The article doesn’t mention Google collecting and storing location information even when it’s turned off, and having the users figure out more convoluted ways to get rid of that tracking. Scrubbing this information periodically is not a substitute for not collecting or storing it in the first place. Whenever that’s done, I’ll probably accept that Google is doing something for privacy.
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
#42I personally don't believe them. I have an android phone but no Google login. I don't even want to begin to try and work out how to get them to scrub my anything. I've asked them for a copy of all my data based on phone number under GDPR. I've also instructed them to delete what they have about me. Obviously very interested to see how it works out.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#43Earlier 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 all the tinfoil you can fit on your head but this is a written policy Google markets to their paying customers. What you are saying is they are just committing overt fraud. https://cloud.google.com/security/deletion/
Fraud for which they get slapped on the fingers.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#44Earlier 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.
I value your contribution to this thread, can I ask some follow-ups?
Does Google have multiple "Deletion policies" such that deleting data from i.e. your GCP bucket follows one policy, and the "scrubbing" described in this article follows an entirely different policy? If so, do different deletion policies have different processes and different audit trails such that the end "deleted" state is subjective and controlled by the engineering and managerial oversight of the engineering/leadership team of that given product(s)?
From my (naive) opinion, it must be really, really, hard to for example, retrain every ML model that a now deleted datapoint ever touched. Its hard too to believe that, at some high level in Alphabet's org, there is no motivation to have the positive PR of feature(s) like this, but still at essence not delete the parts of the data trail that significantly drive Google's revenue. Do these datapoints significantly impact Google's revenue?
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#45Earlier 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.
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Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#46Doesn't Google keep track of web history through IP/browser fingerprinting even if you don't use an account? And when asked about it they give vague answers about what information is being kept and for how long. That's why I switched to using DuckDuckGo for most of my searches.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#47By the way, I deleted my entire history two weeks ago, and since then I didn't notice any downsides yet, such as a deterioration of my "search experience".
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#48Earlier 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.
To be fair, companies do say things which they don't do or takes years to do it in the way that was advertised. Asking for a third-party auditor isn't unexpected or unwelcome in most cases.
I had a similar concern where I was unsure if Google deleted my data and then anonymized it for helping their models anyways. In my opinion, that would be materially different than deleting all of it.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#49> Scrubbing this data from your Google account...
What about those of us without Google accounts? I use pretty aggressive tracker blocking, but wouldn't be surprised if a PREF cookie, ETag, browser fingerprint, or some other tracking mechanism snuck through at some point. My parents don't use any Google services other than search (not logged in), but Google likely has most of their web browsing histories going back years, thanks to ads and analytics.
If I delete my Google cookies, will Google delete my history and not try to re-identify me? It seems like "privacy theater" otherwise.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#50Living outside US jurisdiction, I strongly believe, my data will end up in the hands of the interested party, specially when/if I am targeted, no matter what setting I choose. I rather get some services running smoothly in my devices when I have these settings (i.e. historical data) enabled. So, I prefer keeping these enabled.