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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

#51

Post by o10449366 »

Sahhaese wrote: post #37
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…

Somewhat related: I turned off youtube watch history. I can no longer see my google play music played counts, because somehow the same permission covers both, even though I would like music history but not youtube history.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's a side effect of Google's plan to "replace" Play Music with YouTube Music, even though they're two completely different services.

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

#52

Post by puzzle »

chris_mc wrote: post #27
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 pattern…

Is this on desktop or mobile? It could match the theory in the grandparent post that they preferred sticking to one backend. That also allows handling conflicts in one place, with one protocol. E.g. what would the behaviour be if you edited the home address with a ZIP code on your phone, while offline? What if you try to make the same change from your laptop and e.g. you set a ZIP+4 code? And then what happens when your phone is online again?

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

#53

Post by Circuits »

TBH I dont mind Google knowing all this stuff about me. I like targeted ads. What I dont like is the idea that someone could steal that information from them and use it against me. Soak up as much info as you want from me Google, idc but if you're going to do that than you better damn well be able to keep it protected.

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

#54

Post by puzzle »

o10449366 wrote: post #51
Sahhaese wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat related: I turned off youtube watch history. I can no longer see my google play music played counts, because somehow the same permission covers both, even though I would like music history but not youtube history.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's a side effect of Google's plan to "replace" Play Music with YouTube Music, even though they're two completely different services.

Maybe they're the same service behind the scenes. Would you store the same music twice, if you had to run both?

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

#55

Post by aiiane »

ben_jones wrote: post #44
aiiane wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 controlle…

First let me say that I can't speak to whether anything "significantly impacts Google's revenue" - either I don't have any material information in that regard, or if I did the SEC probably wouldn't want me making statements about it. :)

So with that caveat in mind, let me see what I can help answer.

I'm not entirely sure what nuance you're implying when you say "different deletion policies" - while for instance Cloud might have a different timeline or set of triggers for when and what data is deleted, when it happens "deleted" still generally means "deleted". Some products like GSuite have the ability for administrators to say, disable accounts, which removes them from use but doesn't delete the account, but that's transparent to the domain administrator.

It's definitely nontrivial to track data propagation within large systems, but standardizing infrastructure, having central documentation of data handling plans, and having comprehensive privacy reviews for any new functionality that launches helps keep people on the same page.

Edit: oh, and regarding "retraining every model a data point touched" - the easiest way to do this is to just always be regenerating your models on a frequent basis. If you retrain your models once a day or once a week on a fresh snapshot of your data, they'll only ever be that stale.

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

#56

Post by amirmasoudabdol »

This is actually worst for your privacy because it gives you an impression that your data is not being used. However, by the time that you remove it Google is already done with your data. I feel this will spread to other type of data that they are collecting too. I cannot convince myself that it’s a good thing and Google has good intentions with it.

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

#57

Post by josefresco »

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.

Curious, as a Google employee would you believe a Facebook employee, on HN making the same claim?

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

#58

Post by new12345 »

I see this(others recent Gmail changes) as tactical measures that google is taking to save its image in light of steep growth of privacy friendly startups(proton mail, duckduckgo, etc.). But my take is that they aren't going to get too war with this until they really commit themselves to preserving users privacy. Unfortunately, likelyhood of this change in thinking of Google executives is very low as its an up hill battle against the revenue they earn selling users data.

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

#59

Post by ProAm »

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…

> Why?

you know why. It's profitable. This information makes them money.

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

#60

Post by dictum »

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...

It deletes Column A, yes.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18717406

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