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Pixy drone hands-on: A flying robot photographer for Snapchat users

Drones are everywhere these days, filming dramatic reveals and awe-inspiring scenery for social media platforms. The problem is, they’re not exactly approachable for beginners who have only ever used a smartphone. Last month, Snap debuted the $230 Pixy drone exactly for those people. It requires very little skill and acts like a personal robot photographer to help you produce nifty aerial shots.

You don’t need to pilot the Pixy. In fact, you couldn’t if you wanted to. Rather, it flies by itself, performing pre-programmed patterns that put the focus on you, the user. It has great potential for things like parties or tourist activities, grabbing awesome aerial shots with almost no user intervention.

Snap calls itself a camera company, but its other photo-centric products like Spectacles have met with limited success. To me, the Pixy drone holds more promise because it could help users get more interesting content than they could with a phone or regular camera. I’ve had one for the last week in the French countryside, so let’s see if it’s as versatile as I hope.

Hardware and setup

At just 3.6 ounces (101 grams), the Pixy is small enough to throw in a bag or wear around your neck using the supplied protective case with a strap. It’s pretty cute – I even heard some oohs and aahs from friends and bystanders – though it does look a little flimsy. However, it proved to be surprisingly resistant to falls and accidents, emerging from several such incidents without a scratch.

The four propellers are in a protective cowl, so they can’t buzz any tree branches or fingers. On top is a start button and mode dial, with the battery compartment and charge indicator lights underneath. You’ll also notice a camera on the bottom, but it’s strictly for detecting your hand and not taking photos or video. A USB-C port at back lets you charge the drone and transfer files to your phone or PC.

The main camera takes 2.7K video at 30 fps and 12-megapixel images. It shoots in 16:9 landscape mode, which is a bit odd considering the Snaps are vertical. However, a cropping tool in the app lets you convert your captures to portrait mode.

Steve Dent/Engadget

The first thing to do is sync it up to your account via Bluetooth by placing it in standby mode, then pressing and holding the start button. From there, Snapchat detects the Pixy and syncs everything up over WiFi. In my tests, the process was seamless on both an iPhone 12 and Samsung Galaxy S10.

Then, you set the dial to one of four flight modes: Hover, Reveal, Follow and Orbit. They’re pretty self-explanatory, with Hover keeping the drone in place and letting you do any actions in front of it. Reveal starts tight on your face and zooms away to 10 to 30 feet in height, revealing the background. Follow tracks you around (it works best if it can see your face) and Orbit does a 360 circle at about head height and at a distance between 10 and 30 feet.

Each of those can be tweaked in the app with different flight times, distances and more. If you often use a flight mode like Reveal with a specific setting, you can save that to the Favorite dial for easy access, using the app.

In use

Steve Dent/Engadget

Once the flight pattern is selected, just hold the Pixy up so its camera can see your face and press the start button. It’ll take off and perform the selected maneuver, saving video and/or photos to the 16GB of fixed internal storage. That’s enough for around 100 videos and 1,000 photos, depending on the mode and settings.

All of the flight patterns worked well, though as mentioned, the Follow mode works best if it can see your face. It doesn’t detect specific people, but it did seem to lock on tenaciously to the same face even if multiple people were in a shot.

When it’s done, you just hold your hand underneath and it’ll land directly on it, which is where the bottom camera comes into play. It worked pretty reliably, but sometimes I had to move my hand around a bit to catch it or keep it from falling.

Steve Dent/Engadget

Afterwards, when you jump into the Memories section of the Snapchat app, it’ll tell you that you have some Pixy clips ready to import. You can also copy them over to your PC via USB-C, but you have to adjust a Snapchat setting in the Pixy section (“Import via USB”) first.

Once you have some clips, you can get started editing them. If you want to post on Snap, you can use the auto-crop function to convert to vertical video while centering your subjects. You can then trim the video, add music and use special Pixy AR lenses, like “Flame Aura,” “Multiples” (making three of you) and Record, an old-timey VHS tape effect. It also comes with two special speed ramp effects, Jump Cut and Hyperspeed.

Trade-offs

So far so good, but there are a number of things it can’t do. To start with, there are no obstacle detection sensors at all, so if something gets in the way, the Pixy will crash right into it. Leaves and twigs didn’t always stop it, but walls, branches and human bodies certainly did. Luckily, as mentioned, the Pixy is pretty tough.

Since it can’t go very far or high (up to 30 feet at most) the lack of obstacle detection shouldn’t be an issue for most people. To avoid any issues, though, you should test each maneuver in a wide open area to get a feel for how far away it travels.

Steve Dent/Engadget

Another significant limitation is flight time. Snap told me that the Pixy can fly for four to five minutes on a charge, or between five and 10 flights. You can buy extra batteries for $20 each, and get a portable dual-battery charger for $50. If you think you’ll need that extra flight time (you will), your best bet is the Pixy Flight Pack, which adds the charger and two extra batteries for an extra $20.

It also lacks a gimbal and relies strictly on electronic stabilization, so you might get some shaky footage if you’re flying in a lot of wind. Speaking of which, the Pixy’s light weight means you can’t really fly it outside at all in gusty conditions.

Image and video quality isn’t amazing, but it does the job. When I showed it to a professional photographer friend, he was pleasantly surprised. The exposure levels were good, and it adjusted well when going from shade to sunlight. It worked fine indoors provided I had a reasonable amount of light.

When you open videos or photos on a PC screen, it’s clear that it can’t compare to a smartphone or other drones, particularly in low light. But even when you reduce the resolution by cropping vertically, it looks decent on a smartphone – so it’s absolutely good enough for most Snapchat users.

My photographer friend took it to a wedding and he found it great for grabbing some extra shots or to show behind-the-scenes goings on. Since it requires almost no setup or piloting, all he had to do was just launch the Pixy and it would do the rest – ideal for a busy photographer if quality isn’t a concern.

I enjoyed it too as a quick and easy drone and I feel like it would be something I’d take with me while traveling to get some nice reveals and aerial shots. I was curious to see how it compares with other Snapchat camera products like Spectacles, and what ambitions Snap has for it, so I asked Engadget senior editor Karissa Bell, who covers social media.

“If you think about what they’ve done with Spectacles… there was a lot of interest in the beginning, but once you start to use them they’re more of a novelty,” she told me. “The Pixy’s interesting because it really does seem to have more possibilities.”

“If you’re somebody who’s really active on Snapchat [or] making videos for Spotlight, which is their take on a TikTok-like feature, you can get really creative. But $230 is not a small amount of money, especially for younger people in Snapchat’s core demographic. So I think it could be more of a success than Spectacles, but there are a lot of drone companies out there if you’re just looking for a drone.”

In fact, it already looks like it’ll be a challenge to get one, as the wait time has stretched out to four whole months after pre-orders started on April 28th. That could be down to demand, but Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also toldThe Verge that the company “should have made more.”

Wrap-up

Steve Dent/Engadget

Still, it does look like Snap is onto something with the Pixy. It’s not nearly as capable as pricier drones from DJI and others, but that’s not really the point. Rather, it’s a way for social media users to get some cinematic shots without the need to be a drone expert.

You can also turn over photo and video chores to the Pixy and focus on creating your Snap content. If you’re on a night out with friends, you can send it off to grab some shots without the need for a selfie stick or other gear.

It’s not perfect, as battery life is pretty poor and image quality merely passable. And at $230, it’s also quite expensive considering that you could buy a decent drone for that kind of money – we’ve seen DJI’s Spark Mini on sale at $250, for instance.

But Pixy isn’t designed for avid drone users who might balk at that price. It’s made for social media creators who might even consider it to be cheap considering what it could do for them. The reactions I saw from passersby and friends were overwhelmingly positive, with a number saying they might buy one. If that’s any kind of sign, the Pixy might become a hit.

Apple's MacBook Air M1 is $100 off right now

While you may waiting in anticipation for Apple's next iteration of the MacBook Air, the current model is on sale at Amazon. You can pick up the 256GB MacBook Air M1 for $900 right now, or $100 off its normal price. We have seen it lower before — last year's holiday shopping season brought its lowest price ever of $800 — but a $100 discount remains a good one if you're in need of a new thin-and-light laptop.

Buy MacBook Air M1 (256GB) at Amazon - $900

We consider the MacBook Air M1 to be the best laptop for most people, despite it being about two years old at this point. It impressed us with its stellar performance and lack of fan noise, both of which help it feel speedier, smoother and more efficient than previous models. It also has improved GPU performance, and while it's not a gaming machine by any means, it can handle Apple Arcade games nicely.

Performance is the standout new feature on the MacBook Air M1, but that's only because Apple didn't fix what wasn't broken about the laptop's design. It's super thin and light, coming in at 2.8 pounds, plus it has a lovely 13-inch Retina Display, an excellent keyboard and trackpad and a battery that can last over 16 hours on a single charge. The biggest downsides come in its webcam and scant port selection. You're only getting a 720p webcam on this laptop, which is lackluster considering how much time many of us spend on video calls every day, and the machine has only two USB-C ports on it.

If you absolutely must have more ports and don't want to live the dongle life going forward, consider the 14-inch MacBook Pro instead. It's more expensive, but it'll be a better investment in the long run. However, if speed and portability are your top concerns, the MacBook Air M1 is one of the best options out there.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Amazon is taking up to 60 percent off WD and SanDisk storage for today only

If you're building a new PC or just need a storage device for your computers and gaming consoles, make sure to check out Amazon today. You can get both internal and external disk drives, as well as memory cards, for up to 60 percent off from the website's ongoing one-day Western Digital and SanDisk sale. One of the most deeply discounted items included in the event is Western Digital's 2TB Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD that's currently listed for $170, or $210 off its original price. The component went on sale at Amazon earlier this month, but this is the lowest price we've seen it go for on the website. It has read speeds of up to 560MB/s, sequential write speeds of up to 530MB/s and is compatible with computers that have standard SATA connectors.

Buy Western Digital and SanDisk storage and memory products at Amazon

In case you're looking for a memory card, the SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card with 400GB capacity is also on sale for $36, down $34 or almost half its original retail price. It's compatible with most devices that have microSD card slots, such as Android phones and tablets, and it has transfer speeds reaching 120MB/s that will let you move up to 1,000 photos within a minute.

For portable storage devices, there's SanDisk's Extreme PRO Portable SSD with a 2TB capacity. It's currently on sale for $260 — its all-time low on the website — or $250 off its retail price. The device has 2000MB/s read or write speeds, comes with a USB-C and a USB-A cable and can work with both Windows and Mac computers. 

But if you need external storage with an even bigger capacity for your home or office, you can get Western Digital's 10TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive HDD instead. It's currently available for $175 — not quite an all-time low, but still $125 lower than its retail price of $300. The storage solution is plug-and-play ready for Windows PCs, but you can also use it for your Mac computers, as well as for your PS4 and your Xbox consoles.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Dyson's been secretly working on robots that do household chores

Dyson has been getting into more and more offbeat products these days, like the Zone noise-canceling headphones that blow purified air at your face. Now, the company has revealed that it has an entire division that's secretly been developing robot prototypes that do household chores. 

The company didn't detail any of the models in particularly, but many look like regular robot arms adapted to do specialized home chores like cleaning and tidying. One appeared to be designed to vacuum out the seat cushions, mapping an armchair out in detail to do the job. "So this means I'll never, ever find crisps around the back of my sofa again?" the company's chief engineer, Jake Dyson, asked a researcher in a video (below).

Another robot was putting away dishes or at least placing them in a drying rack, and another was grasping a teddy bear, presumably picking up after a child. Dyson also showed off a "Perception Lab" that was all about robotic vision systems, detecting its environment and mapping humans with sensors, cameras and thermal imaging systems.

Dyson is currently on a recruiting drive, looking for around 700 engineers, which is one reason it finally decided to show off the lab (located at Hullavington Airfield, Wiltshire in the UK) after keeping it under wraps. "What you're developing counts an awful lot in terms of excitement and attracting engineers," he said. "One thing about robots, as with wearables, is that they are the future of Dyson."

The Morning After: Google claims 'unprecedented photorealism' from its new text-to-image AI

Google has shown off a new artificial intelligence system that can create images based on text input. Its Imagen diffusion model, created by the Brain Team at Google Research, offers "an unprecedented degree of photorealism and a deep level of language understanding."

Google

This isn't the first time we've seen AI models like this. OpenAI's DALL·E (and its successor) performed similar witchcraft, turning text into visuals. Google's version, however, tries to create more realistic images. The researchers created a benchmark and asked humans to assess each image from a range of AIs. They "prefer Imagen over other models in side-by-side comparisons, both in terms of sample quality and image-text alignment," Google said.

It’s not available to the public, and there are reasons for this. “Datasets of this nature often reflect social stereotypes, oppressive viewpoints, and derogatory, or otherwise harmful, associations to marginalized identity groups," the researchers wrote. Imagen has inherited the "social biases and limitations of large language models" and may depict "harmful stereotypes and representation." The team said the AI encodes social biases, including a tendency to create images of people with lighter skin tones and place them in certain stereotypical gender roles. The system could be used to make unsavory images to intentionally cause offense.

The team may eventually allow the rest of us to play with the model to generate our own images, but the researchers need to consider a framework first — a challenge in itself.

— Mat Smith

 

The biggest stories you might have missed

Apple's latest Pride Edition Watch bands include a nod to the company's history

Linksys rolls out a pair of more affordable WiFi 6 mesh routers

Google is testing a smaller, modular Street View camera system

Samsung's new Smart Monitor M8 is $100 off for the first time

'Lord of the Rings: Gollum' hits consoles and PC on September 1st

Microsoft's Project Volterra is a mini PC for ARM developers

Panasonic's latest modular Toughbook is larger and lighter

Harley-Davidson made an electric mountain bike without front or rear suspension

Starlink launches its satellite internet for RVs

But it costs more than a standard Starlink service.

Starlink

Starlink’s internet service for RV drivers and ‘vanlife’ types is live. While applying for a regular Starlink dish and service will put customers on a waitlist until 2023, Starlink for RVs is immediately available and will ship out to buyers right now. However, network resources are always deprioritized for RV connections, and the service costs $135, which is $25 more than a regular Starlink connection.

Continue reading.

ASUS' ROG Swift is the 'world's first' 500Hz G-Sync gaming monitor

It uses NVIDIA's Reflex tech to reduce system latency.

ASUS has unveiled what it calls the "world's first" 500Hz G-Sync gaming display, the 1080p ROG Swift 500Hz. Designed for competitive gaming, it uses a special panel and incorporates NVIDIA's G-Sync Esports technology to maximize motion clarity. It also uses NVIDIA's Reflex Analyzer technology, which delivers real-time stats to help you reduce end-to-end latency if you're using a Reflex-optimized mouse and NVIDIA GPU.

The key highlight remains the 500Hz refresh rate, which draws eight times faster than typical 60Hz displays.

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Canon's EOS R7 and EOS R10 are its first EOS R crop-sensor cameras

Well-priced and fast but lacking backside-illuminated/stacked sensors.

Canon

Canon has launched its first EOS R APS-C crop sensor cameras, the 32-megapixel EOS R7 and 24-megapixel EOS R10. The new models bring Canon's APS-C and full-frame RF series in alignment, so you can finally use lenses interchangeably. More importantly, they carry impressive specs, like 15 fps mechanical shutter shooting speeds and 4K video at up to 60 fps.

The EOS R10 will cost $980 for the body only and $1,100 with the RF-S18-45mm lens and $1,380 with the RF-S18-150mm lens. The R7, meanwhile, will sell for $1,500 for the body only and $1,900 with the S18-150mm lens. Both should arrive later this year.

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Microsoft Teams goes beyond screen sharing for real-time collaboration

Live Share is a major evolution for remote work.

Microsoft's new Live Share feature should make it easier for Teams apps to enable real-time collaboration. If this sounds familiar, it's because Microsoft announced plans to make Teams the go-to option for collaborative apps last year. Live Share is based on Fluid Framework, Microsoft's attempt at atomizing components of traditional documents and making them collaborative. Microsoft says several partners, including Accenture, Frame.io and Hexagon, are already building Live Share experiences in Teams projects.

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NVIDIA is bringing out liquid-cooled GPUs

But they’re for data centers.

Later this year, NVIDIA will begin selling a liquid-cooled version of its A100 GPU for data centers. The GPU maker is positioning the video card as a way for cloud computing companies to make their facilities more energy-efficient. NVIDIA claims a facility outfitted with its water-cooled A100 GPUs ran the same workload as an air-cooled data center while using about 30 percent less power.

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ProtonMail is rebranding and adding a lot more storage to all its plans

For the privacy-minded, ProtonMail has been one of the better options for secure email — you can get an (admittedly basic) account for free and enjoy end-to-end encryption for your communications when you're messaging other ProtonMail users. But the company's plans have gotten a little out of date. Free accounts only come with 500MB of storage, while the €4 / month plan bumps you to a modest 4GB of storage with some other limitations like a daily 1000-message sent cap.

Starting today, though, the company is making it easier to go all-in on ProtonMail and the other services it offers, including a VPN, cloud storage and an encrypted calendar. Going forward, ProtonMail is rebranding itself simply as Proton, pushing its whole suite of privacy-focused services and updating all of its plans. The company has a new website (proton.me), and both new and existing users can use the @proton.me address rather than the old @protonmail.com option if they're so inclined.

Proton

Going forward, Proton will offer three plans: Free, Mail Plus and Unlimited. The new free tier expands storage to 1GB and remains fairly constrained — you can only send 150 messages per day and have three labels and folders, for example. You can also access the basic Proton VPN tool and user Proton Calendar, though you're limited to only one calendar on this plan. Proton has long said that since it doesn't serve ads, it relies on subscriptions for revenue, so it's not too surprising the free plan is restricted. 

The Mail Plus plan will cost €5 / month, though you can get it for less if you sign up for a year or two years all in one shot. It's a big upgrade over the old plan, though. Users now get 15GB of storage shared between their email and Proton Drive cloud storage account. There's no restrictions on how many messages you can send or how many labels and folders you can create, and it also supports IMAP email clients via the Proton Bridge tool. There are also additional features like a new "short domain" email alias (@pm.me) that you can use to send and receive messages as well as 20 calendars that you can share with other users.

Finally, the Unlimited plan costs €12 / month; the company is positioning it as a way to get the top tier of all its services at once. That means 500GB of total storage, making Proton Drive a lot more viable for people to use as a backup service. You can use Proton Mail with up to three different custom domain addresses (up from one on the Mail Plus Plan) and with a total of 15 different email addresses (up from 10 on Mail Plus). 

Proton

But the big difference is that you get the full-fledged Proton VPN with the Unlimited plan, rather than the more basic option that comes with the other two Proton plans. This includes up to 10 VPN connections rather than one, a total of 1,700+ servers across 63 different countries (rather than 100-ish servers in three countries) and faster speeds. For the time being Proton will continue offering its VPN as a standalone product, too — you can get the details on that as well as the breakdown between the basic free VPN and what you get with the full version here.

If you're new to the Proton world, right now the company has iOS apps for mail and VPN services, and Android apps for mail, VPN and calendar. The Drive cloud storage option is still technically in beta, so there aren't any mobile apps for it just yet — they're slated for later this year.

And while Proton doesn't have any major updates to the mail service or its other apps aside from unifying them with its new design language, the company has made a few updates in recent months. Last month, the iOS Mail app got some design updates and a dark mode, as well as a "conversation" mode to make threads of messages easier to read. Back in February, Proton turned on encrypted search in the Mail web app, and in January it added a tracking pixel blocker.

PlayStation DualSense controllers are up to 21 percent off in Days of Play sale

You can get new PlayStation controllers and other accessories from Amazon at a discount from the Days of Play sale that begins today, May 25th. All six PS DualSense controllers are currently on sale at Amazon, including the latest colors launched in December. The basic black controller is available for $59, while the white one is listed for $60, or 14 percent off its original price of $70. For the same prices, though, you can also get one of the vibrantly colored DualSense controllers that typically cost $75.

Buy PlayStation accessories and games at Amazon

The Cosmic Red, Nova Pink and Galactic Purple controllers are listed for $59, which is the lowest price we've seen for them on the website. You'll have to pay $1 more for the Starlight Blue variant, but that's still a steal if you're eyeing the color in the first place and investing in a similar-colored face plate for your PS5, as well. The DualSense controllers have such advanced haptic feedback, that developers can program it to give you a feel of what's happening on screen — they can tweak the haptics to make you feel the difference between your character walking on grass and trudging through sand, for instance. DualSense's analog triggers can also recreate the feel of in-game tools, such the resistance of a bow when you pull on its string to shoot an arrow. 

The Playstation HD Camera is also on sale for $49 or $11 less its retail price. It has dual wide-angle lenses, is capable of 1080p capture and has a built-in adjustable stand. Meanwhile, the PlayStation PULSE 3D Wireless Headset is currently available for $10 off at $90. It's fine-tuned for 3D Audio on PS5 consoles, has noise—canceling mic and can last for up to 12 hours on a single charge.

You can also get few physical games at a discount from the sale, including Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection for $30 instead of $50. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for the PS5 is available at $30 off for $40, while Death Stranding is on sale for 22 percent off at $20. The discounted copy of Death Stranding is for the PS4, but you can upgrade your copy for the PS5 for an additional $10. Finally, you can also get Elden Ring for $10 off at $50, The King of Fighters XV at $20 off for $40 and Deathloop at 58 percent off for $25.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Insta360's Sphere lets DJI's latest Mavic Air drones capture 360-degree video

Insta360, best known for its action and 360 degree cameras, has just launched an interesting drone camera. The Insta360 Sphere attaches around the body of DJI's Mavic Air 2 or Air 2S drones, letting you film 5.7K 360 footage or create regular 2D videos with the option of reframing them later in post. Better still, Insta360's tech ensures that the drone is "invisible" in shots.

Since 360 cameras film in all directions, half the video can be obstructed by the drone itself. However, Insta360 mounted cameras on either side of the drone to ensure it doesn't appear in the footage. To provide seamless footage, "Insta360's proprietary dynamic stitching algorithm makes the whole drone (including the propellers) disappear automatically," the company wrote. 

The Sphere attaches to Mavic Air 2/2S drones with an "ultra-secure" mechanism, and doesn't affect its structural integrity or impact the GPS signal or control system. Insta360 is also promising smooth flights via its FlowState stabilization tech that's been fine-tuned for the Sphere. At the same time, you can simultaneously capture video from the drone's own camera. 

The company showed off some fancy footage in a YouTube video, with barrel rolls and dolly zooms, created in its Insta360 app. The Insta360 Sphere is now available in the US and mainland China for $430.  

Lyft joins Uber in cutting back on new hiring

After Uber announced that it was cutting back on hiring and other expenses due to the economic slowdown, rival Lyft is doing the same, according to The Wall Street Journal. "Given the slower than expected recovery and need to accelerate leverage in the business, we've made the difficult but important decision to significantly slow hiring in the US," Lyft President John Zimmer reportedly wrote in a memo to staff.

There are no layoffs planned. However, the decision means the company will give priority to fewer initiatives and not fill many current open roles, focusing instead on critical roles that support its core rides business, the memo further states. 

Tech companies have been hard hit during the economic slowdown, with Amazon reporting its slowest growth in nearly 20 years and Snap shares declining 43 percent after it reported earnings yesterday. Lyft has been hit particularly hard, having lost more than 60 percent of its value since the beginning of 2022, with a 15 percent decline alone yesterday.

Lawmakers ask Google to stop collecting location data before reversal of abortion rights

Senator Ron Wyden and 41 other Democratic lawmakers are urging Google to stop collecting and keeping location data that could be used against people who've had or are seeking abortions. In a letter (PDF) to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, the lawmakers referenced the Supreme Court draft obtained by Politico in which SCOTUS justices have voted to reverse Roe v. Wade. The landmark case protected the federal rights to abortion across the country, and states with trigger laws will immediately criminalize abortion if it truly gets overturned. 

"[W]e are concerned that, in a world in which abortion could be made illegal, Google's current practice of collecting and retaining extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care," the lawmakers wrote. Their issue mostly lies with how Google designed Android so that it also has to receive location data if a third-party app asks users for access to their location information. On iOS, Google can only collect information data while people are using Google Maps. 

As Google reveals in its transparency reports, it routinely gets court orders, subpoenas and search warrants from law enforcement agencies looking to get their hands on user information. In the first half of 2021, for instance, the tech giant received 50,907 requests for disclosure of user information involving 115,594 accounts. A total of 82 percent of those requests resulted in the disclosure of some information. 

In their letter, the lawmakers pointed out how a quarter of the court orders Google gets is for "geofence" data, which can show information on people near a particular location at a given time. They means it could be used to identify people who visit reproductive health clinics and other places that help people seek access to abortions.

The signees praised Google for being one of the first companies to require a warrant before disclosing user data, but they said it's not enough. They compared Google to Apple, saying the latter shows that it's "not necessary for smartphone companies to retain invasive tracking databases of their customers' locations." By continuing to collect location data, the lawmakers say Google is creating a digital divide, since those who can afford iPhones have greater protection against government surveillance. 

They closed the letter with this plea:

"[W]e urge you to promptly reform your data collection and retention practices, so that Google no longer collects unnecessary customer location data nor retains any non-aggregate location data about individual customers, whether in identifiable or anonymized form. Google cannot allow its online advertising-focused digital infrastructure to be weaponized against women."