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Google updates Maps with terrifying My Timeline feature

You know how Google tracks your every motion, as long as your humble Android smartphone is sat in your pocket or bag? Well, now Google’s showing off its awesome powers with the new My Timeline feature for Maps.

It’s no secret that your phone is the biggest enemy to personal privacy. With location services enabled, every phone with built-in GPS (which is basically all of them these days) can monitor your movements all day long.

Google is all too happy to advertise the fact, especially with the launch of its new My Timeline feature which actually shows you everywhere you’ve visited for as long as Google’s been tracking you.

Billing it as a way to remember what you were doing on a particular day, Google Maps’ My Timeline tool will allow you to skip through time and see your precise movements charted on the usual interface. And if you use Google Photos too, you can even check out photos that you took in each location, thanks to the built-in metadata.

Of course, My Timeline is a private feature that you can only access with your Google credentials. So you don’t need to worry about the other half discovering that your ‘late night meeting’ was actually a pub crawl that ended in a gutter somewhere in Hammersmith. Actually, this Timeline malarkey might be quite handy for retracing steps after a particulalry vicious night out.

Google’s My Timeline feature will be rolling out to Google Maps in the near future, so expect it to appear on your Android handset soon. A web version is also available.

Read next: Your mobile phone is spying on you (here’s how to stop it)

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