Live data from Hacker News

Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

latimes.com

61–70 of 252 posts

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#61
post #57
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fair answer, and I'm sure one that many share. Thanks for addressing the question directly - I see how for a minority of users, the switch makes sense. I guess for me, I don't care enough to make all those changes. As a Chrome user, the sync across things is nice, and I enjoy the interface. I'll take the ease at risk of someone having my data in a catastrophic situation. Obviously, your choice makes great se…

> I guess for me, I don't care enough to make all those changes. Up until I read this article, I used to feel the opposite way. I think there is some value in everyone having privacy and personal space. It gives us an opportunity to decompress and relieve some of the stresses of our increasingly connected world. However, discovering that Google (and others) are merging my online and offline behavior is making me doub…

They can track your purchases, but if you stop using Google credentials, they're going to have a lot harder time tying it to your ad views.

It's impossible to avoid having at least some data in various services, but if you divide and conquer, keep accounts separate as much as possible, don't have accounts with companies that collect data about you in other ways (or use fake names and email aliases), you can break up their picture of you.

While articles will point out how small groups of anonymous information can positively identify someone, these programs are likely to be more fragile on a large scale basis. Don't make it easy, and more than likely, at least some of the tracking and the benefit they get from it will fail.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#62
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that we will give our data and maybe trust to other companies. I don't care if Google is hurt or not. Another company that is more privacy-centric and not creepily tracking everything (anonymized or not) will benefit though.

Agreed, I'm not for/against Google here either. So is there a privacy-centered company that offers what Google does?

Depends what you're looking for. You won't find one single company with as many tendrils as Google... but that's okay, you should be really worried about a company with that many tendrils. If you need email/calendar/contacts, I recommend FastMail, for example, but you're gonna have to get your hardware and your other services from someone else.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#63
post #20

Now I will have to seriously consider getting off the Google ecosystem now. Deactivating facebook was okay, but Google might be tricky considering many of website accounts use Google authentication.

Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either. Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least…

> I think putting more effort into trying to influence them towards "not being evil", as they say, is much more of a realistic move for someone with concerns over data, privacy, power/security of all this, etc.

There's absolutely no chance for me to do that. I don't work at Google, I'm not rich nor influential. I have as much influence on what Google does as I have influence on the orbit of the planets.

Voice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty) doesn't work. The only other option is Exit, and while it's shitty, it's not as utterly futile as Voice is.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#64
post #58
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cash is an anonymous payment system which cannot be traced ... I just wanted to point out the possibility of tracking serial numbers on bills. Obviously it's not going to be as reliable, at least not now, but it could be made more so; for instance, if there was a sudden movement to use more cash for privacy. Of course, that seems unlikely; most people like the convenience of plastic/digital payments, and there's a…

It is possible to track the serials, if they wanted to; however, except for banks, I have not exchanged cash with a retailer who scans the bills at the point of transaction and if they did, they'd also have to tie a given ser no with me at the time of purchase. Since a particular bill will go through many hands, it'd be like trying to figure out who made a change on a system when it was done by 'root' or 'administrat…

Sigh, but Google will find a way...

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#65
post #20

Now I will have to seriously consider getting off the Google ecosystem now. Deactivating facebook was okay, but Google might be tricky considering many of website accounts use Google authentication.

Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either. Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least…

(OP of parent thread here) Okay. I understand your points.

Actually I have posted the reasons for such considerations before on my blog:

https://paradite.com/2016/02/18/stay-independent-problems-wi...

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#66
This is probably an unusual opinion, but for me privacy is similar to freedom. Freedom is usually defined as a negative: people are free of oppression, have freedom of speech (freedom from speech being constrained), freedom of movement (not forced to stay in one place), religious freedom (freedom to believe what one will and not be limited in practice or assembly), etc.

Privacy is the freedom from being watched, from having one's movements and actions and consumption and words observed, tabulated and stored. I hope that one day whether by laws or technological solutions, privacy will again be the norm in our lives.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#67
post #20

Now I will have to seriously consider getting off the Google ecosystem now. Deactivating facebook was okay, but Google might be tricky considering many of website accounts use Google authentication.

Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either. Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least…

My vote doesn't mean anything either.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#69
The European Union is often made fun of with "the Americans innovate, the EU regulates", but in the meantime GDPR[1] is coming into force in 2018

> The primary objectives of the GDPR are to give citizens and residents back control of their personal data

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regu...

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#70
I'm interested to read about where people believe this progression of technology will take us in the near and far future. Are there thought out considerations of what type of world we are heading towards? Has Google revealed their vision of advertising for 2032? I don't mean this rhetorically, I genuinely want to know what vision there is for advertising in the future because I believe it's something we really ought to be thinking about and judging so we can make informed decision about what's best for us.
Post reply on HN