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Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

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Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#41

Post by Klonoar »

tehwebguy wrote: post #11
Klonoar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to pay for GSuite and still found my content being mined. With all due respect to Google, I find it hard to believe that they're as consistent as they believe with filtering paid vs free accounts across the service. I could be, and am open to being, wrong, though. I'm not Google. Just found myself with substantially less targeted advertising once I left. And actually that's slightly interesting - how does one…

> found my content being mined How?

turc1656 (other direct reply to you) noted what I was getting at, but to expand on it...

I'm pretty careful about what I share with various services. Facebook (Instagram, etc) are all silo'd off to separate access points, phone is devoid of any of them, you get the gist. The only thing I didn't mind was Google, since I was paying for it, and it's easy to think that paying for it means it'll work how you expect it to and your privacy is intact.

Thus I'd keep Google apps signed in to the account, and I'd keep a tab open with Gmail all day, so short of incognito tabs, I was almost always signed into it.

Your _email_ isn't scanned, but Google doesn't even do that for free email accounts since..., what, 2014? Most people who decry the whole Gmail reading emails angle don't seem to understand this. They still track you as you move around for advertising purposes, though, and that was enough to make me just not want a Google account.

Siloing social media probably reduced my targeted advertising by 20%, and the absolute biggest reduction I found in my life was by getting rid of Google. It's honestly jaw dropping how much tailored content you get shoved at you that "waking up" from it can blow your mind (read: less depression, fomo, and so on, which more people seem to be catching on to).

YMMV though. I don't hate advertising and think it certainly has a place in society, and some people find it useful/fine/acceptable. Just noting my experiences.

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#42

Post by TheReverend403 »

microtonal wrote: post #28
tehwebguy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> found my content being mined How?

Besides what the parent already mentioned, I was also a paying GSuite user for some years (when it was still called Google Apps for Applications/Business). And I had e-mail contacts (Google Mail is covered by GApps) appear as suggested profiles, etc. in Google+ (then not covered by GApps). Even if there is no malice, it seems that they are not enforcing strict boundaries between their products.

> And I had e-mail contacts (Google Mail is covered by GApps) appear as suggested profiles, etc. in Google+ (then not covered by GApps).

It's still a Google service tied to your account, gsuite or not. It doesn't surprise me one bit that there's still a bit of integration there. They already have your email and the emails of others in your address book that you willingly gave them. It's not like they're mining you to steal those and give you creepy suggestions.

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#43

Post by craftyguy »

jdavis703 wrote: post #24
craftyguy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's literally no secret that Google collects user information, contents of emails, browsing history, etc and uses it to target advertisements to users. If you use a google product or service for more than 5 minutes, you literally see it happening.

OK, I guess that depends on how you define surveillance. I think of surveillance as having some kind of relation to the state, for example a private investigator looking into a court matter, a company sharing information with the government (outside of warrants), etc. If we're taking surveillance to mean general tracking, then yes the OP's statement probably doesn't need further evidence.

I think most folks associate surveillance with this definition of the word: "continuous observation of a place, person, group, or ongoing activity in order to gather information"

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#44

Post by plg »

pengo wrote: post #31
pengo wrote: post #30

Google will capture your data whether you're a paying customer of not. They will tell you they capture "some data" to personalise their service and make your life more convenient. In reality, they capture everything they can and it's all grist to their advertising mill. But Google is not the only company doing this. Facebook and Amazon will track you across the internet, and even Microsoft is now adopting similar str…

If you can cope with living in a walled garden, replace all your devices with Apple products.

My hardware is all apple. My OS's are all apple. But I use GSuite for email/calendar. Email because I use my own domain and Calendar because we use it at my workplace for scheduling shared resources (conference rooms etc).

I suppose I could easily switch to another email provider (e.g. Fastmail).

I also suppose I could stop using Google Calendar for my own calendar and only use it for scheduling conference rooms at my workplace. Or get someone else to schedule rooms for me using their google account.

I still use google for search but I suppose I could switch.

I use apple maps 99.9% of the time and it's fine.

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#45

Post by conductr »

lgleason wrote: post #29

Yes, and they are known to scan it and kick people off for "inappropriate" content under a very subjective and not equally enforced set of standards. This is why I don't recommend Google Cloud to clients.

Do you mean they scan your files and will kick you off for running a porn business because of the content in your slides/sheets/files. Or are you saying, if you run a church they will kick you off for occasional porn browsing?

Using porn as an example of possibile subjective inappropriateness

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#47

Post by conductr »

jdavis703 wrote: post #24
craftyguy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's literally no secret that Google collects user information, contents of emails, browsing history, etc and uses it to target advertisements to users. If you use a google product or service for more than 5 minutes, you literally see it happening.

OK, I guess that depends on how you define surveillance. I think of surveillance as having some kind of relation to the state, for example a private investigator looking into a court matter, a company sharing information with the government (outside of warrants), etc. If we're taking surveillance to mean general tracking, then yes the OP's statement probably doesn't need further evidence.

The distinction is basically none. Allowing tracking is a kin to state surveillance. If the data is tracked, you should assume the government has it and I’d cite Snowden and the political climate chipping away at privacy rights.

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#48

Post by rpcastagna »

(I'm a software engineer on Google Drive.)

The answer is no. To the point where it's actually a pain in the ass for us because developing any ML-assisted capabilities for G Suite requires us to only get training data from specific subsets of customers who are under special contract conditions.

If you buy G Suite from a reseller then they might be doing shady shit but we'd terminate their reseller account if we found out about it.

I know people like to bitch about this kinda shit on HN but honestly I and my coworkers spend so much time on protecting our customers' data from literally everyone -- including ourselves -- that I want the chance to bitch back about how hard my job is.

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#49

Post by UncleMeat »

conductr wrote: post #45
lgleason wrote: post #29

Yes, and they are known to scan it and kick people off for "inappropriate" content under a very subjective and not equally enforced set of standards. This is why I don't recommend Google Cloud to clients.

Do you mean they scan your files and will kick you off for running a porn business because of the content in your slides/sheets/files. Or are you saying, if you run a church they will kick you off for occasional porn browsing? Using porn as an example of possibile subjective inappropriateness

It means that storing child pornography on the cloud is against the tos.

Re: Ask HN: If I use GSuite does Google mine my data for their own purposes?

#50

Post by kakaorka »

jdavis703 wrote: post #17
kakaorka wrote: post #12

I believe Google is a surveillance company, and I like to think that anything they do has something to do with that. I would love someone to prove me wrong though, because what they're doing is so dystopian.

> would love someone to prove me wrong though The burden of proof lies on the person making claims. I'm not asserting that your claims are wrong, but if you want people to take your statements seriously you need to provide proof. In order to practice what I teach, here's an article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy) . EDIT: Fixed paragraph formatting

Thanks for this. I assumed anyone that visits HN knows what Google does, especially after the whistleblowing and revelations in the past few years. I agree that it would’ve been better for me to add a few citations or proof, so here’s [0] the first search result when searching for google+surveillance on DDG. [0]:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/18/google...
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