Why You Suddenly Need To Delete Google Maps On Your iPhone – Forbes

Forget this years punchy headlines pitching Tim Cook against Mark Zuckerbergits arguably now Google as much as Facebook thats in Apples sights. This has serious implications for 1-billion-plus iPhone users as the fight for your data and your loyalty has suddenly intensified. This is the context behind recent updates from Apple and Google. And this is why its time to start deleting appsincluding Google Maps.

While Google continues to play privacy catch-up with Apple, as seen in Android 12s likely enhancements, Android Messages and Workspace client-side encryption, and the PR-friendly privacy sandbox, the reality is that Google is the worlds largest data-driven advertising company. Apple is not. Ultimately, who do you trust?

Location data has been central to the privacy debate for years now. First iOS and then Android have given us options to deny, restrict and approximate such data from the dozens of apps that would guzzle our data should we let them. Why exactly do all those trivial games and apps require my precise location, and all that.

But even as we have clicked to deny all these apps access under Location Services in our iPhones settings, we clearly cannot do the same with mapping apps. But while many iPhone users are tied to Google Maps, the alarming privacy label comparison between it and Apples alternative should give serious reason for concern.

Apple Maps Vs Google Maps

Clearly, the issue here is that all the data Google Maps says it may collect is linked back to your personal identity. This is how Google works. Everything links together to build your profile, your timeline. And while you can fish around in Googles account settings to delete some of this data, most dont bother and why should you need to?

Why do we put up with this? Well, as my colleague Kate OFlaherty so aptly puts it in this weeks Straight Talking Cyber (the video at the top of this story), all of Googles stuff works really well; yes, you have to give up your privacy, but if you dont care about your privacy, it all just works, and it all just combines together.

Privacy Labels - Google Maps Vs Apple Maps (April 2021)

Google plays down these privacy risks, telling me that Google Maps is designed to protect your information. We provide controls to easily manage your settings and use industry-leading technologies like differential privacy to keep your data safe. We continue to make Google Maps the best and most accurate way to navigate and explore the worldproviding rich local business information, best in class search and navigation, and helpful features like the COVID layer and live busyness information.

But this is an awkward line to take, when your entire business model is built around user data and targeted ads. When pushed on privacy, Google points out that you can stop Maps harvesting data on your iPhone by selecting Incognito mode, that any data gathered per its privacy label is not associated with specific individuals or accounts.

But this more private mode has a serious impact on functionalityno commute, location history, sharing, search history or completion suggestions, restrictions to Assistant in Navigation, no offline maps or your places. On the plus side, though, Google will stop storing your personalized location history and timeline.

Incognito Mode

Google Maps has always been sticky for iPhone usersyoull likely remember the backlash when Apple made the switch to its own app back in 2012. This was part because users were hooked on Google Maps and part because Apples early Maps offering was woeful. A perfect example of a half-completed product launched too soon.

But Apple Maps is really good now, STCs Davey Winder says on this weeks video episode. I use CarPlay, and Ive been looking at Apple Maps new updates and its way better than Google Maps... Im really surprised.

That said, for many iPhone users, there just hasnt been a need to switch from Google Mapsit remains the most popular navigation download on Apples App Store. But now Apple wants those users to think again, announcing a major refresh for iOS 15.

Apple is committed to building the worlds best map, it says, and iOS 15 takes Maps even further with brand new ways to navigate and explore. Users will experience significantly enhanced details in cities for neighborhoods, commercial districts, elevation, and buildings, new road colors and labels, custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow.

And so, back to that privacy strike Apple is launching at Google. Beyond mapping, weve seen Apples Private Relay quasi-VPN as a strike at Chrome, the most popular browser on the App Store; weve also seen Mail Protection as a swipe at Gmail, the most popular mail platform on the App Store. Clearly, Apples stock appsMaps, Safari and Mailare installed by default. But now Apple wants to ensure you use them.

For CarPlay users like Davey, Apples updated Maps will offer a three-dimensional city-driving experience with new road details that help users better see and understand important details like turn lanes, medians, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks.Transit riders can find nearby stations more easily and pin favorite lines. Maps automatically follows along with a selected transit route, notifying users when its nearly time to disembark, and riders can even keep track on Apple Watch. With iOS 15, users can simply hold up iPhone, and Maps generates a highly accurate position to deliver detailed walking directions in augmented reality.

Apple Maps - iOS 15

Ignoring glitzy new functionality, privacy is the critical differentiatorthe idea being you can have Google-like functionality and its seamless ecosystem, without compromising your privacy or paying with your data in return. For its part, Googles business model is built on data, and so while it has earnestly embarked on a game of privacy catch-up with Apple, the motivations and likely end result are very different.

Google is now in a bind with some of its leading iOS apps. Its privacy labels are a nightmare when compared to its peers. Too much data collected, all linked to individual identities. And Apple is clearly looking to consolidate on the 2021 privacy backlash, hammering home the message. Google continues to push its own privacy messaging, and Android 12 will offer improvements for its own users, but as Ive commented before when it comes to such issuesjust follow the money.

The reality is that if you value your privacy, then you should take care over the apps you install and the services you use. And with improvements to Apple Maps, now is the time to cut off Google from the rich seam of data derived from your map searches and navigation. In the same way as you should stick to Safari and Apple Mail, or even more private alternatives like ProtonMail and DuckDuckGo.

If all of usall of youdont give that level of thought to your apps and services decisions, then we send the message that we dont mind being the product, that our data is something of a free-for-all, that were okay if little changes. And, worse, that even though weve paid a premium for a more secure and more private iPhone, we dont mind compromising that with the data we freely give away. Lets not do that.

As much as you may like Google Maps, those stark data harvesting revelations have come just as Apple Maps continues to level the playing field, making it time to consider deleting the app, shutting down at least that part of Googles data collection machine.

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Why You Suddenly Need To Delete Google Maps On Your iPhone - Forbes