how did my phone know where i was going

[brainhulk]

i went on a road trip over the weekend. At a gas station on the way i glanced at my phone (samsung s3) and it told me the eta to my destination and the address. It also asked if i wanted directions via google maps.

My passenger was the one who typed the destination into the car's gps. Neither her phone or the car is connected to my phone via blutooth either (car doesn't have blutooth)

Any idea how my phone knew where i was going?

 

[Wingznut]

Google Now...

Had you previously searched for said destination?

 

[brainhulk]

Google Now...

Had you previously searched for said destination?

i've never searched for that location on my phone. weird

edit

just looked up what it does, pretty cool. But still wondering how it got my destination information

 

[mcveigh]

the google knows all....

 

[jupiter57]

the google knows all....

This
There is nothing the google does NOT know about you!

 

[Anubis]

did you google it on your PC? depending on the browser/ being loged into google & allowing some services it will share that stuff across your google accnt so it shows up on your phone & google now will pull it

also pulls from gmail

 

[SP33Demon]

Did you email anyone where you were going earlier in the week, i.e. is that address anywhere in your email/phone electronically? Were you going to a big tourist trap? If not, have you ever used the phone GPS before to that destination? Algorithms can ascertain that if 95% of people went the same route you are going then you are most likely traveling to x destination, and your phone was triangulating your route from cell towers as you were using the internet so it obviously can track your route and make a high probability guess to your destination.

 

[brainhulk]

Did you email anyone where you were going earlier in the week, i.e. is that address anywhere in your email/phone electronically? Were you going to a big tourist trap? If not, have you ever used the phone GPS before to that destination? Algorithms can ascertain that if 95% of people went the same route you are going then you are most likely traveling to x destination, and your phone was triangulating your route from cell towers as you were using the internet so it obviously can track your route and make a high probability guess to your destination.

Address was a friend's house in Northern California. First time there. I do not have it in my address book. The trip was not in my calendar. Address was not emailed

 

[Wingznut]

i've never searched for that location on my phone.

How about from any other device in which you have logged into your Google account?

 

[bigrash]

Big Brother is watching you.

 

[brainhulk]

How about from any other device in which you have logged into your Google account?

that may be a possibility, my passenger may have used my laptop while i was logged in

 

[Red Storm]

that may be a possibility, my passenger may have used my laptop while i was logged in

That's most likely it then. I love Google Now.

 

[zebano]

The google is self-aware

 

[brainhulk]

so how do i turn this off? kinda creepy to me atm

 

[AstroManLuca]

so how do i turn this off? kinda creepy to me atm

I think you can go into location settings or something from your google account, or from your phone.

ONE TIME after I installed Jelly Bean it actually gave me a really cool reminder - it looked at my calendar, saw I had a doctor's appointment one morning, got driving directions from my current location, calculated the travel time, and reminded me 10 minutes before I needed to leave in order to get there at the right time. Very neat, but it only did it that one time and never again.

It was constantly giving me directions to places I had already been. I'd go into Google maps, find a place, get directions, and go there. Then like an hour after I left, when I pulled up Google Now, it would show a card for directions to that place because I guess it assumed that because I went there once, I must ALWAYS want to go there. Kinda useless.

Now I just have Google Now turned off because it's not reliable and it drains battery.

 

[Red Storm]

I think you can go into location settings or something from your google account, or from your phone.

ONE TIME after I installed Jelly Bean it actually gave me a really cool reminder - it looked at my calendar, saw I had a doctor's appointment one morning, got driving directions from my current location, calculated the travel time, and reminded me 10 minutes before I needed to leave in order to get there at the right time.

Since then it has never done that and now I just have Google Now turned off because it's not reliable and it drains battery.

I use it everyday for weather as well as travel times to work and back, in addition to all the other stuff it does (shipment/airline/hotel/calendar/appointment notices). It's always spot on.

 

[JimmiG]

so how do i turn this off? kinda creepy to me atm

Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Google is really doing some creepy shit IMO

I'm a step away from completely not using their services all together.

 

[Red Storm]

Google is really doing some creepy shit IMO

I'm a step away from completely not using their services all together.

It's not creepy at all when you actually think about what it's doing.