Hacker News Reader

You know that's opt-in, right? And you can just click the gear or go here https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/settings and click "Disable" and then "Save".

i think you need it on to take advantage of many of google now's features

That's because the features require location data. If you don't want the downsides of location data, you can't get the advantages either.