*By Conor White*
Android and iPhone users looking for a way to hide from Google are in luck: it's possible to stop the tech giant's apps, including Google Maps, from tracking a device's whereabouts.
The Associated Press [reported](https://www.apnews.com/828aefab64d4411bac257a07c1af0ecb/AP-Exclusive:-Google-tracks-your-movements,-like-it-or-not) that Google was storing users' location and browsing data even after many people believed they had opted not to share that information by turning off "location history."
By doing some digging, Emily Dreyfuss, a senior writer at Wired, found [a solution](https://www.wired.com/story/google-location-tracking-turn-off/), if you have the patience to navigate the innermost settings pages of your Google apps.
* Open a browser to access your Google account settings.
* The setting is buried under "personal information."
* Go to your activity log and look for "Web and App Activity."
* Turn the setting off.
Dreyfuss said in an interview with Cheddar that users would still be able to use location-based apps like Lyft and Uber, but Google won't be able to track and store information about where the device has been.
"You can still have location on, on your iPhone or your Android, as long as in your Google account settings you have turned off 'Web and Activity Tracking,'" she said.
Recent revelations about the ways in which Facebook, Google, and other technology companies track, store, and share users' personal data has increased consumers' desire to safeguard their privacy. Dreyfuss said that concern led to the latest discovery about Google's methods.
"We all have this sense that we don't know when our location is being used or why," she said. "That's what was so creepy about this, even when we thought that we had turned it off, this is confirmation that we're not as in control as we thought."
For full interview, [click here] (https://cms.cheddar.com/videos/VmlkZW8tMjIwNDk=).
After a two-week delay of 5G deployment at airports due to the airline industry's claims it will cause "catastrophic disruption," AT&T and Verizon are set to roll out the service on January 19. Michael Boyd, CEO of aviation consultancy Boyd Group International, joined Cheddar to discuss the concerns being voiced by the airlines. "If the airline industry thinks it's going to be something to disrupt our system or impair safety, it shouldn't roll out at all, period," Boyd said, noting that the telecom giants should rethink the activation over safety and security.
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a private-public fund backed by Bill Gates, is planning to invest up to $15 billion in clean technology initiatives across the U.S., UK, and European Union. It will target four key areas and help fund large projects that otherwise would not be financially possible. Bobby Hollis, Director of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
An economic development agency, the Northwest Arkansas Council, is looking to draw technology professionals to their region of the Southern state with incentives like $10,000 worth of Bitcoin and a new bicycle. Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the private nonprofit made up of companies like Walmart and Tyson Foods, joined Cheddar to talk about the program to further power his local economy. "By offering the payment in Bitcoin, we're looking to identify those people with interest and expertise in the underlying technologies, the blockchain technologies," he said.
After months of investors turning to crypto as a hedge against inflation, instead of the traditional hedge of gold, one crypto exchange is working with a token creator to launch a digital coin backed by a physical asset. GCOIN gives customers a digital title of ownership to 99.99% pure physical gold which is stored in a secured vault. Brent de Jong, GCoin's founder and Kristin Boggiano, Co-Founder and President of CrossTower, a cryptocurrency exchange, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the GCOIN rollout, customer interest, why crypto is used as an inflation hedge, and more.
Retail platform operator and delivery company, Foxtrot,
raised $100 million in a Series C round led by D1 Capital Partners. Foxtrot bills itself as the modern convenience store that combines what it calls in-store curated discovery with 30-minute delivery and 5-minute pickup. Since launching first as a digital-only delivery service, the company has since grown into a popular local retailer, opening 16 brick and mortar locations across Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Foxtrot co-founder and CEO Michael LaVitola joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The January 6 committee has subpoenaed four tech giants for more information on what they did and didn't do leading up to last year's deadly Capitol insurrection. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit were asked to assist the investigation in August, but the committee says their responses have been 'inadequate.' Craig Timberg, a national technology reporter at the Washington Post, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more details about the subpoenas, why this is happening now, and how it might impact social media companies moving forward.
