Now if a malicious actor gains access to your login credentials they also gain access to this rather unique data..
Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
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Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#22This misses the wifi router data Google collects via android phones. Android is a sieve designed to enable a spyware economy like the rest of Google who are creepily stalking every human unfortunate enough to use their services.
But most here know about this, many are intimately involved in it and are happy to defend it. Outrage targetted at Facebook while making excuses for Google feels inauthentic.
Everyone wants an ethical society but when it comes to paying a price economics always wins out and we are left with the spectacle of the privileged hand wringing, blaming the system, blaming the victims and acting helpless. If you can't be ethical you can't expect ethical behavior from anyone else and you get the society you deserve.
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#23Took advantage to go onto Google and give it even more info on what ads they should (and should not) show me. That's probably not what the Guardian expected/wanted me to do. I may be alone in this, but I expect that everything I do on the Internet is done in public. Nothing new here.
I've generally felt the same way, but it seems that in the last couple of years the line has become blurred. For example, if I have a smartphone that is always connected to the internet via 4G, and I speak within range of the microphone, does that count as doing something "on the Internet"? Then devices like Alexa or Google Home enter the picture. As more of our lives become connected, the line between what is and is not online becomes much more difficult to discern.
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#24This is nonsensical:
> The data Google has on you can fill millions of Word documents. > Google offers an option to download all of the data it stores about you. I’ve requested to download it and the file is 5.5GB big, which is roughly 3m Word documents. This link [Google Takeout] includes your bookmarks, emails, contacts, your Google Drive files, all of the above information, your YouTube videos, the photos you’ve taken on your phone, the businesses you’ve bought from, the products you’ve bought through Google …
Well duh, Google stores your gmail emails and Youtube videos and Drive documents and so on! This is the service they're providing you! Google Takeout doesn't give you a 5GB archive of advertising profile or covertly gathered info, it gives you a 5GB archive of the documents you deliberately uploaded to Google services - emails, docs, pics, videos, calendar appointments. The list of Android apps installed on your devices is there so that when you link a new device to your Google account, these apps will be automatically installed on it. And so on.
There's a single link on that list related to surveillance - namely, your Google Ads profile, which only shows very basic data, I'm sure they have vastly more complicated data stored on me.
There's enough genuine reasons to be upset with Google's surveillance, let's not promote this kind of silliness. Google knows which Google Groups you're subscribed to, really? 5GB could fill 3m Word docs - how many is that in Libraries of Congress?
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#25It's okay, I only use Incognito mode.
That mode doesn't do what you think it does.
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#26The section labeled "Google has information you deleted" is a bit misleading.
If files are in your "trash" they will be included in your takeout. If you clear your trash, they will not be included in your takeout (after a reasonable amount of time, if you "empty trash" then instantly go and make a new takeout bundle it might still be included). It's the same way with spam and email trash. It's given to you in your bundle until you manually fully delete it.
Implying they keep everything you ever deleted is wrong.
Edit: I don't want to get into hypothetical arguments about what Google could possibly be doing. I'm simply saying that the reason the author had "deleted" things in their takeout archive was because it was most likely in their "trash" and wasn't fully deleted in the UI. And that "things in your trash folder are included in your takeout bundle" isn't "proof" that they never delete anything.
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#27Took advantage to go onto Google and give it even more info on what ads they should (and should not) show me. That's probably not what the Guardian expected/wanted me to do. I may be alone in this, but I expect that everything I do on the Internet is done in public. Nothing new here.
> I may be alone in this, but I expect that everything I do on the Internet is done in public. Nothing new here. So how do you send private messages? Carrier pigeon? Even Signal uses the internet, after all.
I bought an entry level fountain pen, some ink, some lightly cotton blended paper and stamps.
Then I got hooked.
I learned how to fold paper into its own envelope. I bought supple wax and sent a design for a custom wax seal stamp, so now I can mail a letter that is wax sealed domestically or internationally.
My friends love getting letters in the mail that's not spam. And a few even write back. One made his whole envelope out of duct tape.
We still call and text, of course.
And now I am practicing calligraphy in order to craft my own book, binding and all. I got very inspired when I saw the Book of Kells and Chester Beatty collection in Dublin.
Practically this has cost me (the fountain pen setup plus forever stamps) $100 USD. But that's because I bought a nice ink. So I think if people have a little bit of disposable income, and have Netflix to cut out of their life, could pick up old fashioned writing to catch up on life's details in private.
Heck, could even skip the writing and just buy the envelope and stamps, and type up a letter to print and mail!
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#28My google activity history, youtube search/watch history, and location history are all completely empty because I've disabled all of it. I would recommend going through the privacy checkup[0] to control what does and doesn't get saved. [0] https://myaccount.google.com/privacycheckup
Has there ever been any statement from anyone even remotely involved with data collection at Google on what "pausing" these collection options actually does internally? I somehow find it hard to believe that they don't just collect it anyway and only "pause" displaying inferences made using the data to you.
Re: Are you ready? This is all the data Facebook and Google have on you
#29Is this really surprising to anyone but the laymen? I mean, of course they store everything the user does, why wouldn't they?
> Is this really surprising to anyone but the laymen? That's a pretty huge caveat. "This isn't news, except to the majority of people". It's an article in The Guardian, it's obvious intended for the "laymen", of which there are a pretty big number. > of course they store everything the user does, why wouldn't they? That's the crux of it, for me. I agree, they have no incentives not to hoard data. So those incentives,…
> That's a pretty huge caveat. "This isn't news, except to the majority of people"
TL;DR defaults matter to the layman - the 99%, google will say they gave you the options (so many that it's tiresome for most people to bother going through).
Yup, when reading through all of the stuff I was just checking off my mental list of all the things that don't affect me. I don't use google on phones, and for gmail stuff i've already trawled through the massive list of options to stop tracking and logging various stuff. Additionally I only log into a google account in isolation so it can't join history together.
Even after all of this I recognise that google mostly likely has other tricks up it's sleeves like browser fingerprinting to join sessions together and associate their activity with my account in secret, not to mention they are mining all of my email of course, but this is the best I can do while continuing to use a google account (and even without a google account they can still track individuals via other means).
This is only practical for those the most aware of what these companies do and the most interested in preventing - understandably, the layman just wants to use it as intended without doing days of research and digging through piles of options in paranoia trying to turn everything off, these types of services rely on this fact. I am not a normal user and they really don't care that 1e-10% are evading them, they are relying on the fact that almost all of their users wont be going to great lengths to turn all the tracking and logging options off.