Does Google know more than you think it knows?
As you all know, in most of the Android devices, there is an intelligent card called Google cards. It shows information about reservation, travel and as usual the time it takes to visit your daily places like work, home, and gym if you are a fitness freak.
So one weekend we (friends, and I) decided to visit Taco Bell, the place which we visited once a month for the last couple of months. We decided (confirmed) this place in our WhatsApp group. On a Saturday morning, I get this intelligent card from Google, saying the time required to visit Taco Bell from the current location is 56 mins.
I was stumped. We had visited this place for just two times in the previous two months; How was it knowing that I was visiting this place today? Like there is no pattern, it’s not a routine or anything like that.
We started finding ways in which Google might have come to know about our visit to Taco Bell this weekend. Firstly, I had mentioned Taco Bell in the calls I had made to my friends, and Secondly, it was discussed on our WhatsApp group.
There was no way it was going to get information about Taco Bell from the calls since that would amount to tapping. Secondly, there is no way WhatsApp will be willing to share the data (All those privacy and stuff). Then, one of my friends suggested that maybe it knows from the Google Keyboard (Gboard).
There was no way I would have imagined that Gboard was tracking me. Like it should have been evident since it was auto-completing my name, but still.
Just remember one thing, next time you visit DuckDuckGo.com from Incognito tab in Chrome, check which keyboard you are using ;)
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| You are still being tracked! |