Smart Move, Google
For as long as I can remember, maps.google.com was the defacto domain for
Google Maps. Also for as long as I can remember, I allowed this domain to use
the location services of my browser.
Yesterday I was asked to allow the usage of location services for Google Maps
seemingly out of nowhere. Of course I accepted. After all, I just wanted to
check a route to a local business and I was in a hurry. Back home I opened
Google Maps again, and noticed that maps.google.com now redirects to
google.com/maps. This implies that the permissions I give to Google Maps now
apply to all of Googles services hosted under this domain. So far I only
identified Google Flights to have made the same switch (google.com/flights),
though I'm sure they're just beginning to transfer their services to the main
google.com domain.
Congratulations, you now have permission to geo-track me across all of your services.
Smart move, Google.
This is post 043 of #100DaysToOffload.
This post generated some interesting discussions on HackerNews.
Backlinks
- Google Bypasses Privacy, Puts Users’ Data on the Map
- Last Week in Local - December 5, 2022
- Softantenna (English)
- Google kann euren Standort unter Umständen mit allen Services verfolgen (English)
- zive.cz (English)