＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
I’m a “smartphone beginner” who has only been using smartphones for two years, but the other day I was eating at a restaurant and just after I left my smartphone rang, so I took it out and looked at the screen, and there was a message displayed that said, “How was your meal at (name of restaurant)?”
I felt scared that I was being watched, so I contacted AU when I got home. They replied that “the location information was turned on, so the message about the store was probably sent by a location information app.”
Speaking of which, I was watching a TV special about “big data” recently, and they introduced “unexpected places that foreign visitors to Japan often visit.” I think this was done by tracking the places that foreign visitors to Japan visit based on their location information, and accumulating that data as big data.
In 2018, Facebook was involved in a case where personal information of 87 million people was misused. This incident has caused the American Internet giants known as “GAFA” (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) to be very sensitive about “protecting user privacy.”
Apple has differentiated itself from rivals that rely on advertising revenue by equipping its products with features that make it more difficult to collect personal data. In May 2019, Google announced that it had added a feature to its services that automatically deletes search and location history after a certain period of time. Amazon.com also added a feature in September that automatically deletes voice data collected by its voice AI, Alexa.
Meanwhile, there have been recent reports that the Chinese government is accelerating its efforts to utilize big data by collecting information using surveillance cameras, social media monitoring, and taxis equipped with real-time monitoring capabilities in order to monitor the movements of the Tibetan ethnic minority.
So in this article, I would like to consider the pros and cons (risks) of turning on location services.
1. What is location information?
When installing or using an app on a smartphone or tablet, a message will appear asking whether you want to turn on location information.
Location information is a system that determines your current location based on information from the Global Positioning System (GPS), which uses signals from satellites, and mobile phone base stations.
Turning on location services is very convenient as it allows you to use services such as route guidance to your destination and checking where your family members are, but it also has disadvantages.
2. Advantages of turning on location services (sharing)
(1) You can use the “Maps app” to get directions from your current location to your destination.
(2) You can enjoy games that use location information.
(3) You can use “Exif information” to manage when and where you took photos.
“Exif information” refers to “images that are associated with detailed data such as the size and color of the photo, the date and time it was taken, the type and model of the device, the resolution, and the location of the photo.”
(4) You can check where your family members are (if location information is turned on for their devices)
(5) If you lose a device with location information turned on, such as a smartphone or tablet, you can check where it is
(6) By using a “taxi dispatch app,” you can request a taxi to your current location even if you don’t know the exact address of your current location.
3. Disadvantages (risks) of turning on (sharing) location information
(1) There is a possibility that people will be able to guess where you were and when from the “Exif information” of the photo
(2) In games that use location information, “operation history” may be left within the game, which may allow other users to guess your living area such as your home or office
(3) If location information is turned on when posting to SNS, messages and images will be displayed with location information attached, which may allow other users to guess where you are
(4) Battery consumption will increase
4. How to use location information safely
Developers of various apps make profits by selling users’ location information to various advertising companies. The provision of location information can occur in any app, whether it is free, paid, or subscription-based.
By “consenting to data sharing,” users are giving developers permission to collect their data and sell it to third parties. The “data tracker” code provides advertisers with detailed information about a user’s address, work, and shopping history.
In November 2017, the Yale Privacy Lab analyzed 300 Android apps and found “tracker” code in more than 75% of them. A March 2018 study of 160,000 free Android apps also found that more than 55% of the trackers attempted to obtain the user’s location, and 30% accessed the device’s contact list.
Additionally, a November 2015 study analyzing 110 popular free mobile apps found that 47% of iOS apps shared location data with third parties, as well as other personally identifiable information, such as the user’s name (provided by 18% of iOS apps).
Recently, the New York Times published this enlightening article:
To gauge location-sharing practices, The New York Times looked at 20 apps, most of which had been flagged by researchers and industry insiders for their potential information sharing.
Of those, 17 apps provided precise latitude and longitude to around 70 businesses.
The iOS app WeatherBug provided precise location information to 40 companies.
When contacted by The New York Times, some of the companies that received the information described it as “unsolicited” or “improper.”
First, do not allow apps to track your location. Specifically, do not agree to share your location with apps.
Next, turn off location information except when using a map app to search for routes.
It cannot be denied that weather apps may leak location information to other companies. Restaurant apps, while convenient for finding the nearest restaurant, may also have access to your location information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The safe way to use location information is to “not easily agree to sharing your location information” and “turn off location information except when necessary.”
In addition, Windows 10 PCs also have “location information,” and the default setting is “Location information ON.” If you don’t want your location information to be known all the time, we recommend that you click “Change” in “Settings” – “Privacy” – “Location Information” in the Windows start menu and switch “Location information (for this device) on” to “Off.”
Also, here’s how to completely turn off location tracking on your Google account on your smartphone (Android):
(1) Turn it off from Settings
① Open “Settings” on your smartphone
② Find “Location Settings” under “Data and Personalization”
③ Turn off “Location History” for your account and/or device
(2) How to turn it off from your Google account
① Access the “Activity Controls” page of your Google account
② Turn off “Web & App Activity”