Could this have been avoided if the suspect himself had the same access to his own sensor data? Like an alibi? I read this whole thing as the technology is there to prevent innocent people to jail, and the processes haven't caught up.
only if you have that feature turned on. Google also records data outside of maps and timeline, IIRC. I imagine you can always access your complete location history by exporting it from Google's take out feature.
correct. turning off “location history” only turns off the visualization, not tracking. your location is still associated with each piece of google activity—searches etc. there is no way to totally turn off location tracking other than tuning off “web and app activity”—which then locks you out of several google services entirely.
Thats a cool site I didn't know about, however I assumed the innocent suspect wasn't logged into google maps, and that the reporting was done by the device separately.
Afaik you don’t have to be using Maps for Google to track your location. If you have location tracking turned on in your Google account and are for example logged into android Google will get your GPS even if you’ve never used Maps.
