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Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

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Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#71

Post by protomyth »

ucaetano wrote: post #58
protomyth wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because its hard to believe Google is protecting our privacy instead of protecting its own turf. Google does that, Apple doesn't. The interesting case would be if Microsoft still had a horse in the game. Given Windows 10 you might see the same reaction.

Oh, Apple does when it is required to make money, like in China. They handed over all iCloud data to the government. Companies are companies, they don't "care" about privacy, or anything at all. Google, Apple, Facebook, they're all in this for the money. And that is fine. The sooner we realize that, the better.

Every company follows the law of each country they are in unless they are criminals. China is a country that affords no privacy.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#72

Post by ariwilson »

pwg wrote: post #64
andybak wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, kinda but there's some definite shades of gray here. EDIT - for example I'm not sure the original "Bounty hunters" use case would be facilitated by Google's targeted ads. There's a big gap between "I might be able to target ads at people in a narrow geographical area" and "I can find our where someone lives"

Unfortunately, the data underlying both use cases is the same. In order to target adds "at people in a narrow geographical area" I need to know when those people are in that "narrow geographical area". I.e., I need to know their location to an accuracy good enough to say they are in that "narrow geographical area" (or in this case, their phones location, which is a good proxy for their location). Once I can know "the…

I don't understand what you're trying to say. If you already know where someone is, what's the point of using targeted ads to try to locate them?

The point of OP is that I can't use targeted ads to answer the question "Person X: where are they?".

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#73

Post by max76 »

piyush_soni wrote: post #44

How people's sentiments change here based on who tries to protect their privacy. If it's Apple, "wow, they are god's own people with purest intentions of protecting users' privacy". When Google does it : "Yeah, because they want to sell it themselves so obviously they don't want any competition".

It's simple. Apple doesn't use location data in their products. Google does. Apple specifically avoids these types of products. Google's main revenue stream depends on them.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#74

Post by ariwilson »

Despegar wrote: post #2

I mean sure. Google certainly doesn't want wireless carriers to compete with them in advertising, and everyone having access to location data from smartphones just devalues Google's own access. https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...

Your comment doesn't make any sense. Wireless carriers will always have access to location (based on cell towers) and don't have successful advertising businesses.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#75

Post by dawnerd »

Despegar wrote: post #2

I mean sure. Google certainly doesn't want wireless carriers to compete with them in advertising, and everyone having access to location data from smartphones just devalues Google's own access. https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...

I trust Google a lot more than I trust all of these telcos. I think the big difference is while Google does have pretty much all my info, I know they do and roughly what they do with it. Flip side, I know the cell providers have some of my info but I've no idea what happens to it once it's sold.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#76

Post by SquareWheel »

RHSeeger wrote: post #17
hcnews wrote: post #4

Say what you want about Google, its one of the few companies with a moral compass.

True. Unfortunately, it tends to be pointed towards Evil much of the time.

Why, because they show you ads for tracked interests? Something they're quite upfront about, and allow you to opt-out of if you'd like.

Is that so "evil" that it somehow outweighs the hundreds of open-source projects they've released? Or the extremely useful free-services they provide like Maps and Search? The thousands of jobs they've created in our industry? The new protocols they've released for free to the IETF? The security bugs they've helped uncover?

Google does an immense amount of good for society. I don't understand how people can so easily lose sight of that.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#77

Post by ThrustVectoring »

greglindahl wrote: post #48
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't sell your location data, they sell targeting options for specific geographic locations. These are quite different. I'm okay with seeing an ad targeted at anyone within walking distance of a cafe. I'm not okay with my personal location getting sold to whoever thinks they have a valuable enough use for it.

Location information leaks from ad targeting. Maybe that doesn't bother you, but it might bother other people. One way it leaks is that an advertiser generally knows what ad campaign a user clicked on. So if that ad campaign was only sent to a particular location, you know where the user was when they clicked on the ad.

Website owners already know your rough geographic location via IP address. If it's that big of a concern for you, you should route 100% of your traffic through a VPN.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#78

Post by kodablah »

ucaetano wrote: post #60
kodablah wrote: post #13

Let's translate PR speak here... > "We have never sold Fi subscribers' location information," In other words "we never directly sold the info, but we never contracted them not to do anything with subscribers' location information". In cases like this, I'd say you are responsible for downstream data use. This isn't some API or hole, this is a large b2b contract and Google should have contractually obligated them to wh…

> In other words, we had to ask and get a small statement because being open, upfront, honest, etc is not their approach. You don't seem to understand how the press works. When you write an article about a company (or a public figure), you reach out to them for comment.

Of course I understand. What I'm saying is that comment/information should be available eagerly, by the company, upfront to all of their customers when they found out about this problem without requiring a journalist.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#79

Post by icelancer »

protomyth wrote: post #67
dustinmr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn’t do that? You enjoy using iMessages on your android phone and Linux laptop do you? Yeah, yeah, it’s different. Except that it’s the same in the areas in which each competes. There’s plenty of examples of Apple freezing out others from a market.

Apple doesn't sell data to third parties, so Apple doesn't do that.

Yeah, they just gave it to China.

Re: Google Demanded T-Mobile, Sprint Not Sell Google Fi Customers' Location Data

#80

Post by [deleted] »

mschuster91 wrote: post #68
TACIXAT wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a difference between allowing ads to target an area and selling someone's real time location. I'm against the collection of data generally because that data can always end up in court, but Google has never given people access to my real time location.

> but Google has never given people access to my real time location. As long as your Google account remains secured and no one manages to sneak a 2nd Google Account on your phone, that is. Find My Phone is a real time tracker that can be abused e.g. by spouses or stalkers. IIRC only triggering the "audible ring" leaves a trace on the phone (a notification + the obvious sound), to check if someone used FMP for trackin…

[deleted]
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