You Can Now Choose To Be Invisible To Google Location Server

Google saves your geographic location data for a number of devices, such as the cellphones. With the new ‘opt-out’ option, you can now choose that you data may not be saved on Google’s Location Server. This can be accomplished in a very simple way.

Google detects your geographical location through the wireless access point that connects you. This data is then saved in Google’s Location Server. A number of devices, such as cellphones, use this data for GPS and other services. However, Google had said that it would allow the users to ‘opt out’ of this. And now Google has taken a step towards this. By opting out, you can choose that your data should not be saved on Google Location Servers. In this way, this data will not be available to other devices and applications.

The method for opting out:
To opt out, you simply have to make some changes to the setting of your wireless access point. Just change your wireless network’s name by adding ‘_nomap’ at the end. For example if your network’s name is ‘MyNetwork’, change it to ‘MyNetwork_nomap.’ Once you do this, your data will no longer be saved on the Google Location Server. The server has been instructed to stop saving the data of all such access points which end in the ‘_nomap’ tag.

Through this, Google hopes that users will be able to enjoy better privacy options regarding their personal data. In case you are finding problems with changing the settings of the access point, you can visit the guide Google has uploaded to walk you through the process.

Image Courtesy clonmelplace4u and warrantedarrest.

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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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