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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

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the big companies probably need to submit to some external audits to really get trust back.

I've worked on wipeout compliance at Google and IMHO there's no possibility that an outside auditor would ever be able to understand those systems to such an extent that they would discover a flaw in them that wasn't previously known to the many engineers who work full-time on wipeout. The systems are just too complex. One does not simply `find -type f /google` to figure out what data is available.

Part of the point of the audit would be to demonstrate that you take it as seriously as you say you do. Not so much to check the fine details.

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

#104
This feature looks pretty cool and it’s basically what I wanted. Kudos.

The question is, are they deleting that data?

I think they are big enough that, at least for EU users, not deleting that data would land them in a lot of trouble, so I think that they do.

For people concerned with privacy I don’t think Google is trustworthy enough, but these features are good to have for the rest of the world, so I’m glad to see it.

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

#105

This feature looks pretty cool and it’s basically what I wanted. Kudos. The question is, are they deleting that data? I think they are big enough that, at least for EU users, not deleting that data would land them in a lot of trouble, so I think that they do. For people concerned with privacy I don’t think Google is trustworthy enough, but these features are good to have for the rest of the world, so I’m glad to see…

One nice form of regulation would be a mechanism to let companies in this situation make a formal and binding privacy claim, that would then expose them to painful consequences if shown to be untrue.

Right now we just have to take Google's word for it, but if they were willing to pinky swear (figuratively speaking), it would let people trust them more, and possibly let them offer new kinds of services.

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

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but breaking a written policy is (AFAIK) fraud and has some teeth to it.

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

#107

This feature looks pretty cool and it’s basically what I wanted. Kudos. The question is, are they deleting that data? I think they are big enough that, at least for EU users, not deleting that data would land them in a lot of trouble, so I think that they do. For people concerned with privacy I don’t think Google is trustworthy enough, but these features are good to have for the rest of the world, so I’m glad to see…

One nice form of regulation would be a mechanism to let companies in this situation make a formal and binding privacy claim, that would then expose them to painful consequences if shown to be untrue. Right now we just have to take Google's word for it, but if they were willing to pinky swear (figuratively speaking), it would let people trust them more, and possibly let them offer new kinds of services.

> One nice form of regulation would be a mechanism to let companies in this situation make a formal and binding privacy claim, that would then expose them to painful consequences if shown to be untrue.

Or you could just make making false representations to get anything of value from people a tort generally, and in egregious cases a crime as well, rather than making it a privacy-specific regulation, and without making any particular formality on the part of the vendor necessary for consumers to be protected.

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

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked on wipeout compliance at Google and IMHO there's no possibility that an outside auditor would ever be able to understand those systems to such an extent that they would discover a flaw in them that wasn't previously known to the many engineers who work full-time on wipeout. The systems are just too complex. One does not simply `find -type f /google` to figure out what data is available.

Part of the point of the audit would be to demonstrate that you take it as seriously as you say you do. Not so much to check the fine details.

I don't personally put any value in those kinds of audits but Google has those. For example they have outside auditors for SOC and ISO 27018 and whatnot. Some dipshit from Ernst and Young swears that Google has such internal controls and processes.

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

#110
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.

> I simply do not believe this.

If you're not willing to put even that must trust in your various cloud providers, you aren't the target market. Surely you aren't sharing this information with Google already, right? So the feature isn't for you.

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