Live data from Hacker News

Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

bradfrost.com

71–80 of 399 posts

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#71
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there really no way to turn this off? (I don't have an Android phone).

There is of course, but I guess the question remains whether the data is being logged even if you turn it off (you just don't get the annoying notifications anymore).

It's not (if you disable location history which powers these services).

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#1 is so obnoxious. No Google, I won't do free work for you. At least offer me some store credit.

Do you pay for their service? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They make money by showing me ads, so yes, I do. Just not in a direct monetary exchange.

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#73
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services Then turn off everything in the Product Improvement section, turn off Significant Locations and anything else in there you don't want. Done

This doesn't prevent your cell carrier from tracking you.

Sure you're still tracked, but at least Verizon isn't creepily reminding you of it.

The blog author freaked out because Google is trying to crowdsource info about a place from people who are actually visiting it, which they know because their phone has location tracking. I think the author might want to step back and think about everything his phone can do before getting worked up over this one minor aspect.

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, what makes Google so "deeply unethical?"

Well I feel like it’s kind of easy to guess what they mean. I’m sure it’s related to spying and data hoarding and tracking and privacy issues and their incentives are highly misaligned and encourage unethical anti consumer behavior.

Their incentive is to make money by providing goods or services to customers, which is the same as every business. Go buy something from the department store, give them your phone number when they ask for it, and tell me you don't receive spam calls afterward.

Given all that Google knows about you, i'd say they're actually quite polite in how invasive they are. I'd much rather them have this data than 99% of the other companies out there.

It sounds like you basically just hate businesses that collect data. I'm sorry to break it to you, but there are a ton of them.

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#76

Disregarding the privacy issues, I find this to also be insanely annoying. I want notifications to be important. Not a bunch of spam that ultimately equates to advertising.

You can turn off these notifications in the Maps app. It's annoying they're on by default though.

How? Everyone says there is an option under "Notifications" but I only see "People & places" and "Ride services".

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, what makes Google so "deeply unethical?"

Well I feel like it’s kind of easy to guess what they mean. I’m sure it’s related to spying and data hoarding and tracking and privacy issues and their incentives are highly misaligned and encourage unethical anti consumer behavior.

... like having images and info on most of the restaurants in my town because the app bothers to ask and some people are happy to answer?

I think there's a disconnect here.

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#78

Two things that happened to me: A) I walk into a store, get a notification from google photos asking me "I see you're at store X, wouldn't you like to take some pictures?". Possibly to use as part of google maps. Thinking back I think this is when I started de-googlifying my life. B) I get a notification from google maps asking me "you're travelling to place X soon, wouldn't you like to download an offline map, just…

I really don't see a use-case for A from the consumer perspective. Why would anyone ever want such a notification?

For case B we can see where scraping all this information can be genuinely useful.

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#79
post #42

I'm going to be completely honest here: If these things were behind a configuration option and defaulted to off, I'd have gone into my phone and turned that option on. I want to leave reviews for restaurants as I'm walking out of them - it serves the common good and doing it immediately is better for memory. I want to remember to download offline maps when I'm about to go somewhere where I won't have coverage. My mem…

Also, if they were behind a configuration option and defaulted to on, most people would be fine turning it off and forgetting about it. This seems to be about lack of control. It's good for developers to think carefully before they ship products that do things with no way of being told not to. EDIT: Welp. Apparently these settings exist. I don't understand the point of the blog post then. Why is it so upsetting, if y…

Both location history and the notifications can be easily turned off on Android and Maps app. What do you mean about lack of control?

Re: Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch

#80
I am here pleading, begging Google to give me (and everyone else) an option to set up a free of cost, always on VPN something like {this} but which you can enable on any network all the time.

I don't mind Google having access to all my data as long as they are dominant. The problem in my opinion is the push back they are getting from advertising agencies (wsj is only a hired gun afaict)... I'm guessing one London based plastic company in particular is waging a war on Google. If I were Google, I would not share I formation about my property. It just doesn't make sense to share this information with your customers.

{This} https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6327199?visit_id=1-6...

Post reply on HN