Why You Shouldn’t Use Google Maps On Your iPhone After Update
10th July 2021
Forget this year’s punchy headlines pitching Tim Cook against Mark Zuckerberg—it’s arguably now Google as much as Facebook that’s in Apple’s 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 it’s time to start deleting apps—including Google Maps.
While Google continues to play privacy catch-up with Apple, as seen in Android 12’s likely enhancements, Android Messages and Workspace client-side encryption, and the PR-friendly “privacy sandbox,” the reality is that Google is the world’s 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 iPhone’s 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 Apple’s alternative should give serious reason for concern.