Google timeline feature is a very nifty feature of the Google maps app, basically making a full diary of a person’s movement and the type of transportation he/she used.

On one hand, it is an interesting and useful idea which could be implemented in many areas, both privately (having a “movement diary” automatically made for you could come in handy in many occasions) and commercially or even socially (big amounts of data gathered in such a way could be of big help to the decision-makers and could help our cities and communities become more “smarter” and more optimized).

But of course, on the other hand, immediately it sounds like a “surveillance project” with great potential for misuse of power. If such a service is centralized (like it currently is, being provided by Google), anyone has the right to question whether or not such a service is TRULY being used only for the purposes described or is it in the power of the few to forward it or sell it to third parties (or CIA, for example).

Now, what if such an app is made on a decentralized platform, like Ethereum for example, where the code is actually open-source and there is no way for a single entity to access, manipulate or sell the data gathered?
Let’s say, idealistically, that this app would be capable of making anonymous but location-based statistics, that would benefit the decision-makers without compromising the privacy of the users, while at the same time giving the possibility to the users to have their “movement diary” captured for their own, private use. Wouldn’t that be extremely beneficial?

Of course, Google maps uses tons of data and computational power in order to make this feature possible, and it might not be feasible to replicate that (in a scalable and cheap way) on a platform such as Ethereum (because of the high fees for gas and storing data, slow transaction speeds and terrible scalability at the moment, maybe ETH 2.0 changes that but we will see).

Does anyone think that it might actually be feasible?
Does anyone even share the enthusiasm with me, that it could be very beneficial for a lot of people?