Not three days ago there was this article about another company where people were immediately saying with great authority that Google would never do this.
Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
61–70 of 137 posts
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
The digital wellbeing app is pretty much spyware. If you disable Google Play Service, the Wellbeing app (which cannot be disabled) will constantly complain that it won't work properly... The app has, among other permissions, the requirement to have full network access. Similarly, if you use the default Gboard (keyboard) on Android, it's constantly trying to call home to Google servers, as with most other stock apps.…
Google Play Services are the crux of the implementation of core services. If you're not okay with that don't buy the phone or install something else on it.
It may feel good to say it, because you get to offload the responsibility onto consumers rather than the entity committing questionable (but legal) acts, but in reality "just don't do X" is never going to affect any sort of change. It's simply shifting blame onto people with no power to do anything.
More to the point, you're essentially recommending that everyone pony up $1000+ for an iPhone. None of those lesser known options (or modern dumb phones) are known to the average smartphone user, average people don't know anything about these hardened Android forks, etc. Boycotts are really not very reliable, because most of it is exactly this: just telling people to do a boycott and then stopping there. I know it's not reasonable to expect everyone floating ideas to have a plan for implementation, but when it comes to these kind of boycott suggestions, nobody has a plan. That's why shifting the responsibility onto the consume isn't going to work. You're not going to mobilize near enough people.
You know what does work, though? Strong privacy regulations with harsh penalties.
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#63The time spent bitching here about Google could be spent getting your/a phone free of it by putting Lineage OS or Graphene OS without Google Play on it. Just saying.
You can say the same thing without insulting everybody. "Just saying" is a value-free non-apology; if you find yourself using it, you might want to reconsider your delivery instead.
Practices like this are why I disabled google play store at first (why does the play store demand access to my camera, mic and body sensors???); and later got frustrated with the number of apps that were fundamentally broken without it. This prompted me to look for alternatives, which is why I use lineageos today.
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#64The time spent bitching here about Google could be spent getting your/a phone free of it by putting Lineage OS or Graphene OS without Google Play on it. Just saying.
This is an ineffective solution that will likely never even be a blip on the scale, much less approach the critical mass it would need to have any real effect. You're really only fooling yourself if you think the average person is going to go through any of that trouble, especially with the prevalence of locked bootloaders.
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#65If Google is really doing this, you'd think they could make messaging and social media apps that are actually competitive.
I think they decided it was unnecessary.
They slurp up contacts, emails, location data, search, pictures. Everything you would get from a social network they already have, just from disparate sources.
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#66We desperately need a standardized open source phone. The raspberry pi of phones. Linux may be a better platform than AOSP. Android and iOS were designed for control first.
Control over apps, control over the store, over what users are allowed to do. If you don't need any of that to make money why not run a regular Linux distro.
Opens source phones will never be mainstream. Same as desktop Linux. But it would be nice to have a widely supported option for those of us that care
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The digital wellbeing app is pretty much spyware. If you disable Google Play Service, the Wellbeing app (which cannot be disabled) will constantly complain that it won't work properly... The app has, among other permissions, the requirement to have full network access. Similarly, if you use the default Gboard (keyboard) on Android, it's constantly trying to call home to Google servers, as with most other stock apps.…
Google Play Services are the crux of the implementation of core services. If you're not okay with that don't buy the phone or install something else on it.
Instead of leaving Android entirely, one can use MicroG, which is a FOSS reimplementation of the Google Play Services client.
https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore
Currently, the easiest way to use MicroG is through CalyxOS, a distribution of Android 10 that preinstalls MicroG instead of Google Play Services. It supports all Pixel devices and the Xiaomi Mi A2.
Unlike most Android distributions, CalyxOS is designed to be used with a locked bootloader, which is more secure than an unlocked bootloader.
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#68Android 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…
> (Btw, another baffling trait of the Android ecosystem is how many well-known and widely-used hackish tools are closed-source: those from XDA and such. “Flash this binary to root your phone”, “install this blob for low-level customizations”. Eeeeh? I think I'll just disable all Google's misfeatures instead, for now.) It really seems like most of the android developer culture came from the oldschool windows freeware…
That is true, but there has been some progress on the adoption of the FOSS model in the Android developer community. The most commonly used Android recovery software, TWRP, is open source.
https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project
The most popular Android rooting solution, Magisk, is also open source. All Magisk modules (plugins developed by the community) in the official repository are required to be open source.
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#69This is the kind of crap that convinced me to switch to Apple handsets back in the day when they were still a pain to use for various reasons (remember upgrading by connecting to iTunes with a cable?). Apple does some shady shady things but not with my privacy. Incidentally though they do have some settings you might want to check out though. One in particular let Facebook spy on your other apps so fine tune their ad…
This is a bizarre post considering that Apple collects very similar data via their analytics (there's an opt-out you need to select on your iOS device to opt out) and Apple Store itself (which counts downloads and knows about every update, install and uninstall of an app on your iOS device with no alternative option for you as a user).
If you really care about your privacy in this case, Apple devices won't save you either. The difference is just in the fact that ArsTechnica decided not to write an article about it, but your data is being uploaded all the same :/
Re: Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps
#70Android 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…
> Annoying thing is, I'd quite want to use the voice assistant. Do I like to fiddle with integrations and workflows? Oh boy. Damn well I do. Do I know that my voiceprint won't turn up on Google's servers the minute I use the assistant? Nope.
Google Assistant uses servers to run voice recognition so it's certain that your voice print will end up on their servers. Same for Apple Siri and pretty much any of them. As far as I'm aware, only the Pixel 4's improved Assistant is capable of partial offline execution and even that ends up on Google's servers.
Also additional question for HNers: Do you consider Apple's "Digital wellbeing" feature on iOS spyware as well? Is there a difference?