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Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

theguardian.com

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Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#81

Post by greglindahl »

godelmachine wrote: post #51
flashman wrote: post #33

> "The information fed back to Google includes barometric pressure readings so it can work out, for example, which level of a shopping mall you are on." I scoffed, but this is actually a thing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431287/ (It's also useful for weather observations, see the old PressureNET.io site for an opt-in version.) Anyway, my monthly mobile data usage for Google services is 110 MB and t…

Are barometric sensors commonplace in smartphones?

Yes, and they're needed because GPS is much less accurate in the vertical direction.

Even the fitbit in my pocket has a barometric sensor, to be able to count stairs.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#82

Post by ehsankia »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #75
ehsankia wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not what the article is claiming. They are saying Google is using 1GB worth of data, though with very little evidence to backup their claim.

What are you basing your claim they have "very little evidence" on? Do you have access to the full contents of what they presented to the ACCC? Presumably this brief news article doesn't contain all of the information on the matter.

Right, I should've been clearer. There's no evidence provided to us public readers. To be throwing such a bold claim out there though is often intentionally reckless. They are either baiting views or trying to chip at Google's image. Until we get the specifics, there is nothing here to discuss really.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#83

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

gcb0 wrote: post #50
dingo_bat wrote: post #10

Android is the biggest example of how companies practice bait and switch under the banner of "open source". I's rather have fully proprietary software that respects my privacy than open source software that opens up my private data.

chrome/ium is even worse. google employees revert community features (e.g. hiding/limiting referrer header, essential for adwords revenue) silently with big unrelated commits (the referrer one at least 3 times)

Can I read a bit more about this? In any case, you can still use the --no-referrers option, don't you?

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#85

Post by gcb0 »

fourthark wrote: post #46
jacquesm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this sort of thing in software so often I gave it a name: https://jacquesmattheij.com/dark-patterns-the-ratchet There are many more like it but this one is particularly annoying because of the asymmetry between the work they do to get you to consent to something that isn't in your advantage compared to the work you have to do to reverse your decision (which sometimes isn't possible at all!).

Another example: I open Google Photos to look at a photo album someone sent me, and it tells me it can't function without access to my own photos. Untrue. For a while I could still click no, but then they forbade that. So I gave up and clicked yes, and now they've got all my photos

google sold that one as a security feature.

instead of all apps with access to your sd card (virtual internal shared storage) having access to your photos, they created a secure photo storage, and apps can subscribe to it. they just happen to conveniently offer a bloatware photo app, shipped with every device just like internet explorer, that also happens to upload all your pictures to google servers.

gphotos is the first thing I disable on every phone (because you can't uninstall bloatware system apps). chrome is the second, because I must use it to download f-droid and firefox.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#86

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

fourthark wrote: post #46
jacquesm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this sort of thing in software so often I gave it a name: https://jacquesmattheij.com/dark-patterns-the-ratchet There are many more like it but this one is particularly annoying because of the asymmetry between the work they do to get you to consent to something that isn't in your advantage compared to the work you have to do to reverse your decision (which sometimes isn't possible at all!).

Another example: I open Google Photos to look at a photo album someone sent me, and it tells me it can't function without access to my own photos. Untrue. For a while I could still click no, but then they forbade that. So I gave up and clicked yes, and now they've got all my photos

There are much more examples like these. And then at some point Google seems surprised people hate them. There is a huge contrast between the outlook inside G (we're an ethical company, still based on do no evil unlike the rest) and how others see them.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#87

Post by gcb0 »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #53
mike_n wrote: post #2

Is it not assumed/expected that if you're using android then google has access to all your phone's data/sensors?

>> Is it not assumed/expected that if you're using android then google has access to all your phone's data/sensors? Yeah but that doesn't mean that they should snap a photo or turn on the mic in my bedroom. The point is that there are limits. Legal and ethical.

either they own the data or they don't. you can't go about making extremely granular arbitrary clauses.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#88

Post by code_duck »

anonytrary wrote: post #58
askvictor wrote: post #39

Here's a the same story via the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/australia... A quote contained within both stories: > The software company Oracle revealed Google could be harvesting a gigabyte of data from Android devices each month Given that my data plan is 1.5 GB/month, I would notice if a gigabyte magically disappeared every month (it doesn't). Hopefully the ACCC has enough skepticism…

I used to be paranoid about companies using my microphone and camera to spy on me until I realized the data costs associated with the spying would be so great, that I'd notice. That single argument has ended my paranoia on the matter. I hope others can be at ease. That said, I still put tape on my laptop and refuse all tracking and ad requests.

They don’t have to send back all of the raw data, just analyses like ‘person X’s face detected, is in a noisy place’ or ‘conversation included these 5 keywords’. The processing and data transfer could also be deferred until the phone is idle or on WiFi.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#90

Post by [deleted] »

askvictor wrote: post #39

Here's a the same story via the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/australia... A quote contained within both stories: > The software company Oracle revealed Google could be harvesting a gigabyte of data from Android devices each month Given that my data plan is 1.5 GB/month, I would notice if a gigabyte magically disappeared every month (it doesn't). Hopefully the ACCC has enough skepticism…

[deleted]
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