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Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#31

Post by jevgeni »

lightgreen wrote: post #26
sk0g wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're using random numbers and referring to them as some universally accepted truths, in order to justify smaller transgressions. How is that fuel for a rational conversation? Edit: also, your entire justification for this spying is that it could be worse. That reads to me like an ad hominem attack in itself.

> You're using random numbers I use some numbers which are my estimations, and not random numbers. I could explain how I made these estimations if you asked (Short version by definition of risk which is damage multiplied by probability). Also if you disagree with these estimations, you are welcome to suggest your better estimations, how these three scenarios compare to each other. > your entire justification for this…

My second most favorite techbro meme is people pretending to be rational, when they are 100% emotional.

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#32

Post by the_pwner224 »

0xWTF wrote: post #10
0xy wrote: post #6

>"The API doesn't obtain any information about in-app activity and our collection of this data is disclosed to and controllable by users" Google is excellent at this kind of word maneuver, designed to confuse and mislead. Google gets confronted about an egregious practice, and a PR representative responds with "well, we would absolutely never do [slightly worse unrelated thing]". This happens over and over again. The…

I have to say, my experience working with Google is that they actually resist the acquisition of information that's not in the public domain in a lot of ways. I've seen them fund another company's development team to do work, even buying the other company hardware for the task, just to avoid the data. I've seen them consciously exclude engineering tools you'd think are right up their alley, because the tools would ac…

> If they're collecting this data, I strongly suspect they feel obligated to, maybe even compelled too. Possibly for purposes like app security, user security, OS security, user experience, etc.

This doesn't really make sense; none of those are compelling use cases for such invasive data collection. And this additional new tracking does not seem very useful for security, and even then there's no reason for all of the data to leave the device if it's for security.

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#34

Post by [deleted] »

jevgeni wrote: post #31
lightgreen wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're using random numbers I use some numbers which are my estimations, and not random numbers. I could explain how I made these estimations if you asked (Short version by definition of risk which is damage multiplied by probability). Also if you disagree with these estimations, you are welcome to suggest your better estimations, how these three scenarios compare to each other. > your entire justification for this…

My second most favorite techbro meme is people pretending to be rational, when they are 100% emotional.

[deleted]

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#35

Post by ignoramous »

aasasd wrote: post #21

Android 10 (on googlephones) has a feature called ‘digital wellbeing’ that can measure how much I gawk at the screen, and show that to me. Interesting, I think, let's see if that data stays locally. The only piece of info on data usage that I've found is a link to Google's overarching privacy policy. Oy vey. Some data-processing features in the settings are marked with ‘data stays on the phone’—but this one isn't. So…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oy_vey

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#36

Post by mrweasel »

xondono wrote: post #11

To me the most worrying is that while I intellectually know this is bad, emotionally it gets a solid “meh” from me. Google is desensitizing us to this kind of bad behavior, to the point that this sounds like it’s only half the story, or not such a bug deal.

"meh" sound about right, I didn't know that Google where doing things like this, but my response was pretty much; "meh, I doubt that anyone is really surprised".

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#37

Post by frf37 »

lightgreen wrote: post #7

> collects sensitive Android user data Looks like it’s basic metrics like how often the app is launched. It is not sensitive (user content of the apps would be sensitive). It is an antitrust issue but barely a security/privacy issue.

You are assuming that all apps are generic. Some apps actually are specific to a medical condition you can have or certain aspect of your life that are not known by the general public. It is of the same nature as your browsing history in some ways. So yes apps usage patterns are actually potential privacy issues. Admittedly since most apps are downloaded from the app stores Google would already know part of the story but still your usage pattern may reveal even more especially when correlated to other data.

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#38

Post by mrweasel »

nicoburns wrote: post #28
dannyr wrote: post #27

If Google is really doing this, you'd think they could make messaging and social media apps that are actually competitive.

Data won't get you very far here. You actually need good product/UX design.

Based on their current product line up I doubt that Google has a single UX designer employed.

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#39

Post by xondono »

jarfil wrote: post #15
xondono wrote: post #11

To me the most worrying is that while I intellectually know this is bad, emotionally it gets a solid “meh” from me. Google is desensitizing us to this kind of bad behavior, to the point that this sounds like it’s only half the story, or not such a bug deal.

All I care about is whether this is opt-in and whether I can decide to not give then that data. Other than that, Google being able to process more data about their own platform than others, is something to be expected.

Agreed, but there’s a lot to say about what’s the default and how you are supposed to opt-out.

If Google is artificially inflating opt-out costs for the user, then that’s something to watch for.

Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps

#40

Post by [deleted] »

jevgeni wrote: post #12
lightgreen wrote: post #7

> collects sensitive Android user data Looks like it’s basic metrics like how often the app is launched. It is not sensitive (user content of the apps would be sensitive). It is an antitrust issue but barely a security/privacy issue.

Didn’t HN collectively loose their s..t when Microsoft did something similar with Win 10 telemetry?

[deleted]
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