"Can I be tracked by Google?" is a case study on the Google Maps app, used today by many people, on various desktop or mobile devices. Maps generated by the Google Maps app, based on Google's personal account, highlights location history as well as user routes. These maps can be handled in various ways, can be deleted from the history, but can also be exported in a GIS format such as the KMZ or JSON format. This paper describes both the steps of accessing the new Google Maps section "Your timeline" or "Cronologia ta"(in romanian), available only to us users and to Google, as well as enabling or disabling the innovative location tracking feature for Google Maps and other applications from various search engines such as Chrome, Mozzila Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc. and on different operating systems (Android and IOS). With an innovative feature titled Your Timeline, Google Maps shows your tracks in recent years, and besides this, Google Maps gives you the chance to create a map that allows you to choose both the road that you want to go through and mark your own goals on that road. You can import this map into Google Earth with public or secure access. The importance of this research paper is the innovative feature of the Google Maps application that can store and track the location at any time, the coordinates of the points of travel, the distance between these points, the way the route is traversed (on foot, by car, by public transport etc.) without being limited by a certain distance or a certain amount of time, that is, it tracks and saves all available information about locations around the world for years in a row until this feature is deactivated by the Google Account holder on the device used, be it a mobile phone or a laptop. This feature also provides the opportunity to save photos taken in any place, and moreover, transmits real-time information about traffic situations related to each obstacle or difficulty, and can determine an alternative or bypass route, and also, you can follow your desired route on a map created by you.

Android, GIS, Google Maps, IOS, tracking, timeline

environmental engineering

Presentation: oral