We will do something approaching the right thing... soon!
Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
71–80 of 263 posts
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#72Will 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.
I use uMatrix, but the amount of sites where you need to allow Google domains and cookies for reCaptcha to work is depressing.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#73This 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 often get reminded by apps that "This app will not function when play services has no access to: Contacts, calendar, call history (and about 5 more things)". I once turned everything I though to be unnecessary off from the settings. Indeed nothing ever stopped working correctly but many things started nagging me periodically, while functioning perfectly.
I just stopped using Android after shit like this. Privacy is an afterthought at best, despite the great new permissions model.
And it's absolutely not Android's fault as much it is app developers' faults. Want to use an app that tracks your dreams? Most devs will have you sign up for their terrible service so they can store the information in plaintext on a server.
At least with iOS most devs seem to opt for CloudKit with E2E encryption. Privacy seems more wired into the iOS ecosystem than Android.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#74Why is the minimum lifetime of data set to 3 months? Is it because 3 months sounds like a reasonable period of time for users to look back at their usage or is it because Google needs 3 months to process the data, for marketing or other money making purposes? The reality is whether they keep the data for 3 months or 18 months doesn't mean anything. It just gives you the illusion that they no longer use your data. I f…
You can always set it to zero by turning off location history / web and app activity entirely, causing new data to not be stored at all.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#75Ya ok, call me a cynic, but I doubt it amounts to anything more than a new column in their tables. It’s gonna all be there - there’s too much money on the line to permanently erase anything
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#76Thank you European Union
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#77This 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…
Likewise. I don't think it's reasonable to require these permissions in order to use a Google Home device or the Google Assistant, for instance.
I can understand needing to remember the last query, in order to provide context for the next one. Automatic scrubbing would be helpful...but it's missing an "every 10 minutes" option.
(Today, my solution is a completely separate Google account that only gets used for Google Home/Assistant.)
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#78Why is the minimum lifetime of data set to 3 months? Is it because 3 months sounds like a reasonable period of time for users to look back at their usage or is it because Google needs 3 months to process the data, for marketing or other money making purposes? The reality is whether they keep the data for 3 months or 18 months doesn't mean anything. It just gives you the illusion that they no longer use your data. I f…
You can always set it to zero by turning off location history / web and app activity entirely, causing new data to not be stored at all.
And then a pile of features that shouldn't need that history will refuse to operate.
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#79This 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…
Also can't subscribe to podcasts if web activity is disabled, which is bullshit because YouTube subscriptions continue to work just fine
Re: Google Will Soon Let Users Automatically Scrub Location and Web History
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious, as a Google employee would you believe a Facebook employee, on HN making the same claim?
No, because Facebook does not have a detailed written policy regarding user data deletion and retention, which Google does have.
> detailed written policy
Oh we're all good then!