Web search has become a commoditized service over the last few years. I've used DuckDuckGo exclusively for over a year now and it's actually really good, and I've switched over to iCloud for email. Even Apple maps is pretty decent nowadays. There's really nothing I need from Google anymore. Their moat is shrinking rapidly.
Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
91–100 of 115 posts
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#92Well, 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…
IMAP doesn't support push :(
Sure it does. Since 2009.[1]
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's why the best choice is just to recommend your family get an iPhone. The default/least resistant path is far more private.
Apple are harvesting just as much data, they're just being less evil with it... For now.
Apple takes steps to encrypt the data so that even they don't have access to it.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 da…
Postal code (available via weak geocoding) of work + home locations is 90% effective in identifying a single individual.
Anynymised hash caad09aeb361e1d6052c81db1db0e8523e34fca0909b6b2f21bd2ae39f9045e2 with > 0.90 probability of nocturnal location X and diurnal location Y is not anonymous.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#95(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…
Some do. Some don't.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. You are invalidly generalizing. I try to eliminate all contact I have with the tech giants, and I do not have a credit card, I am at a privacy respecting bank (GLS Gemeinschaftsbank), and I use cash. Additionally, by…
> You are invalidly generalizing. I try to eliminate all contact I have with the tech giants, and I do not have a credit card, I am at a privacy respecting bank (GLS Gemeinschaftsbank), and I use cash. You do you, but I'm happy to get free airline tickets and other perks from using my credit card at the expense of....... having someone else know I bought a mechanical keyboard last month? I respect your choice but I h…
> You do you, but I'm happy to get free airline tickets and other perks from using my credit card at the expense of....... having someone else know I bought a mechanical keyboard last month?
That's not why you're getting free airline tickets. You're getting them because you're a) subsidized by people who carry a balance and b) pay higher prices on goods to make up for the merchant fees, while being partially subsidized by those people who pay with cash and aren't getting free flights.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#97Nearly a decade ago, then Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."
https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-googles-policy-...
The problem with such a policy is in thinking that cultural and legal boundaries are fixed and inviolate. The very process of repeatedly pressing up to a border may trigger the backlash which moves it, and can leave the fate-tempting party in deep water -- with its own culture, processes, amd institutions unable to adapt, or with goodwill so badly burnt it never recovers.
Google should have seen this coming long ago. It's a colossal failure of leadership that they've not.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe. But the lack of cash tolls also enables the Surveillance State. So once again, we're trading privacy and liberty for what amounts to pocket lint. I think we have closure on the American experiment. Laziness/convenience trumps anything else.
> the lack of cash tolls also enables the Surveillance State There are cameras there whether it is a cash toll or not.
Right. It's so normalized that even more aware ppl such as yourself aren't phased by making such observations.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe. But the lack of cash tolls also enables the Surveillance State. So once again, we're trading privacy and liberty for what amounts to pocket lint. I think we have closure on the American experiment. Laziness/convenience trumps anything else.
Why do they need toll booths to add cameras? What prevents the surveillance state from just putting some cameras on the highway?
They might not. But I'm guessing the ACLU would likely have something to say about it. Just because it feels normalized doesn't mean we should be so accepting.
Re: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google requires all apps that are on Google Play to use Firebase, which is baked into the OS, for notifications. Developers might make apps available on F-Droid or through individual download, but most of the time, those are just the same versions available on Google Play and configured to use Firebase. The problem is that while Android is OS, most apps use functions and OS-level API's available that are only availab…
> Google requires all apps that are on Google Play to use Firebase, which is baked into the OS, for notifications. Only for apps on the Play Store. This is much less restrictive than iOS, which requires you to use APNS for notifications without any workarounds. Also, Firebase is not "built into the OS" and doesn't exist at all in AOSP. > The current versions of the stock keyboard, clock, calendar, contacts manager, a…
What nonsense. Google's panoptic data collection is not excused by AOSP, side loading, or vendor shovelware, all of which are completely irrelevant. Google's detailed picture of the daily physical movements of everyone, cross referenced with their email, web searches, site visits, and who knows what else, is not somehow worse than Apple requiring a credit card to develop for the app store.
Apple Maps doesn't know who you are. Siri doesn't know who you are. iMessage is E2E encrypted. Locations are anonymous. If you actually cared about this stuff, you'd be applauding Apple.