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Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

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Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#21

Post by loudtieblahblah »

aiiane wrote: post #14
duxup wrote: post #8

So does this actually delete it ... for Google? Deleting it from say my browser, maps, or other history is one thing. Does Google no longer have any of it? Also the top and bottom bars that leave me with like 1/3 usable space on google's blog is really frustrating to read on: https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/automatically...

Yes, if you choose to delete it, it will be deleted. (It takes nontrivial amounts of time to delete it across distributed service architecture but the deletions do get propagated.)

I simply do not believe this.

Unless they're audited by a source that can be trusted and have the findings made public, I will not believe it either.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#22

Post by aiiane »

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #21
aiiane wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you choose to delete it, it will be deleted. (It takes nontrivial amounts of time to delete it across distributed service architecture but the deletions do get propagated.)

I simply do not believe this. Unless they're audited by a source that can be trusted and have the findings made public, I will not believe it either.

You're welcome to believe whatever you want, but a decent chunk of my day job is making sure that it's true.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#23

Post by o10449366 »

The funny thing is that Google will still let you store your home address and they'll display it on the map, but if you have Location History turned off they'll refuse to list it as an autocomplete option when you search for addresses or directions. They know what it is, but they won't let you actually use it unless you expose everything else. It's extremely user hostile and there's no good reason to do it.

Edit: To clearly demonstrate what I'm talking about: https://imgur.com/a/QW9OxAS

They pin your saved locations to the top of the UI. If I click "Home" it will take me to my exact address. However, if I attempt to search "Home" in the search bar I get

"Turn on your Web & App Activity setting to search for 'home' and other personal places"

No thanks, Google. You don't need to know my entire location history 24/7 to take me to a static address you already have saved.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#24

Post by andrepd »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #2

Will they also untrain the machine learning model that they've fed all of this data into to predict exactly what kind of ads are most likely to get you to spend money? How about slurping up data for users who don't have an account but send a ping to google on every goddamn page on the internet?

uBlock with dynamic filtering takes care of that for me, but I recognise it isn't practical for >95% of internet users.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#25

Post by powera »

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #21
aiiane wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you choose to delete it, it will be deleted. (It takes nontrivial amounts of time to delete it across distributed service architecture but the deletions do get propagated.)

I simply do not believe this. Unless they're audited by a source that can be trusted and have the findings made public, I will not believe it either.

Google's Sarbanes-Oxley compliance should verify that this works exactly as described. I don't expect those to be public.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#26

Post by [deleted] »

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #21
aiiane wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you choose to delete it, it will be deleted. (It takes nontrivial amounts of time to delete it across distributed service architecture but the deletions do get propagated.)

I simply do not believe this. Unless they're audited by a source that can be trusted and have the findings made public, I will not believe it either.

[deleted]

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#27

Post by chris_mc »

o10449366 wrote: post #23

The funny thing is that Google will still let you store your home address and they'll display it on the map, but if you have Location History turned off they'll refuse to list it as an autocomplete option when you search for addresses or directions. They know what it is, but they won't let you actually use it unless you expose everything else. It's extremely user hostile and there's no good reason to do it. Edit: To…

Yep, Google Maps still shows my home and work locations on the Commute tab from before I disabled almost everything in my Google account, but won't let me change the work address since we moved locations. So I guess when I change houses (the only one I really care about, since I use it to send an ETA to my wife) I can just turn everything on, change the address, then turn it all off again. It's illogical dark patterns like this that made me start detaching from Google, and will probably drive me to buy a non-Android phone next time, although I detest Apple UI even if their quality is usually great.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#28

Post by sf_rob »

mattlondon wrote: post #3

This is welcomed, but they might do better to remove the requirement to have the Web/Location/App history enabled for apparently unrelated features. E.g. I cant store my home location in Google Maps without turning on Web & App activity history. Why? I cant share my current location (not historic, just my latest location - they only need to store one) with my partner unless I turn on Web and Location history. Why? I…

I'll chime in here (like I do in all these threads until it's fixed) but Google Home and Android Auto require all of these settings to be enabled last time I checked.

Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#29

Post by sara17372 »

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Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History

#30

Post by justcodebruh »

aiiane wrote: post #22
loudtieblahblah wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I simply do not believe this. Unless they're audited by a source that can be trusted and have the findings made public, I will not believe it either.

You're welcome to believe whatever you want, but a decent chunk of my day job is making sure that it's true.

may i ask what your day job is?
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