{"id":316967,"date":"2019-08-21T07:51:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T05:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=316967"},"modified":"2019-08-21T07:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T05:51:51","slug":"google-shuts-down-previously-unknown-location-tracking-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/316967-google-shuts-down-previously-unknown-location-tracking-service.html","title":{"rendered":"Google shuts down previously unknown location tracking service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google has shut down a service which tracked smartphone location data and signal strength to show network providers information weak spots in their coverage, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-alphabet-data-exclusive\/exclusive-fearing-data-privacy-issues-google-cuts-some-android-phone-data-for-wireless-carriers-idUSKCN1V90SQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Reuters<\/strong><\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>This previously unknown service, which Google called Mobile Network Insights, tracked smartphone user location data in the background and provided this information to wireless carriers.<\/p>\n<p>Google provided this information free to vendors and carriers, and collected data from all Android smartphone users who had opted into sharing location history and usage data with Google.<\/p>\n<p>The service was reportedly shut down due to concerns about data privacy in addition to challenges with ensuring data quality.<\/p>\n<p>Google confirmed to Reuters that it had shut down the service, but did not elaborate on data privacy concerns &#8211; only stating that Mobile Network Insights was discontinued due to &#8220;changing product priorities&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/316965-youtube-to-end-targeted-ads-on-videos-made-for-kids.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">YouTube to end targeted ads on videos made for kids<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has shut down a service which tracked smartphone location data and signal strength to show network providers information weak spots in their coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":268787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17934],"tags":[397,167,60567],"class_list":["post-316967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smartphones","tag-android","tag-google","tag-location-tracking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}