If you have memory lapse and forgetting the places you visited after a period of time, don’t worry Google has your back since it stores your location history. Every time I want to locate a building or a street in town I always turn to Google Maps for directions but I have never checked my location history.
The feature was made official yesterday by Google and dubbed as âYour Timeline.âGoogle Maps stores location data of your past treks and can display to you in a timeline format, which can let you trace your steps and show the places you have been to in the past.
Google has taken stalking to be part of their responsibility. If you have Google Photos turned on and took any specific photos pertaining to a certain location on a chosen date, then the timeline will also present you with all the photos that you took. Google calls it helping you recall your memories. However, the best news is that the stalking is only private not public.
Also read: Study claims that Google is ruining our memories
To uphold privacy, Google provides controls to eliminate a certain day from the map timeline and if you do not want the service tracking the places you go to, then you can simply turn it off by paying a visit to your Google Account settings. Customization is the key here as well and you can mark your favorite spots.
“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 or giving a frequented spot a private name like — Momâs House or My Favorite Running Spot. This spot will then appear right in Google Maps when youâre logged in.” Google said.
The ability to track your steps is advantageous in many cases. People especially those with busy schedules always forget where they parked their car, where they dropped their phones or the restaurant they forgot to pay bills. The police will have an opportunity to place a criminal in a scene of crime in case they give wrong information.
TechNewsToday.com reports that the feature is available to both desktops and Androids. Sorry iOS users might need to wait a little while longer. The feature existed from the past, itâs just that Google finally made it official that your location history was being mapped and stored. It’s good to know that Google made folks aware that they can figure out where they have ever been as long as their location settings were tracking them.
Also read: Google sends apologies for racist error caused by its Auto-Tag in Photo App
