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Google – My Activity

myactivity.google.com

141–150 of 246 posts

Re: Google – My Activity

#141

On this subject https://myaccount.google.com/purchases Turning off all of the controls under myactivity won't stop Google from scanning your emails to track any purchases you make. The only way to stop that is to switch off of Gmail.

The most creepy, though useful thing I've experience with google, was the android notification "You should leave for the airport now" for something I never set, based on my airline receipt.

Re: Google – My Activity

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outlook/Proton. OpenStreetMaps. Vimeo/Dailymotion. DuckDuckGo. All free.

Vimeo/Dailymotion not a replacement for youtube when the things you are interested aren't posted there.

invdio.us at least proxies. Youtube-dl mps-youtube, and mpv allow direct downloading and streaming (and not just from YT).

I'm working through 12 or so hours of a podcast from a textfile plalist of mp3 links, in Termux, on Android. For my workflow that beats any podcast app.

(Though a good CLI podcast manager would be handy.)

Re: Google – My Activity

#143
post #33

This goes deep. I see not only when I have used Instagram, but it knows which instagram profiles and direct messages I opened. I'm using Android at the moment, of course.

It shows that in your google activity? Instagram is a facebook product is it not?

Re: Google – My Activity

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outlook/Proton. OpenStreetMaps. Vimeo/Dailymotion. DuckDuckGo. All free.

Vimeo/Dailymotion not a replacement for youtube when the things you are interested aren't posted there.

Although, I'd love to see more cross-posting for video content that I follow. I happen to appreciate Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson... and given the push to the left (away from Liberal views even), and towards more censorship, I don't like where things are now.

The best way to combat bad ideas is with more information and facts, not to silence the conversation and push it out.

Re: Google – My Activity

#145
post #47

This is great. Now I can see in a single place how YouTube mixes other people's history with mine. It seems I watched "Funny Dinosaurs in Poop Fight", "Poop Cartoon 04: Fried Sh*t" and "Pirate Pete's Potty: Potty Training Video for Toddlers" yesterday. Fun. (I've been getting some other kid's watched videos in my history, and Google doesn't care about this kind of history mixing, my reports got me nowhere).

So it sounds like either someone is logged into your account, or one of your devices is infected

Re: Google – My Activity

#146

I guess I'll be the lone voice chiming in that I find this pretty useful. There's been a number of times I've been like "oh, what's that song I asked Google to identify a month ago?" or "what was that page I managed to find last year by searching about [x]?" that I've been able to remember via this tool. Yeah, Google knows everything about me. C'est la vie. At least it's useful. What exactly is the threat model that…

What is actually shocking is that these data are made so easily accessible when you are logged into Google anywhere. There should be additional hurdles to view the entirety of a person's history with Google beyond merely being logged in. The potential for very easy and all-encompassing snooping (e.g. from friends and colleagues) is staggering!

Re: Google – My Activity

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean When you search using google through ddg via !g bang operator, not when you search just using DDG (which uses bing apparently)?

Ah yes, it's only when I use the !g bang operator. But if I recall, a selling point of DDG and searching Google via the operator was that lack of track-ability. Of course, again, I am using Chrome so not shocked, just notable.

!s or !sp give you SmartPage -- privacy-proxied Google search.

!disconnect -> disconnect search

Sort of. I find direct Google is more comprehensive.

!bangs gives more bang searches:

https://duckduckgo.com/bang?q=

Ohers: https://duckduckgo.com/bang?q=search

https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/private-search-engines/

Re: Google – My Activity

#148
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you enjoy your free email account, free maps, free YouTube and free search?

My email (gmail) is bound with so many services (both online and offline) and it is part of my online identity. It would be so much effort to change the email now. I don't think there is an alternative to google maps which is in the same level as quality and richness in information. I would be totally lost without google maps when I'm traveling to other countries, especially when it comes to public transportation lik…

I switched off of Gmail a couple years ago after almost a decade with Gmail, in the same boat as you with my full online identity tied to it. Honestly, the realization that my identity was so tied to it is why I switched - I didn't want to lose my online identity at Google's whim.

The switch isn't as bad as you would think. It was pretty painless.

1. Compile a list of all your online accounts - if you use a password manager, you should already have this

2. Create a new email account on a service you trust, preferably at your own domain. That way, if you decide to switch providers later you can keep your address. I used Fastmail, and I'll cast my vote for them. (I believe Fastmail also has the ability to automatically import all your email from Gmail, although I took advantage of the switch to start fresh. I just downloaded a bulk archive of all my email).

3. Set up a vacation responder on your gmail address explaining your switch.

4. Change your email address on all your online accounts to your new address

5. After a period of time to make sure people are using your new email address, remove Gmail from your Google account. What's really cool about this is you can easily switch your Google ID for your existing Google account to your new email address, so you can continue to use any Google services as you wish without having them in control of your email/online identity.

NOTE: Even after removing Gmail from your Google account, you remain in control of that Gmail address - Google won't reassign it. You can reactivate it at any time (for example, if there was an account you forgot to switch). I've reactivated and re-deactivated mine several times.

It's really not bad, and much more painless that losing access to your Google account.

Re: Google – My Activity

#149

I'm not the most tin foil hat kind of person. I don't mind some of the tracking Google does as long as I know about it. 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.

I'm sorry, but ... are you (and others here with similar reactions) serious? You don't think Google knows when you skip a song in Google Music? How do you think recommendations work exactly? I thought this was HackerNews, not my grandpa's Facebook feed.

I think it's a little more shocking when you see ALL this activity collated in one place by a single entity. It's not quite as impactful (and scary) if it had been Spotify or Apple Music with the music tracking, because that means our so-called digital profile is scattered across largely independent entities and so, no one entity has absolute information about us.

Re: Google – My Activity

#150

I'm not the most tin foil hat kind of person. I don't mind some of the tracking Google does as long as I know about it. 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.

Ok, I just noticed something that is even scarier. Under the "Chrome, Google Analytics, and more" I see "Used com.kongregate.mobile.adventurecommunist", which is a game installed on my iPhone. Ok, I also have my Gmail logged in there as well, so they somehow read shared data or whatever. But I also see "Used es.socialpoint.chefparadise" which is a game, installed on my iPad at home which is mostly used by my wife for…

That game probably uses google analytics or something.

Most iOS apps use various embedded trackers, just like websites.

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