I’ll admit I’m pretty good about protecting my privacy as well as I’m a large fan of Google. This one however slipped under my radar and I was rather alarmed by the amount of data my smartphone had given Google on my Travels. No the Map above is NOT my travels, however it just may as well have been.
Consider the all-seeing Google Maps eye —it’s an amazingly useful tool that’s downright ubiquitous on Androids and iPhones alike. But even when you aren’t actively using the app, Google has its eye on the phone in your pocket.
Sign into your Google account and click this link to view the location history Google has on you. Be sure to change the option in the Show drop-down box on the left to “30 days” for a more startling view. Yep, Google’s watching your every step, and if you play around with the calendar tool, you’ll see the tracking goes back months and months.
Fortunately, you can delete your history on this page if you’d like, and you can learn how to turn Google’s Location History off permanently on this help page. (Just being aware that doing so can bork contextually-aware services like Google Now.)
For iOS users use this help page. I’ll include the iOS removal the content here as well.
When you turn on Location Reporting for a device like your iPhone or iPad, it lets Google periodically store and use that device’s most recent location data in connection with your Google Account. Turning on Location Reporting is the first step to sharing your location with others.
Turn Location Reporting through Google+ on or off for iOS
For the Google account you want to report your location from:
- Touch
to open the Google+ application. - Touch
Menu > 
Locations > 
Settings. - Touch Location Reporting & History.
- To turn on Location Reporting, touch Location Reporting > Report from this device.
- To turn off Location reporting, touch Location Reporting > Do not report.
You can also separately report your location through the Google app. Location Reporting is a per-device setting except for the Google app — this means that the settings sync across other Google apps signed in with the same Google Account, except in the Google app.To turn off Location Reporting completely for your iPhone or iPad, you must turn off Location Reporting in the Google app and Location Reporting in other Google apps.
From Location Reporting & History, you can also let Google store a history of your location data from all devices where you are logged into your Google account and have enabled Location Reporting. Turning on this Location History can help you get more out of Google.