Auto-Filled Location Data when Location Services Disabled

[JayEmBosch 3]

(Evernote Version: Version 6.2 (452688 Direct), Mac: OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 on a MacBook Pro Retina 15", Mid-2014)

 

I have had my Mac's Location Services completely disabled since I got it. I do not use any geotag or location services on my Mac whatsoever.

 

I just found a group of notes created a year and a half ago, that I have not touched since, were updated in late October somehow. So trying to get to the bottom of it, I opened the info panel and noticed my complete, accurate address in the Location field. All 11 notes created at that time have my address in their info. Disturbed, I went looking at the Atlas feature I never use to see what other notes might have had my address automatically snuck into their info. I have found over 170 notes with Location data that I have not entered, stretching back about two and a half years to as recently as yesterday. The data ranges from random address taken from the news article being clipped or seemingly completely random addresses, to my completely accurate address when staying at home and when abroad internationally or nearby addresses on the same block.

 

Obviously some kind of geo-tagging is going on, but what exactly and how? Again, Location Services have been completely disabled on both my Mac and my Android phone (which I used Evernote on as well) since I got them (on Mac: System preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy; and on Android: Settings > Location). I turned them off day one, have kept them off since, and have confirmed today that they are still off. As far as I can tell, most if not all of these notes with locations added to them were created on my Mac. The only Evernote-specific option related to Locations I can find is in my Evernote for Android's Notes settings, which does have an "Auto-title new notes" option that can try to add titles to notes by drawing from location or calendar event data. This option was enabled by default on my Android phone, but I have since disabled it. It also purports only to add titles to untitled notes, which is not at all the case here where the Location field of a titled note is getting filled in. I can not find any other specific Location-adding options or features anywhere in my Evernote settings, either on my Mac or Android phone. And even if there was some such option enabled, how and why would it override my system's settings?

 

Are there some other, more obscured and hidden auto-filling Location Services options that are enabled by default? I am more than a little unnerved by this seemingly arbitrary and random violation of the privacy options I have consciously set.

 

EDIT - Did some more searching and found a thread with people having a similar issue with Evernote for Android, which would then sync its auto-added locations to desktop clients, but this only confuses me more. They found that, when their phone's Location Services were disabled, the option in Evernote for Android's Note Settings to "Add Location to New Notes" using GPS and Wifi was greyed out, and they were unable to enable or disable it. This option was not even present in my Evernote for Android's Note Settings, at all. So I went to my phone's Location Services setting, enabled it for once, and went back to Evernote's Note Settings. Suddenly, the "Add Location to New Notes" option was there, but it was still disabled, as I assumed it should be by default. I went back and disabled my phone's Location Services again, and now the "Add Location to New Notes" option is still there, but greyed out (and disabled). While this likely does nothing to affect why and how my notes have had Locations added to them, as still no option was actually enabled to add Locations, it evidences more strange issues with this set of features across Evernote's products. Why are people with Location Services disabled not seeing all location-based options in their settings? And why are such settings used when they are clearly disabled at every obvious level?

 

Again, I believe most, if not all of my notes that had Locations automatically added were created on my Mac, not my Android Phone. Although some of the problem notes may have been viewed on my phone, and hence, possibly auto-updated with a Location(?) then based on some strange activation of disabled features, this is certainly not the case for all the problem notes.

[gazumped 11,643]

Hi. 

 

AFAIK Evernote doesn't track you if you don't want to be tracked.  The reason Location Services is hidden/greyed out if Android's location services are turned off is presumably a coders' arbitrary decision somewhere not to clutter up the app interface with options you can't use if the device service isn't available / switched on.  Anyone who has had problems with the greyed out option - to the best of my knowledge - solved them by turning on the device service,  disabling the option and turning the device service back off.

 

As to how your notes came to have locations added,  that's an under-the-hood question that only Evernote support can answer - I'd suggest raising a support ticket;  click Troubleshooting in the Help Center (link below in my sig) and scroll to the bottom of the page to see the 'Contact Support' button.

[JayEmBosch 3]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the reply. What bugs me is that the greyed-out Android Evernote Location Services option you're talking about wasn't in my menu at all until I tried temporarily enabling my phone's Location Services, and then it was already disabled by default when it did show up. And yet, I have dozens of notes with geo-tagged addresses. I can delete all the Location Data and just watch to see if it happens again, I guess. But I feel there should be some way for the company to answer to saving the address of a user when all possible options for that feature are purposefully disabled by the user.

 

But, since I'm no longer a Premium subscriber, downgraded earlier this year to a Plus subscriber to save a bit of money, I don't get to contact support anymore. That's something I didn't know until I had this problem and tried to contact support. They sure don't advertise on their pricing plan page that only Premium users get any support process at all, nor do they make any mention of it on either the Premium or Plus product pages. So these forums are literally the most official technical support available to non-Premium users, and I'm having a hard time finding where/how I was supposed to have known about this critical difference in subscription plans when making my decision of what plan to use.

 

[gazumped 11,643]

Actually Basic and Plus users do still get support - see the detailed comments here:  https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/51807-best-practices-submitting-a-support-ticket/

 

It's unusual that the location option on your app didn't appear at all until you activated the phone feature,  but as I said;  someone somewhere may have thought:  if you don't want to use something, there's no point in distracting you with the option.

 

It is concerning that location information appeared in your notes,  but I'm sure this is not a software issue.  I haven't noticed any anomalies in location information in several years' use,  sometimes with it switched on,  and sometimes with it switched off.  If the information appeared inappropriately,  then it's at least easy to identify and remove.  Check in Atlas to see all notes with location details,  and go to each note to blank that detail.

 

I'd recommend submitting a bug report on this.  You won't necessarily get any follow-up,  but it does mean that the devs will take a look at your situation and (if they can replicate the issue) fix it in a future release...choose "report a bug..." in the first dropdown after logging in here > https://www.evernote.com/SupportLogin.action

[JayEmBosch 3]

Thanks for your reply.

 

The post you linked says Basic users can only get support for login/access issues and payment issues (can't imagine free users have too many of those). If a Basic user has an actual problem with the software itself, all they can do is report a bug, without a support ticket or two-way communication with support staff. Maybe it's semantics, but I don't really call that "support." Additionally, that post specifically states being a Premium OR Plus user puts your support tickets at the front of the line. I don't understand how that works when Basic and Plus users can not open support tickets, save for login or payment issues. How much of the support queue can even actually have Basic or Plus subscribers' issues in it?

 

Thank you for showing me how I can report a bug as a Plus user. I will do so, and will delete all the Location Data.

 

But if this is the quality of support documentation for non-Premium users, it's pretty frustrating. Without any mention of different levels of support for different subscription levels, users tend to assume they can get troubleshooting and support tickets submitted if the company has the means to do so, as with Evernote. And when attempting to, and being denied the ability to, there is no mention of what support/bug reporting options ARE available to a subscriber at my level, just that less-than-Premium subscribers can't do it. We shouldn't have to be linked to some unpinned post in the Evernote General Discussions forum by a helpful community member just to get (seemingly outdated) information on best practices for support. Without your assistance, I would have assumed, based on my inability to create the type of support ticket I wanted and felt was relevant, that I can't create any type of support ticket.