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Google killed Maps Timeline, so I self-hosted a better one [OwnTracks]
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this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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Privacy? I'm sure that Google tried so hard to monetize it and after so many years they didn't found a way, couldn't use it for ai training too, so they decided to turn it off and save millions in database costs.
They still exfiltrate user movements for improving Google maps, it's just that they don't need to keep them indefinitely or for years or maintain a nice interface for that
I'm sure Google does monetize the gps data instantly, then throws it away rather than save old data that only costs money to respond to government requests.
This is a case where privacy is economically beneficial to Google.
Yes, that's correct, Google didn't do it out of the goodness of their non-existent heart, they made what they think is the best financial decision.
It's a good one for the consumer though, whether see that or not. It's good that your every move ever taken is stored in a company's database.
Don't worry, they most certainly used it to train a decent model of any typical American demographics movements before scrubbing it.