Google Is Planning to Low-Key Nix Its Location-Based Assistant Reminders, but Why Now?

I would like to remind you to stop using location reminders.

It's done.

Thanks a lot, you know what I mean. The ability to create reminders on the app is going away. The ability to remind someone else is not the same as the dodo.

The tech giant is planning to ax location based reminders on its products. The soon to be nixed feature was spotted by users. The feature never fulfilled its promise, according to some commenters. The feature was found to be useful by others.

When users can expect the change to take place and why the feature is being removed were not answered by the company.

Users are reminded to do things when they arrive. When you get to the grocery store, it may chime to prompt you to pick up something. The ability to assign others a reminder and location-based reminders have been offered by the search engine.

The timing of the announcement is telling. The features are being removed in order to make way for a new upgrade to the assistant, which will allow users to list and store anything from links to articles, books, images, contacts, flights, music, and more.

The change is coming down the pike as they and other app developers have been criticized for tracking user's movements even when not using the app. An investigation by Canada's privacy commissioner showed that people who downloaded the app for Tim Hortons had their movements tracked even when the app wasn't in use. The app collected information to figure out where users lived and worked.

The company said it stopped tracking user locations after a local paper broke the story. Companies of all sizes are constantly trading user data for the purpose of targeted ads.

Privacy protections are being cracked down on. The tech giant is being sued by a number of state attorneys general. The AGs say that it is nearly impossible to opt out of location tracking because of the ubiquity of the apps on phones.

The fact sheet states that the company tracks user data on devices. If you don't give your address, the app will use the device's internet protocol address to give you information such as weather or traffic. The tech giant claims that it only collects data based on users' settings and that the app only collects data when it's active.

The company did not reply to the question of whether they use location reminders for targeted ads.

Private information can be shared with Google when using third party apps. As the Tim Hortons scandal shows, a huge variety of companies are looking to reach customers via any means necessary.