the phone company can to some extent track your location as well based on the cell tower
The phone companies sell this data[1], and it can be obtained in civil court cases[2] and it is usually pretty accurate[3].
convenient as the GPS data
Convenient for whom? You can't ever see it, but the network operator and its clients can see it very easily.
Contrast that to Google Location Services, where you have an interface to remove parts of your history and/or you can turn it off completely.
Plus it is used to give you useful stuff like Google Now travel time notifications for places you regularly travel to.
[1] eg: http://www.mobilephonelocate.com/cell-phone-tracking.html
[2] http://www.iiiweb.net/forensic-services/cell-phone-tower-tri...
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking#Network-b...
the phone company can to some extent track your location as well based on the cell tower
The phone companies sell this data[1], and it can be obtained in civil court cases[2] and it is usually pretty accurate[3].
convenient as the GPS data
Convenient for whom? You can't ever see it, but the network operator and its clients can see it very easily.
Contrast that to Google Location Services, where you have an interface to remove parts of your history and/or you can turn it off completely.
Plus it is used to give you useful stuff like Google Now travel time notifications for places you regularly travel to.
[1] eg: http://www.mobilephonelocate.com/cell-phone-tracking.html
[2] http://www.iiiweb.net/forensic-services/cell-phone-tower-tri...
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking#Network-b...