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Google – My Activity

myactivity.google.com

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Re: Google – My Activity

#221

Post by Reason077 »

JohnFen wrote: post #204
Xunxi wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is quite troubling and enlightening to the point that I'll have to start redirecting my purchase receipts to a non gmail account. Are there any other 'hidden' urls to expose what other data Google is siphoning off our private transactions or conversations for that matter? I've had all controls under activity disable a long time and periodically check to make sure they stay that way. This one crosses the line! To…

> I'll have to start redirecting my purchase receipts to a non gmail account If you have a non-gmail account, why are you using gmail at all?

> "If you have a non-gmail account, why are you using gmail at all?"

Convenience, speed, reliability, and (above all else) excellent spam filtering.

Re: Google – My Activity

#222

Post by skybrian »

JohnFen wrote: post #214
skybrian wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn off ad personalization here: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated

But that doesn't turn off the data collection associated with it.

Many people talk about how terrible personalized ads are, so it seems like it's still a win?

What does it mean if they don't even bother to turn it off?

Re: Google – My Activity

#223

Post by dahfizz »

hathawsh wrote: post #138
losvedir wrote: post #84

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 I find surprising is that Google is exposing themselves voluntarily to subpoenas [1]. The more info Google collects, the more courts will try to use Google records as evidence. Therefore, isn't it in Google's interest to collect and store only the exact info they need, expiring records ASAP so there's as little as possible for courts to collect? Perhaps Google has factored that risk into their calculations and t…

It seems like you're assuming that complying with a subpoena is a huge burden to Google. I would assume that a company with teams of lawyers and procedures already in place, this would be a very minor cost.

Re: Google – My Activity

#224

Post by VikingCoder »

JohnFen wrote: post #220
VikingCoder wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is your responsibility to understand the terms and conditions of creating and using a Google account. If you're not informed, it's your fault. You did legally consent. That said, could Google do better at explaining these things and giving controls and changing opt-outs to opt-ins? Sure. But the argument you made is false.

> It is your responsibility to understand the terms and conditions Terms and conditions are written to be very opaque and to obscure what you're "agreeing" to. What you're saying is that you need to effectively be an attorney in order to be able to have informed consent. > You did legally consent. I didn't say otherwise. I was talking about actual consent, not legal consent. > But the argument you made is false. I di…

> What you're saying is that you need to effectively be an attorney in order to be able to have informed consent.

Or read commentary about it. Which exists in abundance.

> I was talking about actual consent, not legal consent.

If you could define what you mean by "actual consent," and compare it to "legal consent," that would be great.

Re: Google – My Activity

#225

Post by JohnFen »

VikingCoder wrote: post #224
JohnFen wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is your responsibility to understand the terms and conditions Terms and conditions are written to be very opaque and to obscure what you're "agreeing" to. What you're saying is that you need to effectively be an attorney in order to be able to have informed consent. > You did legally consent. I didn't say otherwise. I was talking about actual consent, not legal consent. > But the argument you made is false. I di…

> What you're saying is that you need to effectively be an attorney in order to be able to have informed consent. Or read commentary about it. Which exists in abundance. > I was talking about actual consent, not legal consent. If you could define what you mean by "actual consent," and compare it to "legal consent," that would be great.

> Or read commentary about it. Which exists in abundance.

Commentary about terms and conditions doesn't really help for a whole bunch of reasons.

What I mean by "actual consent" is that I've been fully informed what the deal is and I've actively said "yes".

Legal consent is a lower bar than that. For example, if a service lays out the deal in a document that can't be clearly understood by a normal person and/or that is ambiguous (meaning that a normal person can reasonably understand it to mean something that it does not mean), agreeing to it is legal consent, but not real consent -- real consent requires that each party fully know what they're consenting to.

Re: Google – My Activity

#226

Post by VikingCoder »

JohnFen wrote: post #225
VikingCoder wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What you're saying is that you need to effectively be an attorney in order to be able to have informed consent. Or read commentary about it. Which exists in abundance. > I was talking about actual consent, not legal consent. If you could define what you mean by "actual consent," and compare it to "legal consent," that would be great.

> Or read commentary about it. Which exists in abundance. Commentary about terms and conditions doesn't really help for a whole bunch of reasons. What I mean by "actual consent" is that I've been fully informed what the deal is and I've actively said "yes". Legal consent is a lower bar than that. For example, if a service lays out the deal in a document that can't be clearly understood by a normal person and/or that…

Isn't that entirely your responsibility?

I mean, what do you wish were different?

Re: Google – My Activity

#227

Post by JohnFen »

VikingCoder wrote: post #226
JohnFen wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or read commentary about it. Which exists in abundance. Commentary about terms and conditions doesn't really help for a whole bunch of reasons. What I mean by "actual consent" is that I've been fully informed what the deal is and I've actively said "yes". Legal consent is a lower bar than that. For example, if a service lays out the deal in a document that can't be clearly understood by a normal person and/or that…

Isn't that entirely your responsibility? I mean, what do you wish were different?

> Isn't that entirely your responsibility?

You can argue that, but as I said, that would require everyone to be a lawyer in order to properly analyze and understand those agreements. I think that's an unreasonable expectation.

What I wish were different is three things:

1) That I am clearly and correctly informed what would happen to my data if I agree (and that those terms will not change without me being clearly and correctly informed of the change before it happens and my consent being obtained again).

2) That I have to explicitly consent rather than having consent "implied" by, for instance, just beginning to use a service. And if the data is going to be used or handled by an entity other than the one I'm directly dealing with, that entity also has to get my explicit consent.

3) That no data is collected about me in the absence of my overt consent.

To be honest, it's #3 that angers me the most. My data is constantly being collected without my consent merely by doing things like going to a web site, or playing a game, or that companies like Facebook and Google get data about me when I buy something in a physical store using a credit/debit card.

Re: Google – My Activity

#228

Post by squarefoot »

Reason077 wrote: post #221
JohnFen wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll have to start redirecting my purchase receipts to a non gmail account If you have a non-gmail account, why are you using gmail at all?

> "If you have a non-gmail account, why are you using gmail at all?" Convenience, speed, reliability, and (above all else) excellent spam filtering.

Spam filtering is also my only reason for keeping Gmail. Which makes it even more ironical, given that Google is the biggest advertising company around.

Re: Google – My Activity

#229

Post by squarefoot »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #3

Jesus fucking christ. This is scary. They can build a full profile of me with all this data.

"They can build a full profile of me with all this data."

What is really scary is that we already have all parts needed to build a "real" online person, except they're scattered around and not in the hands of a single entity. But let's say one day Google or anyone else with enough power and the same data about people buys the technology behind Lyrebird.ai and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ54GDm1eL0 What could possibly go wrong?

Re: Google – My Activity

#230

Post by kinkora »

Arguments & discussions about google tracking you and how some products are crippled if you disable it (looking at you Maps!!) aside, they at least recently introduced a way for you to delete all the information here:

https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity

Not many people know about this so spread the word!

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