

Ask HN: Is there a way to access historical location data on iPhone/Android? - jordn

I&#x27;m looking to use the historical location data from the user to better customise the user experience.<p>It seems that this data is captured by Apple and Google but silo&#x27;d off from any other app developers, meaning they have to reinvent the wheel and recapture all this information themselves.<p>Is there a way or a service to access where the user has been? (with their permission...)
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lutusp
> I'm looking to use the historical location data from the user to better
> customise the user experience.

If Apple or Google offered historical location data online to anyone, there
would be an incredible, and justified, outcry about violation of privacy. And
consider -- if this were public information, people could use it to stalk
other people in surreptitious ways.

So ... no. Don't count on this kind of information being made available the
the public.

~~~
jordn
It doesn't need to a privacy invasion. If the user could permit an app to use
their location data and revoke it at any time, similar to how we permit access
to facebook/twitter timelines, they would personally weigh up the risk/benefit
and decide accordingly. Admittedly location is probably more private than
facebook/twitter information but that just means it needs to managed well.
There are many potential benefits of allowing access.

~~~
lutusp
> It doesn't need to a privacy invasion.

Of course it does. If a user could grant permission, then a hacker could
pretend to be the user and grant himself permission. It would represent a huge
vulnerability, because at the exact moment that a hacker figures out a user's
password, he also has access to that person's browsing history, including
everywhere the victim shopped online, which would quickly become places that
the hacker shops online, using the victim's identity.

No, a history log accessible to anyone pretending to be John Doe, would mean
the end of the real John Doe. It would make identity theft much more dangerous
that it is already.

> There are many potential benefits of allowing access.

There are also many potential benefits to doing away with privacy altogether,
but that doesn't make the idea persuasive.

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jordn
Closest thing I can find is an app called Moves: [https://apps.moves-
app.com/](https://apps.moves-app.com/)

Logs location in the background as a pedometer, and other apps can access this
data (with permission!) to do other things.

------
chatman
No.

