SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Just wondering. I've been checking its accuracy for some time now, and while it farts some on the exactness of a route, I've not ever seen it show a stop off somewhere mistakenly. Input?

My WS went for a run a few days ago across a bridge. Not only did it show him zig zagging into stores on his way, but according to his timeline he jumped into the river, and swam across at a 90° angle. He did run back on the bridge though.

So... yeah. Usually (in my experience) it's pretty accurate, but his jogging route was so off, it was comical.

So, ibonnie, totally get the inexactness of the route. But... I've yet to see Google timeline show a "Stop" inaccurately. You?

ETA: Bully for him (and you) that he swims so well. Itsa life skill well worth being proud of.

[This message edited by NotTheManIwas at 7:54 AM, May 5th (Sunday)]

It showed him stopped at stores along the route, popping in and out in a zig zag pattern. I do believe him that he wasn't stopping into 2-3 stores every block leading up to the bridge.

K, not looking to beat the dead horse, but... those zigzags into the stores were not Google Timeline official "stops", yes? It was part of the continuous route, yes?

Do you mean stops as in the ones it shows in a list to the left of the map? As in it shows the length of time driving/walking etc, then will also show a stop for a length of time at a particular location?

Do you mean stops as in the ones it shows in a list to the left of the map? As in it shows the length of time driving/walking etc, then will also show a stop for a length of time at a particular location?

Thank you...exactly. Yes...

I'm following this thread too, because I also question whether the history is accurate regarding stops. At one point about a year ago, WH supposedly went to lunch with several co-workers, but there was a 2-hour side trip from the restaurant to an apartment complex nearby, then back to the restaurant, before returning to work.

InPurgatory, I thoroughly get your angst. Mine has been making monthly trips from Chicago to St Louis to see her aging mother for about 10 years and I've tracked those trip on Timeline with no deviation from what she reports. Until... this one trip in particular when, instead of calling me at the mid-point as she normally does, she called about 30 min's into the trip to "update" me on her progress and then never called again until she'd arrived.

That early call coincides with Timeline showing a stop which flags me that she was "up to something" and then didn't want a mid-point call to me to interrupt her trip.

2 weekends ago, I called her on it and abruptly told her to get in the truck. I then drove her to the location that Timeline says she stopped (about 30 min's from our home) and asked her if she knows this place. She swears she's never been to this place.

What to do? I can't prove Timeline is right or wrong.

What I know is this, I've never seen Timeline show an "official" (I think its 8 min's or more) stop wrong before.

I know that it can eat away at you, the not knowing if it's real and she's gaslighting you, or if it truly is just a fluke and a coincidence. For me, I only discovered it well after the fact, and after there were already enough other red flags for me to start getting my ducks in a row. But it still bothers me. He left work, drove 8 miles to the restaurant, but didn't "stop" there, he drove another 3 miles to an apartment complex, stayed there for 2 hours, then drove back to the restaurant and stayed another 1 1/2 hours before leaving.

He left work, drove 8 miles to the restaurant, but didn't "stop" there, he drove another 3 miles to an apartment complex, stayed there for 2 hours, then drove back to the restaurant and stayed another 1 1/2 hours before leaving.

Just curious, did you call him on it? And if so, what'd he say?

No, I never brought it up, for a few reasons. 1). I know that whatever story he gave me I wouldn't be able to believe it was true (too many previous lies) and it would just piss me off to hear him deny it even if it was innocent, 2) I had already decided to D a while back and so there really wasn't much point in confrontation, 3) I didn't want to let him know that I'm monitoring him in case he doesn't know already and something else more definitively incriminating comes up. The reason I only recently found out is that I don't check these things very frequently anymore, just every now and then when he's behaving badly. I'm just continuing to document and honestly I'm trying to let go.

Seeing your post just reminded me of it and of course I'm curious to know if others think it's likely that it's a mistake.

I caught my WH in several affairs and lies because of Google maps. I could see him driving to a city 55 miles away and staying at an apartment complex for 5 hours (a disgusting tinder hookup) and several instances of him at our son's friend's mothers house. Both times those locations were spot on. I found out that the timeline existed and found those gems from many months before.

After I confronted him, he obviously knew that I was looking. He also realized if he turned location off completely, I would also know. He would sporadically turn his phone off or location off and then turn it back on at an acceptable location, which led to straight lines from one location to the next and basically screwed up the map.

So Lemondrop10, the stops he made, they were accurate, yes?

I use timeline to track my mileage at work for expense reimbursements.

Note that on the webpage for timeline, you can click the gear icon in the lower right, and select "show raw data" and you will get points along the timeline showing up, that you can hover over and get time stamps to go with them.

It's important to understand how google creates a "waypoint" with a timestamp in the timeline. Usually, these waypoints are created based off triangulating the cell phone's connection to two or more cell towers. Sometimes, the GPS coordinates of the cell phone are involved, although you have to have the mapping app open and running on your phone for the more accurate GPS points to be recorded in the timeline. GPS runs off satellites and is generally much more accurate, although bad weather and deep canyons or tall trees can make GPS data inaccurate.

I live in a remote area. There are cell towers on surrounding ridgelines. If my phone can only connect to one tower, it will show my phone location at that tower, even if my actual location is miles away. It will often show a single waypoint as a random "stop". Timestamps can reveal waypoints that can be thrown out as bad data because there's no possible way the cell phone went from point A to point B and back to point A in just a few minutes.

If you have a remorseful WS who wants to be transparent, they can keep the mapping application open on their phone and use it to navigate from one place to the other. This will provide the most time stamps and the best accuracy in the waypoint locations.

If you have a WS who is potentially still cheating, it can help you find hookups, as long as your WS doesn't know that they can turn location services off, or go into timeline and delete days or stops.

If you have access to your WS's phone, you can turn on the mapping application and let it run in the background, for example, before they leave the house. To see what info you might gather.

Just remember there are a lot of artifacts and inaccuracies related to cell tower triangulation and poor cell signals.

Is there a specific link or info that thoroughly explains how to accurately interpret/use the data from the timeline?

So Lemondrop10, the stops he made, they were accurate, yes?

Yes, his stops were accurate.

heartbroken_kk, thank you very much for this...

Note that on the webpage for timeline, you can click the gear icon in the lower right, and select "show raw data" and you will get points along the timeline showing up, that you can hover over and get time stamps to go with them.

It's important to understand how google creates a "waypoint" with a timestamp in the timeline. Usually, these waypoints are created based off triangulating the cell phone's connection to two or more cell towers. Sometimes, the GPS coordinates of the cell phone are involved, although you have to have the mapping app open and running on your phone for the more accurate GPS points to be recorded in the timeline. GPS runs off satellites and is generally much more accurate, although bad weather and deep canyons or tall trees can make GPS data inaccurate.

Ironically, I've gone back to the day in question and am now a bit more confused because the timestamps along the route don't jive well with the distances traveled. Ideas?