September 24, 2024

Your Google Location History is Going Away - How to Download it and Save it With Fulcra

On December 12, 2023, Google announced that starting on December 2024, instead of saving your location data to your Google account, it will now remain on your device only.

On December 12, 2023, Google announced that starting in December 2024, instead of saving your location data to your Google account, it will now remain on your device only. But we've got your back, with a way to save your online Google location history and (eventually) add it to your Fulcra Timeline.

Why should I care?

  • Your personal data is valuable, and can be a source of insights into your life. Saving your data means you can put it to work for yourself.
  • Data Loss Risk: Your location data will now be tied directly to your device. If your device is lost, stolen, or damaged, you could lose all your location history unless you have a robust backup system in place.
  • Accessibility Issues: With data stored locally, accessing your location history from multiple devices or platforms becomes more complicated. You won't have the convenience of accessing your data from any device simply by logging into your Google account.

You might be a fitness enthusiast trying to correlate your running routes with your performance metrics. Or maybe you're a health aficionado curious about how your movements throughout the day influence your well-being. Whatever your reason, years of historical Google location data can be incredibly valuable to your future self, providing a detailed log of where you’ve been and when.

This can help you map out your daily activities, understand your travel patterns, and even revisit past trips. It can be correlated with other personal data to drive insight.

Fortunately, downloading and storing this data is actually quite straightforward. You simply export it from Google Takeout and save it to your preferred method of storage. But here’s where things get tricky: How do you make it browsable, and line it up with the rest of your personal data?

Enter Fulcra’s Library

Library is designed to place you firmly in control of your digital footprint, and to give you a way to not just store file based personal data, but also to (eventually) add your takeout and other similar data to your browsable, configurable Fulcra Timeline. Think of it as your personal vault, a place where you can preserve all of your important data for your future self.

Getting started is simple: export your Google location data via Takeout and upload it to the Library.

Soon, we will automatically integrate things added to your Library into your Timeline, starting with your Google location history.

This means you can not only save this data, but also interact with it in context. Library allows you to preserve the personal data you've accumulated for future use, without risk of losing it as web platforms change their policies.

Imagine the insights you'll gain by seeing how your daily movements correlate with your fitness levels or how specific locations impact your mood and productivity. No more manual data entry, no more switching between apps. Just pure, unadulterated insight at your fingertips.

So why wait? Dive into the world of meaningful data analysis today. Download Context, explore Portal, and start transforming your life one data point at a time.

Your journey towards a more empowered, data-driven life begins now.