must have promised not to do it...
        GeekyBear 7y ago
        >Google Has Quietly Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking When Google bought the advertising network DoubleClick in 2007, Google founder Sergey Brin said that privacy would be the company’s “number one priority when we contemplate new kinds of advertising products.” https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-droppe...
        GeekyBear 7y ago
        >Google has been accused of breaking promises to patients, after the company announced it would be moving a healthcare-focused subsidiary, DeepMind Health, into the main arm of the organisation. The restructure, critics argue, breaks a pledge DeepMind made when it started working with the NHS that “data will never be connected to Google accounts or services”. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/14/google-betrays-patient-trust-deepmind-healthcare-move https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/14/google-be...
    - abakker 7y ago
      Do you get toilet paper ads when browsing in the restroom?
      - bigiain 7y ago
        My new startup uses SDKs embedded into popular apps that make ultrasonic clicks and use sonar-like reflections to estimate the length of toilet paper remaining on the roll (using AI, machine learning, and blockchain, obviously). /s
  - flattone 7y ago
    Perhaps this level of location resolution is not stable enough at Google scale to present it? AKA: better to show reliable fuzzy information than unreliable precise information.
  - dannyw 7y ago
    Considering that google has a history of cloaking information via the UI (see purchase history hidden if you have G Suite, but still fully accessible via takeout), and that Google offers advertisers the ability to see if you have visited a particular store even in an indoor mall, I am sure google knows your location more precise than it reports.
- gricardo99 7y ago
  This is pretty cool, but I'm still confused on what data you used. By my data, do you mean data from Google Android Device Configuration Service? If you're logged into Chrome or GSuite tools from desktop locations, I just wonder how useful the data from those other products would be, if it even has location data. I'm downloading my data archive to check it out...
  - RosanaAnaDana 7y ago
    I think its https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/ where I got the data. Then its just a json which is relatively easy to parse.

Sure. I pulled my data in the standard takeout.google.com/ process. The result is a json (? iirc). I parsed the json into x, y, and rasterized it using gdal. https://imgur.com/a/ZhyTsDV https://imgur.com/a/ZhyTsDV See I wasn't sure if I lost it in the couch in the living room, the office, or the bedroom. This got me within a few feet.

icelancer 7y ago
Ha, this is an awesome use of the data. What a cool plot showing the "density" of pings.
crazygringo 7y ago
That's amazing, so cool. Is that something Google's not doing with the data, but could? (E.g. they don't because their maps don't show most houses precisely enough or whatever, so it wouldn't be useful?) Or is it relying on the fact that you are triangulating or similar from the known exact position of your WiFi routers or similar down to the inch, and Google doesn't have any way of knowing that?
- Phlarp 7y ago
  Or they do and have internally assessed that it would be too creepy to provide to users, but are happily using it to better target advertising.
  - HALtheWise 7y ago
    Or they have decided that it's too creepy to use at all, so they don't use it for targeted advertising. Seriously, why does everyone assume that companies are evilly cackling in volcano lairs? They know that violating user trust is really expensive and a bad idea. By the way, I'm pretty sure I've seen that Google's advertising targeting is only allowed to use "neighborhood level" location, which is designed to be coarse enough to not allow specifying individual people.
    - Phlarp 7y ago
      Because time and time again it is proven that "these companies" (Facebook and Google) will use any signal they can get their hands on to make money? I'm pretty sure they've both been caught with their hands in the cookie jar doing things they swore they never would.
      - LordDragonfang 7y ago
        Genuinely curious, could you provide an example of Google "doing things they swore they never would" with consumer data? Because I know they do plenty of things with data that people think are creepy, but I don't recall ever seeing a story about them doing things they swore they wouldn't (besides the nebulous "don't be evil") or even lying about what they were actually doing with consumer data. If it's happened time and time again, it should be easy to pull up a source, right?
        close04 7y ago
        Random example: when Chrome logged you in the browser without any warning, because you logged in to Gmail it also swiftly synced your local data (like browsing history) to your Google profile. That’s akin to stealing your data and I think at some point they must have promised not to do it...
        GeekyBear 7y ago
        >Google Has Quietly Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking When Google bought the advertising network DoubleClick in 2007, Google founder Sergey Brin said that privacy would be the company’s “number one priority when we contemplate new kinds of advertising products.” https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-droppe...
        GeekyBear 7y ago
        >Google has been accused of breaking promises to patients, after the company announced it would be moving a healthcare-focused subsidiary, DeepMind Health, into the main arm of the organisation. The restructure, critics argue, breaks a pledge DeepMind made when it started working with the NHS that “data will never be connected to Google accounts or services”. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/14/google-betrays-patient-trust-deepmind-healthcare-move https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/14/google-be...
  - abakker 7y ago
    Do you get toilet paper ads when browsing in the restroom?
    - bigiain 7y ago
      My new startup uses SDKs embedded into popular apps that make ultrasonic clicks and use sonar-like reflections to estimate the length of toilet paper remaining on the roll (using AI, machine learning, and blockchain, obviously). /s
- flattone 7y ago
  Perhaps this level of location resolution is not stable enough at Google scale to present it? AKA: better to show reliable fuzzy information than unreliable precise information.
- dannyw 7y ago
  Considering that google has a history of cloaking information via the UI (see purchase history hidden if you have G Suite, but still fully accessible via takeout), and that Google offers advertisers the ability to see if you have visited a particular store even in an indoor mall, I am sure google knows your location more precise than it reports.
gricardo99 7y ago
This is pretty cool, but I'm still confused on what data you used. By my data, do you mean data from Google Android Device Configuration Service? If you're logged into Chrome or GSuite tools from desktop locations, I just wonder how useful the data from those other products would be, if it even has location data. I'm downloading my data archive to check it out...
- RosanaAnaDana 7y ago
  I think its https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/ where I got the data. Then its just a json which is relatively easy to parse.