I checked my Google Maps settings and located my real-time location was being shared with somebody

Someone had been in a position to see precisely the place I used to be, in actual time, for months. It wasn’t a monitoring app or something suspicious, however an unusual Google Maps setting I had turned on throughout a visit and by no means switched off. I had tightened my Google privacy settings since then, reviewed app permissions, even turned off Location History. None of it touched what was occurring inside Google Maps.

My dwell location was open all alongside

The setting that by no means turned itself off

Google Maps enables you to share your real-time place with folks you select. Once lively, the opposite individual can watch you progress throughout the map as you drive, stroll, or keep in a single place. Google Maps additionally reveals them your battery stage and mode of journey. You can set this to run out after a set variety of hours, however there’s an open-ended choice that runs till you manually cease it. I turned it on throughout a visit with a buddy, and on the time, leaving it operating made probably the most sense.

We have been heading to a metropolis neither of us had visited, driving individually. The route had just a few stretches the place we would seemingly get cut up up, so we shared our dwell areas as an alternative of counting on telephone calls. I did not understand how lengthy the drive would take, and an expiring timer felt dangerous. The weekend ended, we drove dwelling, and I by no means touched the setting once more.

Months later, when I discovered his title nonetheless in my sharing settings, I spotted my coordinates had by no means stopped broadcasting. Every place I went, each time I stayed put, all of it had been seen on his map. He in all probability forgot about it too. But the characteristic saved operating precisely as I’d set it up, silently feeding my place to somebody I hadn’t spoken to because the journey.

Turning off location historical past will not assist right here

Timeline and sharing are fully separate

Before I even discovered that lively share, I had switched telephones, cleaned up some Google account settings, and turned off Location History as a part of a normal privateness sweep. Google has since renamed that setting to Timeline. Turning it off stops Google from logging the locations you go to, and on the time, that felt like I’d tightened issues up.

But Timeline and site sharing are fully separate. Timeline is a private log solely you may see. Location sharing is a dwell broadcast to another person’s telephone. I might have deleted my total journey historical past and it would not have modified a factor. My real-time place would have saved streaming to my buddy’s map.

Google sends electronic mail reminders that sharing is lively, however they arrive alongside different account notifications and are straightforward to overlook. Nothing contained in the app ever prompted me to examine.

Check who can nonetheless see your dwell location

Where Google buries your lively shares

Once I knew the share was nonetheless operating, I wished to see how a lot had been uncovered. The setting lives inside Google Maps, tucked beneath your profile image. I tapped Location sharing, and there was my buddy’s title with a timestamp stretching again months. Stopping it took a single faucet, and his entry was reduce instantly. You can discover the identical record out of your Google Account web page when you’d somewhat handle it from a browser.

While I used to be there, I discovered one other setting I hadn’t observed earlier than. Anyone you are sharing with can arrange notifications to know each time you arrive at or depart a selected location. That means somebody could possibly be getting an alert everytime you depart your home or present up at work, on repeat, for so long as the share runs. Google does notify you as soon as after they first set it up, by means of an electronic mail and an non-obligatory push notification. But when you miss that one alert, there is not any follow-up.

There’s additionally a grasp toggle in your Google Location Sharing settings, however turning it off would not really finish any of your lively shares. It simply freezes them. Your contacts nonetheless see you on their map, caught at your final recognized place, and the shares resume the second you flip it again on. If you need to absolutely reduce somebody’s entry, you must cease every share individually.

Set a timer subsequent time

The subsequent time you share your location for a visit or a meetup, set a timer as an alternative of leaving it open-ended. And when you’re unsure whether or not an outdated share remains to be operating, it in all probability is. Two minutes in your Google Maps settings is all it takes to seek out out.