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Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

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Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#41

Post by chiefalchemist »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #24
chiefalchemist wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a new bridge near me. No cash tolls. It's either EasyPass or they photograph your plates and mail you the bill. I presume the lack of cash tolls is semi intentional. I mean all cars are being photographed, as you can borrow and EasyPass.

Cash (largely, coinage, actually, for a tollbooth) has to be collected and transported. A lot of newer and lower-volume toll exits around me are pass-only. But since the tollway charges double for non-pass users anyways... everyone has the pass.

> "A lot of newer and lower-volume toll exits around me are pass-only. But since the tollway charges double for non-pass users anyways... everyone has the pass."

So making collection easier not only handed over our privacy, it made doing it (i.e., tools) more often and for less money.

And there's Liberty on the side of the road...death by one penny pricks?

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#42

Post by saltminer »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #11
maximente wrote: post #3

wow, i had no idea someone in what i assume is rural South Carolina is willing to undertake a pretty substantial convenience/time cost - drive 40 miles (and back?) to purchase directly - in order to better guard their privacy. wonder if he also prefers cash? although this article is google-focused, not more generally on privacy which would presumably involve defeating credit card companies with cash. i'm wondering wh…

There's a new bridge near me. No cash tolls. It's either EasyPass or they photograph your plates and mail you the bill. I presume the lack of cash tolls is semi intentional. I mean all cars are being photographed, as you can borrow and EasyPass.

In addition to the lower labor and maintenance costs, you can also do open-road tolling - no booths needed, no slowdowns to wait for the gates to go up, you just keep driving at 60+ MPH.

You certainly can do both open-road and accept cash, but the traffic for the cash booths can back up onto the highway and slow down open-road traffic as well.

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#43

Post by skybrian »

joosters wrote: post #6
Animats wrote: post #2

Well, of course. Just don't sign up for a Google account. When you get an Android phone new, there's a moment when it asks you to sign up or sign in with a Google account. There's a "later" option". Click that, and then remove the Google one-time startup program. Install F-Droid, and get your apps from there. The mail program on Android will talk to an IMAP server. Find one to use, and you don't need Gmail. No ads. O…

Surely your phone is still repeatedly in touch with Google servers because you've got all that Google software on there. Just because you haven't signed in with a google account doesn't mean Google don't know who you are.

It doesn't mean they know who you are, either. That depends on what data is transmitted, what is stored, who has access to it, and what it means philosophically to know who someone is. There is not enough information to say.

If there is tracking data associated with a phone but it's not associated with your real name, in what sense can you say they know you?

There is a risk someone (who?) can connect it with other data somehow, and then all the pieces fall into place. But maybe it hasn't happened yet?

So, this is all preventative. Nobody knows what's going to happen, but better to avoid tracking, just in case.

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#45

Post by fyfy18 »

Dunedan wrote: post #13
Animats wrote: post #2

Well, of course. Just don't sign up for a Google account. When you get an Android phone new, there's a moment when it asks you to sign up or sign in with a Google account. There's a "later" option". Click that, and then remove the Google one-time startup program. Install F-Droid, and get your apps from there. The mail program on Android will talk to an IMAP server. Find one to use, and you don't need Gmail. No ads. O…

That doesn't prevent Google from collecting information about you. Even though you don't actively use Google on your Android device, doesn't mean it doesn't phone home and reports information to Google. For example, if you don't actively disable it, your phone sends the names of all Wifi-networks in your proximity to Google, so Google can tell you where you are faster and more accurate than with GPS. Even if you disa…

And this is the sort of thing GDPR is meant to prevent. Unless you explicitly allow it (and a popup checked by default doesn't count), Google cannot use that data for purposes other than providing you with positioning information.

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#46

Post by Allower »

bhauer wrote: post #38
eejjjj82 wrote: post #37

" In the small South Carolina town of Newberry, Bob's Red Mill muesli cereal is hard to come by. That presents a challenge for resident Gregory Kelly, who can't get enough of the stuff. He'd rather not truck the 40 miles or so to Columbia to stock up on it, but he's also loath to buy it from the company's website, which he says is riddled with tracking software from Google" Somebody get this man a Firefox Privacy Tab

I feel the author was struggling to find a suitable anecdote to open the story. And this one seems a bit far-fetched, perhaps even exaggerated by Mr. Kelly as a means of illustrating the hassle of curtailing the surveillance apparatus of Google. But someone who has gone to the lengths described probably knows how to block requests to google-analytics.com.

Am I the only one who finds such anecdotes to start a news story to be a massive turnoff?

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#47

Post by d1zzy »

colemickens wrote: post #19
phmagic wrote: post #4

(disclaimer: I work at a big tech firm, but I've had this opinion before working here) I'm confused by the lengths people have gone through to "protect" themselves from internet giants while freely giving away their info to credit card companies, traditional retailers, small businesses. Credit card transaction data have been sold for years without most of us knowing about it. Small startups, boutique stores rarely ha…

How does this argument come up every time? If I can't have absolute privacy, I should just give up? The same way I'd love to give up every last bit of dependence on Google, I'd love to get decentralized fintech. But the popular one is a bad word that starts with B and I fear has spoiled the well. (Though it's been interesting traveling through Europe and seeing Bitcoin signs all over Prague, the ticket machine offeri…

No but there's a good argument there in terms of priorities.

What is more likely to impact you negatively: Google building an internal profile based on your information and targeting ads based on it or your card information being stolen from insecure smaller vendors?

Obviously those 2 choices are picked arbitrarily but they may explain why the OP chose to prefer the former over the latter. I would think every time we decide to share some of our information we do so because we stand to gain something (otherwise why do it) and it's up to us to decide if what we stand to lose is worth it. As technically minded people we tend to be more focused on technical problems and what we consider more dangerous may be more related to our familiarity with the subject matter rather than the objective potential negative impact it has.

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#48

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

eejjjj82 wrote: post #37

" In the small South Carolina town of Newberry, Bob's Red Mill muesli cereal is hard to come by. That presents a challenge for resident Gregory Kelly, who can't get enough of the stuff. He'd rather not truck the 40 miles or so to Columbia to stock up on it, but he's also loath to buy it from the company's website, which he says is riddled with tracking software from Google" Somebody get this man a Firefox Privacy Tab

It is pretty good cereal, though. Way better than some of those bland, mushy quick oats.

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#49

Post by vetinari »

babypuncher wrote: post #18
Animats wrote: post #2

Well, of course. Just don't sign up for a Google account. When you get an Android phone new, there's a moment when it asks you to sign up or sign in with a Google account. There's a "later" option". Click that, and then remove the Google one-time startup program. Install F-Droid, and get your apps from there. The mail program on Android will talk to an IMAP server. Find one to use, and you don't need Gmail. No ads. O…

Google tracking is baked into Android pretty deep. Simply not having an account doesn't stop Google from tracking what you do on your phone.

It requires being signed in.

If you are not signed in, for extra safety you can also disable google play framework and all google apps. You won't get things like fused location, but hey, that one requires connecting to google services too.

Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data

#50

Post by elcomet »

eejjjj82 wrote: post #37

" In the small South Carolina town of Newberry, Bob's Red Mill muesli cereal is hard to come by. That presents a challenge for resident Gregory Kelly, who can't get enough of the stuff. He'd rather not truck the 40 miles or so to Columbia to stock up on it, but he's also loath to buy it from the company's website, which he says is riddled with tracking software from Google" Somebody get this man a Firefox Privacy Tab

They still get your ip address
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