Case study

timeline-export: decoding Google Maps Timeline sync and place IDs

timeline-export reconstructs Google Maps Timeline retrieval and decoding to export on-device location history as JSON. It calls Geller BatchSync, decrypts AES-256-GCM payloads, decodes SemanticSegment records and converts stored FeatureId values to Maps place IDs.

Targets: App · Protocol
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-08
Evidence class: C2 code & docs, no demo or download

Stars: 8
Last commit: 2026-07-26
Language: Python
License (GitHub): MIT

GitHub data as of 2026-11-10

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Evidence

Observed: Code and documentation observed; no download method or demo found.
Checked: 2026-11-08

How evidence classes are assigned

Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Requires access to the user's Google account, its Timeline decryption key and the documented Python dependencies.
Limits: Some semanticType labels are best-effort; placeTypeCode is emitted without a complete category mapping.
License: MIT License.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{timeline-export-case,
  title = {{timeline-export: decoding Google Maps Timeline sync and place IDs}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/arkenoi/timeline-export}},
  url = {https://github.com/arkenoi/timeline-export},
  urldate = {2026-11-08},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/timeline-export-case/}}
}

Plain text

timeline-export: decoding Google Maps Timeline sync and place IDs. https://github.com/arkenoi/timeline-export (accessed 2026-11-08). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/timeline-export-case/

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · arkenoi/timeline-export · Revision 3c1faa0