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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

#161

Post by hcnews »

Sheep_McSheepy wrote: post #152
hcnews wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is any copy of data anonymized and still kept around in ml models etc.?

I'm not an expert in this area but from what I know, personalized ML models are rebuilt often from fresh data that is not anonymized so if you request your data to be removed, then it's gone from these models as well. That said, there's also data without PII (anonymized) that is not attached to any specific user, that of course is not subject to this data wipeout as Google wouldn't know what to delete. Such data can…

Thanks for the detailed technical answer. It helps; much appreciated.

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

#162

Post by abugheratwork »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #126
dmitriid wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your team is doing a shitty job, to be completely honest. This comment and all the comments beliw it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19809168

LOL rather than applaud some modicum of privacy we may be getting back, you decide to denigrate. Should we all hold this cynical attitude and hope for no progress at all?

He didn't tell everyone to hold the same attitude. He said they're doing a shitty job, and he provided a great example.

Rude, but true, and I would argue helpful. Sorry you're not enjoying reading it.

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

#163

Post by ryacko »

On a web forum for programmers on a website known for funding startups there are numerous discussions about Google being inconvenient about privacy and some of them are thinking about buying Apple products. As opposed to rooting their smartphone and using MicroG.

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

#165

Post by Romanulus »

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.

That's not a very good argument.

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

#166

Post by devereaux »

mehrdadn wrote: post #117
devereaux wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is another nudge: how easily can you write a rule to delete from gmail inbox after say X days? (same question for outlook.com, icloud.com etc) There are ways for technical users, but it nudges users to leave all the juicy data to the company, which can then use it in any way it feels (including monetization)

I dare say that I don't expect automatic deletion of emails from your inbox is not a feature many users are clamoring for, whether they have privacy concerns or not. Hence I don't think the lack of it is for monetization puposes or the lack.

Users should clamor for a feature that automatically delete emails with subject=password after say a week.

In theory the links are only valid for a few hours. In practice I don't trust that.

Even then, it's not about clamoring, but just having a way to create rules. You just can't do that easily in gmail.

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

#167

Post by joshuamorton »

dmitriid wrote: post #131
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL rather than applaud some modicum of privacy we may be getting back, you decide to denigrate. Should we all hold this cynical attitude and hope for no progress at all?

We should all hold companies accountable and not celebrate every “modicum of privacy”. Look at what companies do, not what they say they do. Yay, you can delete all your data... says the company which puts hidden microphones in consumer products, leaks copious amounts of user data across unrelated services, releases a browser which automatically logs you in to google services, lifted its ban on personally identifiabl…

So are you claiming that you can't actually delete your data? Or are you saying that letting you delete your data isn't a thing?

Because "letting you delete your data" seems to be a thing the company is doing. Which you say we should look at.

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

#168

Post by noneeeed »

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…

This is my number one annoying dark pattern from Google at the moment.

I would very much like to store my home and work addresses in Google Maps on my phone, but I can't do that without them also storing everywhere I go.

There is no good reason for these two things being tied together other than to make we share my location data. We are talking about storing a few hundred bytes of relatively static data and letting me select them as a shortcut, this is not a complex feature, it's a simple shortcut.

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

#169

Post by dylan604 »

teekert wrote: post #39
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 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.

In the light of the recent story on how YouTube and Google Docs put up banners about not working with IE6, I would not put it past them to do something similar any time the user did something that Google did not like.

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

#170

Post by bduerst »

user17843 wrote: post #86
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source, or any evidence that they don't? Google doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This is literally their business model.

I think this is basically the GDPR rules, but I would need to look into the details more.

You're right - Article 3 of GDPR defines the scope as applying to any user residing in the EU. If the users are not logged in then you don't know where they reside (IP address != residence), meaning any international company that operates in the EU needs to err on the side of caution for non-logged in users everywhere.
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