u/chillassdudeonmoco

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TL;DR: I caught it because my newer Timeline export was smaller than my older one. When I compared the raw files, Google had removed the detailed GPS history and left only summaries. They didn’t give you your data—they offloaded it, cut it down, and kept control of what remains.

Google’s been tracking my location since like 2013. But last year, when they forced that migration and moved everything onto my phone they it became mine in my head. It’s literally on my device now.

I noticed the older Timeline export was bigger than one that was a couple months newer… even though they were only a few months apart, the newer one covered more time, and both exports were made from the data stored on my phone after the migration. That made zero sense to me unless something was missing.

And that’s exactly how I caught it. I wasn’t even looking for anything shady—I just noticed the file sizes didn’t add up. The newer file should’ve been bigger, instead it was smaller. So I pulled both JSON files and had ai compare them directly.

This isn’t compression. It’s not formatting. They are straight up removing data. Literally erasing or pasts. They didn’t “give us our data” like they claimed. They offloaded it.

That’s what this really was. They were sitting on years of location history for millions of people, and instead of continuing to store it, they pushed it onto our phones. They framed it like a privacy upgrade, but really they just freed up a massive amount of space on their own servers and handed the storage to us.

What really pisses me off is that they hacked it up first. Neither export has the amount of data as you would have gotten from Takeout, but the first export still had real GPS paths—actual coordinates, step-by-step movement, like a true record of where you were. The new one? That detail is gutted. The timelinePath sections that used to be full are empty or stripped down. What’s left is basically a summary. “You went here.” “You were at this place.” So they kept the label… and deleted the proof.

When Timeline first came out, the whole point was that it was your record. Your travels. You could go back and actually see where you walked, how you got somewhere, what your day looked like. That’s what people were sold on.

Now they’ve turned it into something else. They don’t care about you remembering anything. They care about what they can use—patterns, locations, habits. The parts that they feed into whatever systems they run to make money offa us. So they kept what helps them, and quietly deleted what mattered to you. They did it without saying a word. No warning. No choice. Just ran it in the background like it’s still their data to manage.

Even though it’s sitting on your phone.

This whole “it’s on your device now” thing is bullshit. It makes it sound like you’re in control, but you’re not. They still decide what stays, what goes, and when it changes. So what are you actually holding? Not your full history. Just the version that helps them monetize you. You’re not even the owner—you’re just storage. You’re hosting their processed "optimized" (yeah right...) data. They save space, reduce liability, still use what they need… and you’re the one supplying the hardware.

For free, when I pay Google for storage space.

So yeah… they didn’t give you anything. They moved their problem onto you, stripped your data down to what benefits them, and never told you they were doing it.

​

TL;DR: I caught it because my newer Timeline export was smaller than my older one. When I compared the raw files, Google had removed the detailed GPS history and left only summaries. They didn’t give you your data—they offloaded it, cut it down, and kept control of what remains.

Google’s been tracking my location since like 2013. But last year, when they forced that migration and moved everything onto my phone they it became mine in my head. It’s literally on my device now.

I noticed the older Timeline export was bigger than one that was a couple months newer… even though they were only a few months apart, the newer one covered more time, and both exports were made from the data stored on my phone after the migration. That made zero sense to me unless something was missing.

And that’s exactly how I caught it. I wasn’t even looking for anything shady—I just noticed the file sizes didn’t add up. The newer file should’ve been bigger, instead it was smaller. So I pulled both JSON files and had ai compare them directly.

This isn’t compression. It’s not formatting. They are straight up removing data. Literally erasing or pasts. They didn’t “give us our data” like they claimed. They offloaded it.

That’s what this really was. They were sitting on years of location history for millions of people, and instead of continuing to store it, they pushed it onto our phones. They framed it like a privacy upgrade, but really they just freed up a massive amount of space on their own servers and handed the storage to us.

What really pisses me off is that they hacked it up first. Neither export has the amount of data as you would have gotten from Takeout, but the first export still had real GPS paths—actual coordinates, step-by-step movement, like a true record of where you were. The new one? That detail is gutted. The timelinePath sections that used to be full are empty or stripped down. What’s left is basically a summary. “You went here.” “You were at this place.” So they kept the label… and deleted the proof.

When Timeline first came out, the whole point was that it was your record. Your travels. You could go back and actually see where you walked, how you got somewhere, what your day looked like. That’s what people were sold on.

Now they’ve turned it into something else. They don’t care about you remembering anything. They care about what they can use—patterns, locations, habits. The parts that they feed into whatever systems they run to make money offa us. So they kept what helps them, and quietly deleted what mattered to you. They did it without saying a word. No warning. No choice. Just ran it in the background like it’s still their data to manage.

Even though it’s sitting on your phone.

This whole “it’s on your device now” thing is bullshit. It makes it sound like you’re in control, but you’re not. They still decide what stays, what goes, and when it changes. So what are you actually holding? Not your full history. Just the version that helps them monetize you. You’re not even the owner—you’re just storage. You’re hosting their processed "optimized" (yeah right...) data. They save space, reduce liability, still use what they need… and you’re the one supplying the hardware.

For free, when I pay Google for storage space.

So yeah… they didn’t give you anything. They moved their problem onto you, stripped your data down to what benefits them, and never told you they were doing it.