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Comment by jannes | Hacker News Reader

Why would you want to tell Google where you live anyway? Can you not just save your home as a regular starred place?

A better question is “why should Google be allowed to use your self-assigned home for purposes that you as a user haven’t consented to?”

> user haven’t consented to

User consented to "personalization of experience", and that's all it is. Personalised ads.

Those aren’t related things though?

Tongue in cheek

Google already knows anyways, using the map to set home is just for user convenience.

Yes. Imagine thinking you can hide your place of residence along with using google location services.

UnifiedNlp for the win :)

https://github.com/microg/UnifiedNlp

Do you think that solves the problem? What if 4G operators sell your information to data brokers, which then sell that information to Google?

Are 4G operators allowed to give away (or more likely sell) your data like that?

Yes

I want to tell Google where I live so I can say "ok Google, navigate home" and get directions home without having to touch my phone. If there's a phrase that gets hands-free directions for starred items without having to say the whole address, Google doesn't make that easy to figure out.

I know you said Hands Free.

My solution is a shortcut on my homescreen to my address, or somewhere close.

One click is worth it and for someone who pays more attention than most to the windscreen, safe enough for me.

Everyone who uses their phone while driving thinks they're one of the few who can do it safely, whether they're fully engrossed in a text conversation speeding down the freeway, or tapping an icon while stopped at a traffic light. Deep down, I think that too. That's why I can't give myself excuses to do it.

The location of the "Home" could be stored in the device locally.

Home and work are very "special" cases in that it's someplace most people regularly go to and from. So the app sends you personalized driving alerts/reminders, traffic updates, etc. There are definitely reasons for it, it's just not worth it to some. Others just have no idea that some of these nice goodies are helpful and not eerie and "privacy invading". So what if Google knows where I live and work? Frankly, that's something the government should know anyways, and it's failing abysmally judging by the amount of crime it's missing.

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