New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking • Hacker News Board

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#401

Post by colvasaur » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 3:21 AM UTC

sandov wrote: post #337

FabHK wrote: post #276

My list of degooglifying actions: * switch default search engine to DuckDuckGo (can still use !s bang when one wants to see what Google has) * use tracking blocker (uBlock origin, BlockBear on iOS) * use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently) * use Zoho as a replacement for shared Google docs * use Youtube either in private window, and/or d…

* Replace stock android with LineageOS if your phone is on the list of supported devices [1]. It has worked great for me. [1] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

Their “April Fools” jokes made me realize the devs think my phone was just a toy and not a tool. Not that they owe me anything. Made me switch immediately to iOS.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#402

Post by throwawaymjabba » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 3:27 AM UTC

contravariant wrote: post #356

kache_ wrote: post #6

They constantly berate you to deactivate no tracking preferences on google maps. When you're aware of this fact you start seeing it everywhere, not just on google. For example, on Pinterest they will berate you to sign up using highlighted buttons on land, and the x button is out of the way on the top right corner. This end result is due to product managers/devs looking at conversion rates and optimizing for whatever…

At this point I'm convinced they're deliberately making their captcha's impossible, to annoy me for taking anti-tracking measures.

I came to the same conclusion 2 weeks ago. Nowadays, I have to solve the captcha 15-20 times before it lets me in. So I have started purposefully making wrong answers-road instead of car, sky instead of cross walks etc. If self driving cars end up crashing, I may have contributed to it.

Similar thing happened with YouTube too. They would always show me the same ad over and over. Even if I skip, I would get that ad multiple times in the same video. It was a political ad and it starts with one guy saying how he can't get treatment because of some medicare changes. I got so annoyed I wanted to punch the guy talking in the ad whenever I hear him.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#403

Post by atombender » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 3:41 AM UTC

Speaking of Google Maps location tracking, are there alternatives (for iOS) that can let me track myself, without putting all the location data in the cloud?

I want to disable Google's location tracking, but I want to know where I've been so that I can go back and recall. A sort of location diary.

The only app I know about is Life Cycle, which is quite good, but it doesn't quite have the granularity I want.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#404

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 3:42 AM UTC

castis wrote: post #360

contravariant wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point I'm convinced they're deliberately making their captcha's impossible, to annoy me for taking anti-tracking measures.

On the plus side I've become 400% better at identifying whether or not objects are traffic lights and/or fire hydrants.

[deleted]

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#405

Post by all2 » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 3:53 AM UTC

stevesearer wrote: post #301

tspike wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart.com has stepped it up recently. Still a long way to go, and I doubt their intentions are any better, but competition is healthy.

I also like to use boxed.com for quite a few bulk items that one might otherwise find at Costco. And compared to Amazon, I have found some competitive pricing at Smart & Final for other items I used to purchase online.

Glanced at boxed.com. Is there any way to see what they have without logging in?

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#406

Post by HeWhoLurksLate » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 4:01 AM UTC

swiley wrote: post #344

ultimoo wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great list! You forgot to mention the browser, I personally use FF and have grown to like it though I miss Chrome occasionally. >long ago switched to different email for main email, and forwarded gmail account to it (nobody uses it anymore). Neat! How do you set up auto forwarding with gmail?

Either Firefox is awful on windows or Chrome has something really great that I've totally missed. Chrome on Linux is just all kinds of unpleasant, it's not even possible to use it at all with my current distro. I don't understand how everyone seems to like it so much.

When I first started using Linux day-to-day, Firefox, at least for me, was an absolute nightmare and didn't run well. I've switched to Vivaldi (Chromium-based, very power-user / I-never-want-to-move-my-hand-to-the-other-input-device friendly) for the moment, but I might just switch to Firefox again, I hadn't heard about the Multi-Account-Container feature, and that might just push me over the edge.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#407

Post by HeWhoLurksLate » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 4:13 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #230

rifung wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Answering "no" should mean you store it locally, not that you don't store it at all. If you tell Google not to save your search history on their servers, they just disable it completely, when they could just save it locally. This is nowhere near a product problem. The setting is per-account, so it's not like it'd be disabled on one device and enabled on another, so they'd get some weird UX, they just like crippling…

> Obviously I am biased, but I think you're being a little too cynical. Very possibly. > Supporting the use case you described, which is not used by the vast majority of users does not align with the incentives given to them. I think you have causation wrong here. Users leave search history enabled because Google makes it unnecessarily hard to use the app with it disabled. > Recently, Google updated its values (I can…

> One of these values is "Respect the User".

The language here bothers me to the core. User? That's the same term drug dealers use to describe their "customers", who are nearly all captive to them or others who peddle the same thing. Does it get the point across? Sure. However, there are better ways to word this sentence, such as "respect the people who use our services" or "respect your customers", though the last one ought to read as "handle product with care".

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#408

Post by HeWhoLurksLate » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 4:17 AM UTC

larkeith wrote: post #397

dzader wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious why you feel so entitled that you think Google should provide you with their free mapping service and features with nothing in exchange?

By providing these services and features for free previously, they killed the majority of the competition, and only then removed the ability to use them without tracking. It's an interesting mixture of anticompetitive behavior and extortion.

Mapquest still exists, should we hold a community rally?

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#409

Post by avallark » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 4:22 AM UTC

I didnt know about location history and web & app activity. It is indeed quite hidden and when I disabled them, i saw along with web and app activity, there was a bunch of other history google was storing like search history, browsing history etc. The really evil bit about Google is that, even when you disable them, Google does not delete the already collected history, they just "PAUSE" that so that they can keep old history.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#410

Post by stickfigure » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 4:27 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #219

stickfigure wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you work at Google on the maps team? Do you know how the maps backend works or what the codebase of the app looks like? Do you have special expertise in the area? Let me guess: No. Yet not only are you so certain that it's hard, you're willing assign all sorts of benevolent motives to Google.

I do not try to hide my lack of authority, which is why I transparently couch my words with "it seems" and "my guess".

I don't need to speak with authority here. If you want to stoke the flames of moral outrage, the burden is on you, not me.