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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

#171

Post by mdekkers »

Lio wrote: post #166
mdekkers wrote: post #151

I'm really sick of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and every other company that uses lies, deceit, ambiguity and general dark patterns to coerce me into parting with the ownership of my systems. Google must be laughing their asses off with all the Facebook scrutiny - I am pretty sure that the profile FB has on users and non-users alike is but a vague precis when compared with the profile Google has on all of us. M…

Could I suggest you look at https://puri.sm/products/ for both private phone and laptops running Linux. They can't deliver everything that RMS would look for in a laptop or phone yet but they are actively working to remove all binary blobs from their CoreBoot BIOS and to disable the Intel Management Engine. Their OS is already FSF compliant.

Thanks for the tip!

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#172

Post by ahbs66 »

dx034 wrote: post #156
stochastic_monk wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France and Germany are looking pretty good these days.

Most EU countries do. Southern Europe can also be very nice and better suited if you don't like rain (although southern France works for that as well). Apart from the language barrier, moving within the EU isn't much more difficult than moving between states in the US.

>Apart from the language barrier

Like that's a small thing. I would love to move to Eastern Europe or Czechia, but alas

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#173

Post by ahbs66 »

brylie wrote: post #72
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…

I would really like to explicitly tell Google to stop tracking my location. Period. Despite what might be in their terms of service,this tracking is a violation of privacy. I have never given informed consent to such locstion tracking, and still get prompts to 'rate this location' despite having explicitly disabled location history. Google location tracking is increasingly unethical.

So buy an iPhone. They won't stop tracking you because that's how they make money. That's why their OS is free.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#174

Post by superflyguy »

magicalist wrote: post #15

The title should be the headline > ACCC investigating Oracle research showing Google users Android phone plan data to spy (typo is theirs) And by "investigating" it means Oracle did a presentation stating that if you have location history on it uses data and the commission chairman told News Corp Australia, "my people are looking into it." > That Oracle had come to Australia to do the presentation showed the value of…

It's great, isn't it? I think Oracle just bought Microsoft's unsuccessful "Scroogled" campaign.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#175

Post by oswald »

mseebach wrote: post #126
fladrif wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite often while talking about a restaurant, opening google maps will have it highlighted. I think this shows that not only does google not require a magic word to start recording, it actively processes the input it gets. I'm highly considering switching to lineage os.

Try making a controlled experiment. Humans are notoriously good at seeing patterns that aren't there.

Someone conducted a simple experiment to see if the facebook app was listening to their conversations. Spoiler: it's listening to your every word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0SOxb_Lfps

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#176

Post by tantalor »

ahbs66 wrote: post #173
brylie wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really like to explicitly tell Google to stop tracking my location. Period. Despite what might be in their terms of service,this tracking is a violation of privacy. I have never given informed consent to such locstion tracking, and still get prompts to 'rate this location' despite having explicitly disabled location history. Google location tracking is increasingly unethical.

So buy an iPhone. They won't stop tracking you because that's how they make money. That's why their OS is free.

iOS is free

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#177

Post by gaius »

lakechfoma wrote: post #170
gaius wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google or FB ever offered a paid option they would still track you. Why wouldn’t they?

I wonder about this with news sites that are increasingly going paywalled. Do they also turn the tracking or even ads entirely off, or do we just pay money to be tracked now?

I am a paid subscriber to NYT and it’s still an adfest.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#178

Post by stevenleeg »

tantalor wrote: post #176
ahbs66 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So buy an iPhone. They won't stop tracking you because that's how they make money. That's why their OS is free.

iOS is free

Not really. The price of iOS is baked into the (usually higher) costs of the hardware. The parent comment is presumably referring to the fact that Android phone manufacturers are allowed to put Android on their devices for free, as Google instead makes money on the advertising/service revenue they get from your usage of the OS.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#179

Post by wilsonnb »

mdekkers wrote: post #151

I'm really sick of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and every other company that uses lies, deceit, ambiguity and general dark patterns to coerce me into parting with the ownership of my systems. Google must be laughing their asses off with all the Facebook scrutiny - I am pretty sure that the profile FB has on users and non-users alike is but a vague precis when compared with the profile Google has on all of us. M…

I am curious why you think that these companies shouldn't be able to use your data because you paid for the software.

Just because you paid for a software license doesn't mean you can do whatever you want with said software.

I understand why people don't like this but I don't understand what principles people use to decide that it is immoral or should be illegal.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#180

Post by exodust »

titzer wrote: post #142
exodust wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're presenting a hypothetical as fact. The article doesn't mention anything about logging wifi access points, that's just you throwing another theory into the mix. When Google location services is switched off, and your account is set to not track you or record history, there is absolutely not a "gig" of "secret spying" going on in the background. Nobody forces you to leave wi-fi and mobile data on by default and…

> Nobody forces you to leave wi-fi and mobile data on by default and everything set to default. Don't want to be tracked by Google? Then open settings and switch things off, it's not hard. Sorry, no. Turning on WiFi is not the same as consenting to be tracked everywhere. Your whole comment is all mixed up. First, you cannot disable Google Location Services. Period. You can turn off location, but you cannot, e.g. use…

1. I can turn off location settings on my phone. 2. I can also log out of Google maps app, and still use the app. 3. I can go into google maps app settings under "google location settings" and untick the box that says "access location". 4. I can disable location history for google location services from the same place in settings.

Like I said, you can uncheck a lot of stuff and still use the app.

I don't want to be tracked when I asked not to, but I'm not convinced that's happening from a clickbait tabloid article with spelling errors in headline, and vague details.

I also would like to use GPS without anything else for maps, so I tried Maps.Me for awhile, but as most people know it can take a long time to lock on when only using GPS. sometimes several minutes depending where you are, or whether moving etc.

> And then you attack the source! Geesh.

If you're implying the Daily Telegraph source is worth defending against ridicule, perhaps spend a bit of time on that site and see if you come away with any respect for their journalism. The Mod has changed the link anyway now to the Guardian, since the "source" prior to that was clickbait rubbish.

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