[HN Gopher] Dawarich: Self-hosted alternative to Google Location...
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       Dawarich: Self-hosted alternative to Google Location History
        
       Author : thunderbong
       Score  : 139 points
       Date   : 2024-09-02 11:08 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | nreilly wrote:
       | Something similar, but entirely on (iOS) device, and focused on
       | tracking activities based on location (hours at work, shopping,
       | travelling, etc): https://apps.apple.com/au/app/life-cycle-track-
       | your-time/id1... (No affiliation, just a user)
        
       | sendfoods wrote:
       | This looks great, thanks for sharing. I'll give it a spin on my
       | RPI.
       | 
       | What a tongue-twister for English speakers, though :)
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | For those who don't know, "Da war ich" is german for "i was
         | there".
        
       | jeroenhd wrote:
       | I like it, especially with the ability to import Google Location
       | History. I also like the name, assuming I'm pronouncing it right
       | :)
       | 
       | I'm currently using Home Assistant for keeping track where I've
       | been, but the update frequency is rather low (to save my phone's
       | battery, presumably, despite often having the little location
       | access indicator on screen).
       | 
       | Perhaps someone here has any experience with OwnTracks/Overland?
       | This looks pretty good, but I'm curious about the extra battery
       | usage.
        
         | kawsper wrote:
         | I use OwnTracks on its most aggressive mode "significant
         | change" and it doesn't even have 1% on iOS under "Battery
         | usage".
        
           | tra3 wrote:
           | This is the least aggressive mode per the docs
           | http://owntracks.org/features/location/
        
             | kawsper wrote:
             | Oops, you're right!
        
             | cmeacham98 wrote:
             | FYI your link is a 404
        
               | tra3 wrote:
               | Weird bug in safari. Share url gives me the link above,
               | but selecting the url bar gives me the correct link
               | https://owntracks.org/booklet/features/location/
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | Arguably a bug in the site: Safari uses the "canonical
               | location" (if available) when sharing links, which e.g.
               | shares the real URL when sharing an AMP link.
               | 
               | This particular site's canonical location tag seems to be
               | wrong:                   <link rel="canonical"
               | href="http://owntracks.org/features/location/" />
        
           | seizethegdgap wrote:
           | I'm going to have to check that out, I'm using Traccar and
           | it's using 5-7% and only gives me a location point every 200
           | seconds. How often does your location update?
        
             | kawsper wrote:
             | I was corrected by someone else, it's based on
             | "signifigant" change, so when I am stationary it doesn't
             | ping a lot, and days where I am very active it pings a lot.
             | 
             | I've been walking a lot today, so it has created around 100
             | pings around Copenhagen over the span of a few hours, and
             | it still haven't used 1% battery on my iPhone 13 Mini.
        
       | nicbou wrote:
       | I currently use Owntracks for this. The backend is a very simple
       | dockerized python script.
       | 
       | https://github.com/nicbou/homeserver/tree/master/gps-logger
       | 
       | It has been very reliable, except for the OS not launching
       | Owntracks reliably on boot. Above all, it reliably queues pings
       | while offline.
        
         | dewey wrote:
         | This project supports Owntracks import it seems.
         | 
         | > import your location history from Google Maps Timeline and
         | Owntracks
        
           | nicbou wrote:
           | That is correct. It's brilliant!
        
       | mikae1 wrote:
       | heatmap.py[1] + GPSLogger[2] for a low(er) tech solution.
       | 
       | [1] http://sethoscope.net/heatmap/ ,
       | https://github.com/sethoscope/heatmap
       | 
       | [2] https://github.com/mendhak/gpslogger/
        
         | nicbou wrote:
         | GPSLogger is no longer in the app store, unfortunately
        
           | mikae1 wrote:
           | Hadn't noticed. I'm F-Droid only.
           | 
           | Use https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium if you don't want
           | to install F-Droid.
        
       | jalict wrote:
       | I really liked Google Timeline, but started going away from it
       | (in my de-google phase right now), it was nice to go back to when
       | I had been biking a specific place in town, but couldn't remember
       | exactly where.
       | 
       | And I have also been doing some PolarSteps for quite a while, but
       | wanted to start making my own travel books now.
       | 
       | This seems like a perfect tool for both of this!
       | 
       | (iOS user, so seems like the space a little more limited)
        
       | kawsper wrote:
       | I have tracked my location since 2017, I've built a small Rails
       | application and I am using OwnTracks.
       | 
       | This project looks really cool, I haven't focused as much on
       | visualisations or stats, but I have different output formats that
       | I needed for tax-purposes as I was taxable in 2 countries.
        
         | forever_frey wrote:
         | Hi, what kind of output formats do you have in your app? Maybe
         | I'd like to have them in Dawarich too :)
        
       | netsharc wrote:
       | Not relevant to this since it's a Google Timeline issue, but: I
       | remember visiting a restaurant; a few months later the restaurant
       | closed down and a barber shop took over the premises. Google
       | Timeline now thinks I visited a barber shop back then.
        
         | forever_frey wrote:
         | Yeah, I want to somehow address this too, Dawarich will suggest
         | a place that you visited and will keep it inside a visit
         | record, so it won't be overridden if some other business will
         | open there instead.
        
         | looperhacks wrote:
         | If Google tracks me at work, it just saves "work" as the
         | location. How do I know? Well, my workplace has since moved,
         | but timelines before the move now show me go to the old
         | location, then suddenly teleport me to the new one.
        
           | netsharc wrote:
           | Ha... a pointer reuse problem.
        
       | iamacyborg wrote:
       | Would be neat if it could also import location from Garmin/Strava
       | for the folks who don't carry their phone when they're out for a
       | run.
        
         | forever_frey wrote:
         | Dawarich supports importing GPX files, I think both Garmin and
         | Strava can export to this format
        
           | iamacyborg wrote:
           | Neat, thanks!
        
       | teekert wrote:
       | Maybe nice to know: "Da war ich" is German for "There I was".
        
         | stigi wrote:
         | Funny enough I'm (east) German and my first association was the
         | Russian word "tovarisch" (meaning comrade or friend).
         | 
         | Wondering what Dr. Freud would say about that...
        
       | ochrist wrote:
       | Interesting. I run orienteering and uses NextCloud to visualize
       | my activities (from a Garmin watch). Question from a colleague:
       | Would it be possible to navigate from you own track (like a GPS
       | navigator) if you wanted to revisit your own tracks?
        
         | forever_frey wrote:
         | I'm not sure if I got the question but feel free to join the
         | discord server and we'll have a chat about it!
        
         | freedomben wrote:
         | How do you like NextCloud for this? I've been thinking of
         | setting up a Next Cloud for other reasons and would love to
         | kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
        
         | hiatus wrote:
         | Can you link to the orienteering project? I am having a hard
         | time tracking it down.
        
       | zufallsheld wrote:
       | Anyone knows how it compares to owntracks?
        
       | ranger_danger wrote:
       | Does this require leaving location services on at all times? Or
       | can it turn it on/off itself just to get an update? I always
       | leave location off just because I don't want google or other apps
       | knowing where I am at all times.
        
         | jtbayly wrote:
         | If it could do that, then Google could do that too, right?
        
           | ranger_danger wrote:
           | technically it probably already can, but I think the bigger
           | issue is, does it? because if so, then that would be a major
           | privacy violation IMO
        
       | lxgr wrote:
       | Neat!
       | 
       | I've been using Home Assistant for this in the past, although
       | I've disabled it since it seems to report every single tracking
       | point via the network, which isn't great for battery life (or
       | alternatively leads to very coarse tracking). I've been looking
       | for something that does effectively the same thing, but
       | aggregates updates and only syncs them every once in a while.
       | 
       | Regarding this section of the readme:
       | 
       | > To import your Google Maps Timeline data, download your
       | location history from Google Takeout and upload it to Dawarich.
       | 
       | Does that still work, given that Google seems to have started
       | end-to-end encrypting their location history?
       | 
       | Update: Seems like they've addressed that in the wiki, and there
       | is now a new process:
       | https://github.com/Freika/dawarich/wiki/How-to-import-your-G...
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-03 23:01 UTC)