How one man's pay-to-use toilet gag revealed Google Maps can be used to track people
This is funny and serious.
A man used to prank by adding his house as a business on Google Maps so that people would drive around looking for it, confused.
His last joke was listing it as a public convenience.
Then he moved and forgot to delete it.
But because of the way Google does location tracking, he realised that he could use it to tell when the new tenants were most likely out of the house.
So someone could basically add your house as a business without you knowing, then use the information subsequently provided to decide when it would be safest to burgle you.
Oh dear.
And of course the Google answer is typical.
Quote:
“User contributions in Google Maps help people more confidently make decisions about where to go and what to do in a constantly changing world, whether it is updated store hours or newly opened businesses,” they said.
“We continually work to identify and remove content that violates our policies, and encourage people to flag any such content so we can review and take action.”
Pay-to-use toilet gag reveals how Google Maps can track people
