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Wanna be freaked out, check this link out.
- Thread starter XD40sc
- Start date
If you have Google maps (I suspect that is the culprit) on your phone, it will show when and where you were.
Google maps is great at showing traffic jams, wrecks, and I use it to know when/where to get off the interstate to avoid sitting for hours due a wreck.
Shovelhead
Regular Member
The NSA does that for me for free.
I don't even have to load an App.
I don't even have to load an App.
My quandary is that I use Google Maps occasionally because I need directions, but primarily because it shows traffic flow and backups.
Recently used it on a 4 hour drive, all interstate, which are great until something goes sideways. Looking ahead (on the map on my phone) could see a big slowdown, about 20+ miles of virtually of backed up traffic.
Chose to get off the interstate, take a coffee break, and watch traffic. Still not moving much, so picked older state roads to get where we were going. Cross the interstate twice, and both times east bound side was wall-to-wall and crawling.
I can't prove it save time, and it was a few miles further, but my sanity was much happier, and I was never in danger of being completely trapped between guard-rails and stopped traffic, or jackholes that keep switching lanes, even though no one is going anywhere fast.
I guess my situational awareness for self-defense and carrying doesn't like the idea of being captive and unable to exit or turn and go another way while trapped between guard-rails and traffic miles from any exit. Plus no potty stops or coffee breaks.
But from the link I posted, I can see where we got off the interstate (to me it was just a random exit with a Bojangles) to grab a coffee, and to choose a path less traveled.
Recently used it on a 4 hour drive, all interstate, which are great until something goes sideways. Looking ahead (on the map on my phone) could see a big slowdown, about 20+ miles of virtually of backed up traffic.
Chose to get off the interstate, take a coffee break, and watch traffic. Still not moving much, so picked older state roads to get where we were going. Cross the interstate twice, and both times east bound side was wall-to-wall and crawling.
I can't prove it save time, and it was a few miles further, but my sanity was much happier, and I was never in danger of being completely trapped between guard-rails and stopped traffic, or jackholes that keep switching lanes, even though no one is going anywhere fast.
I guess my situational awareness for self-defense and carrying doesn't like the idea of being captive and unable to exit or turn and go another way while trapped between guard-rails and traffic miles from any exit. Plus no potty stops or coffee breaks.
But from the link I posted, I can see where we got off the interstate (to me it was just a random exit with a Bojangles) to grab a coffee, and to choose a path less traveled.
Last edited:
utbagpiper
Banned
Yup.
The way google maps knows how fast traffic is moving is by tracking the location of the 10,000 people on the road in front of you.
Your location and speed are used to help compute that same information for the folks coming up the road behind you.
It is a great convenience. I've taken a couple of trips recently where google maps advised me of slow downs, calculated a faster route, and I saved (according to google) 10 or 15 minutes compared to the original route. My sanity is always better not being stuck in bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go; and I figure my odds of being in the middle of a 100 car pile up decrease if I can avoid such situations. One inattentive driver coming up the road behind you can cause a real problem for a lot of folks in front of him, especially if he happens to be driving something large and heavy. I don't need to be one of those hanging metal balls demonstrating momentum in a physics experiment.
It is kind of funny though. If the government announced it was going to track our cars or phones we'd freak out. If google does it, we enjoy the benefits and mostly ignore the potential privacy invasion.
And no need for anyone to pick nits over that last observations. I know we can choose not to opt in, but how many choose not to? We can choose to turn off the phone or disable location services. But how often do we actually do so?
Charles
The way google maps knows how fast traffic is moving is by tracking the location of the 10,000 people on the road in front of you.
Your location and speed are used to help compute that same information for the folks coming up the road behind you.
It is a great convenience. I've taken a couple of trips recently where google maps advised me of slow downs, calculated a faster route, and I saved (according to google) 10 or 15 minutes compared to the original route. My sanity is always better not being stuck in bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go; and I figure my odds of being in the middle of a 100 car pile up decrease if I can avoid such situations. One inattentive driver coming up the road behind you can cause a real problem for a lot of folks in front of him, especially if he happens to be driving something large and heavy. I don't need to be one of those hanging metal balls demonstrating momentum in a physics experiment.
It is kind of funny though. If the government announced it was going to track our cars or phones we'd freak out. If google does it, we enjoy the benefits and mostly ignore the potential privacy invasion.
And no need for anyone to pick nits over that last observations. I know we can choose not to opt in, but how many choose not to? We can choose to turn off the phone or disable location services. But how often do we actually do so?
Charles
Just a plug for a different app - and also free.
WAZE www.waze.com
It's user-driven. Folks on the road using WAZE can input info such as cops on the side of the road, cars on the side of the road, and occasionally The Swedish Bikini Team on the side of the road. It also calculates traffic speed by aggregating your derived moving GPS location and that of other users on the same road. Users have inputted red light cameras as well as routes to avoid them.
It comes with a bunch of languages, and either the annoying female voice or an annoying male voice. It will store your destinations (in case you want to go there again?) until you delete them. It has info on community buildings, police stations, banks, rest stops, and gas stations, as well as user-inputted gas prices which may or may not be current depending on how long ago anybody edited the price.
I just like it better than anything Google.
stay safe.
WAZE www.waze.com
It's user-driven. Folks on the road using WAZE can input info such as cops on the side of the road, cars on the side of the road, and occasionally The Swedish Bikini Team on the side of the road. It also calculates traffic speed by aggregating your derived moving GPS location and that of other users on the same road. Users have inputted red light cameras as well as routes to avoid them.
It comes with a bunch of languages, and either the annoying female voice or an annoying male voice. It will store your destinations (in case you want to go there again?) until you delete them. It has info on community buildings, police stations, banks, rest stops, and gas stations, as well as user-inputted gas prices which may or may not be current depending on how long ago anybody edited the price.
I just like it better than anything Google.
stay safe.
I use and like Google maps for the reason's I and utbagpiper listed.
The wife has Waze on her phone, and it did blurt out "vehicle on shoulder ahead" from time to time, sometime accurate, sometimes not. Virtually useless for showing backup far enough ahead to be able to get off the interstate, and I've never tried it for navigation on alternate routes.
Google Maps also shows accidents often with the comment "reported by Waze user" so I'm not convinced you will be flying below the radar by using waze, as it has to track you just like Google does, or it would be as useless as a paper map.
The wife has Waze on her phone, and it did blurt out "vehicle on shoulder ahead" from time to time, sometime accurate, sometimes not. Virtually useless for showing backup far enough ahead to be able to get off the interstate, and I've never tried it for navigation on alternate routes.
Google Maps also shows accidents often with the comment "reported by Waze user" so I'm not convinced you will be flying below the radar by using waze, as it has to track you just like Google does, or it would be as useless as a paper map.
Is everyone seeing the same thing I was seeing? I saw a map of my city, with all the routes I drove all day, as it tracked my phone, which is logged in to the same Google account as my desktop that I just clicked the link from. I thought it was pretty cool actually.
But what's weird is that several days would have an anomaly where it pinged me somewhere that I wasn't. Twice it was someplace not too many blocks away, but once (of just the few days I looked at) it showed me as if I jaunted WAY to the other side of the county and back. What's doubly weird is that it put that location almost exactly at a shooting club that I've not been to in over two years.
But what's weird is that several days would have an anomaly where it pinged me somewhere that I wasn't. Twice it was someplace not too many blocks away, but once (of just the few days I looked at) it showed me as if I jaunted WAY to the other side of the county and back. What's doubly weird is that it put that location almost exactly at a shooting club that I've not been to in over two years.
twoskinsonemanns
Regular Member
Are those cell towers your phone is pinging off?
I looked through about 30 - 40 days of my travels, and it was pretty much dead on. A few days the only place I went was to walk the dog, and if I zoom in, I can see how far a walked the dog. (He's old, I'm old, so the distances weren't that great)
Cell towers would not be that exact. As I mentioned above, it even shows where I walked my dog, and I doubt I ever changed from one cell tower to another. The GPS on the phone is updating Google, which is why it can determine when traffic slows down on a road or street.
If you're afraid of privacy issues, don't use a phone.
I keep my location settings off until I absolutely need them to find directions. I don't use location detection or GPS for any other reason. Once I know where to go I make a mental note and turn location services back off.
I keep my location settings off until I absolutely need them to find directions. I don't use location detection or GPS for any other reason. Once I know where to go I make a mental note and turn location services back off.
You can still be tracked.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...one-cant-keep-nsa-tracking-its-location.shtml
Oh I'm sure, but I'm not just going to give Google free data.
Increase the distance ahead. WAZE does tend to have a standard of keeping within a few blocks of your location in urban areas and withing a few miles on the rural portions of interstates.
Remember, the comments about stuff ahead (other than traffic speed) are driven by users. If someone coming along after the person who posts that there is a car on the side of the road does not post that the car is now gone, the alert stays.
Never said WAZE was a way to stay under the radar. Just commented that it has different features and that I personally prefer those features over Google Maps.
Everyone is entitled to their personal preferences, even if they are poor ones because they are not exactly like mine.
stay safe.
To not be tracked you probably need to turn if off or put it in airplane mode.
99% of the time I don't need the directions, but I to highly value the traffic information to not be stuck sitting on the interstate.
We're running out to the farmers market in a bit, and before we leave I'll look to see the traffic flow on I240, and choose my route accordingly.
Everyone is entitled to their personal preferences, even if they are poor ones because they are not exactly like mine.
stay safe.
Yep, a preference and after using both, I have stuck with Google.
I drive defensively, I look way down the road while most people merely see no further than the bumper of the vehicle in front of them. I don't need the "vehicle on shoulder" notices, I see them long before I get near it. This after 30 plus years of being a road warrior in my job, and 30 plus years of driving emergency vehicles as a volunteer.
rightwinglibertarian
Regular Member
it uses many things from cell towers to GPS to even wi-fi and I think IP addresses. I've barred google from detecting my location now but you might be able to fool it with proxy servers