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This url shocked me.
They apparently track every app I open and use on my Pixel phone. They had individual entries for when I skip a song in Google Music. I feel physically sick. I went through and deleted most of what I could and turned off tracking where I could.
Creeps.
The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. If you add so much random data then there's no way Google can pick up anything useful. I think the other tactic to defeat Google is to click on EVERY SINGLE AD you see. It will destroy their ad tracking capabilities and it will also destroy their business since they won't be able to tell what i…
As for the ad tracking bit, there is an extension called AdNauseam that google has repeatedly banned on the chrome store, but it essentially does what you said - register a click on most ads while simultaneously blocking the ads from rendering.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does it matter, though? They claim the list is there purely for your own personal consumption. If that's true, and you don't care to use it, it costs you nothing that it exists. If that's false, then it doesn't matter whether you can delete it or not, because if they're willing to lie about its uses, they would also be willing to lie about whether they deleted it.
> They claim the list is there purely for your own personal consumption The problem is that they are constantly thinking along these lines, and building products to enable this. Also, they are an advertising company, so this is something that is of value to them. Fox guarding the hen-house stuff. In my mind, its kind of like hiring an IP lawyer at a company. Even if your company is not litigious, there is a chance th…
Useful features attract users. Users are a good thing. Like I can apply the exact same argument to email labels:
Why does google let you label emails? They're an advertising company, so labels must be valuable to them. What is the business justification? It's certainly not PR or marketing.
And now suddenly labels sound like an ominous feature, anti-user or anti-privacy or something, maybe. Which they aren't. But the implication is there.
There's a good second or two of recording time before I say the words "Hey, Google"... which means it's just always recording?!
I know practically speaking I should have known this, but I somehow assumed that nothing was being recorded until after the trigger word.
The recordings of my voice here from google home are rather scary. There's a good second or two of recording time before I say the words "Hey, Google"... which means it's just always recording?! I know practically speaking I should have known this, but I somehow assumed that nothing was being recorded until after the trigger word.
The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. If you add so much random data then there's no way Google can pick up anything useful. I think the other tactic to defeat Google is to click on EVERY SINGLE AD you see. It will destroy their ad tracking capabilities and it will also destroy their business since they won't be able to tell what i…
Isn't there a 'not google' solution? Real question. Also I'm thinking/wanting the same for my phone. (hardware and service). Is there a method for public owned cell phone service (not expecting it to exist, but as a feasibility question - regardless of current obstacles)?
If anyone is listening: I could not care less about instagram or reddit's app. Forget the app store ecosystem junk. Just give me a phone that can make calls and runs a basic web browser. I'd like an alarm clock, and a map/navigation service might be nice, but those aren't deal breakers.
The recordings of my voice here from google home are rather scary. There's a good second or two of recording time before I say the words "Hey, Google"... which means it's just always recording?! I know practically speaking I should have known this, but I somehow assumed that nothing was being recorded until after the trigger word.
The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. If you add so much random data then there's no way Google can pick up anything useful. I think the other tactic to defeat Google is to click on EVERY SINGLE AD you see. It will destroy their ad tracking capabilities and it will also destroy their business since they won't be able to tell what i…
The only real solution is to delete your Google account(s), avoid using Google services entirely, and firewall off any access from your machines to Google servers.