Making sense of new privacy labels (Google Translate)

TidBITS Talk
1

The only Google app I have so far tolerated on my iPhone is Google Translate. It was just recently updated so it now comes with Apple’s mandated privacy label information. :+1:

Google Translate tells me part of the data linked to me that it’s using for “analytics” is my coarse location data. I don’t see any need for that app to know where I am so I decided to head over to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and set Google Translate’s access to ‘never’. So much for my plan. As I end up scrolling through my list of 3rd party apps in the Locations Services list I realize that Google Translate does not show up in there.

So what am I not understanding about that privacy label? Is Google Translate phoning home my whereabouts or not? And if so, why doesn’t iOS let me turn that off?

2

That setting determines whether or not the app can use iOS’s location services (e.g. GPS, cell tower triangulation, Wi-Fi SSID availability, etc.) to determine your location.

If Google is determining it through some other means (e.g. the server applying your IP address to a lookup table to determine your ISP and therefore coarse location), there’s nothing iOS can do to prevent it.

Of course, if this bothers you, you can use a VPN, which will make your publicly-visible address one of the VPN’s exit points, which (depending on your choice of VPN provider) may be anywhere in the world.

1 Like