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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

#101

Post by burtonator »

throwaway189262 wrote: post #66

We 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…

HN loves to talk about how Open Source and distributed system are going to change the world.

Apache and Linux were open source. The Internet was designed to be distributed. We failed.

We still had centralization. We still have SPoF...

The issue is economic, not technical.

When corporations like Amazon and Google have severely unfair competitive advantages we're going up in this situation again and again and again.

The only way to change this is to reform tax law.

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

#102

Post by flutterdude420 »

xenospn wrote: post #83
Uptrenda wrote: post #75

Copying boring social apps seems like such a waste of the talent and creativity at Google. They should focus more on innovation instead of this kind of cut-throat bs.

Google doesn’t innovate anymore. They acquire and throw most of their acquisitions in the trash.

Alpha Zero and Quantum supremacy don't count as innovation?

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

#103

Post by nojito »

izacus wrote: post #70
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…

> 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…

Siri requests aren't tied to unique persons.

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

#104

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

euix wrote: post #100
propogandist wrote: post #44

Earlier 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.…

That's funny, maybe Huawei phones are going to have a market niche in the west!

Yeah, Google's rootkit replaced by CCP's one.

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

#105

Post by euix »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #104
euix wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny, maybe Huawei phones are going to have a market niche in the west!

Yeah, Google's rootkit replaced by CCP's one.

Doesn't the latest version of Mate 30 come on stock android since Google products cannot be factory installed due the export laws? In which case if you still don't feel safe you can wipe the device and install Lineage.

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

#106

Post by Guest19023892 »

tmpz22 wrote: post #84
jadbox wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my direct experience being in SV startups for over 10yrs, this is also true for all major tech companies. They all abuse their platform power to enter into a new market segment. Just a few days ago this journal was published: https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-tech-startup-echo-bezos-...

What's funny to me is despite wielding all this power and network effects - when tech giants try to enter new markets they fail at a seemingly higher rate then start-ups and other businesses. They have a ten mile head start and are still losing the race consistently. Which is probably good for most consumers.

I think they just expect a higher return than smaller start-ups. I mean, if Google tries to make a new service and it's 'only' generating a few million in revenue, that's not very exciting and they'll either i. directly kill the service, or ii. gamble with aggressive methods of growth that likely kill the service.

Meanwhile, give a start-up with 5 people a few million in revenue, and they'll be jumping with joy at their success. Plus they'll have a lot more passion, and more carefully manage risk while growing the business.

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

#107

Post by infogulch »

propogandist wrote: post #80
commoner wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of leaving Android entirely, one can use MicroG, which is a FOSS reimplementation of the Google Play Services client. https://microg.org 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. https://calyxos.org…

Agreed. I was looking at MicroG again given Lineage OS has updated to Android 10, unfortunately it seems there are a changes for Android 10 that's preventing microG from being being fully compatible (SafetyNet API). Google's moves to lock down the platform further is also disgusting. They will be mandating a new App bundle format (AAB) instead of APK beginning in 2021. This will force more apps to run through Play St…

> They will also require devs to give a copy of their signing key to Google for them to sign applications.

What.

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

#108

Post by thoraway1010 »

For everyone one of the apple / google huge privacy breach headlines / comments some quick thoughts.

Google and Apple can at least plausibly infrastructure an anonymized data collection service and control access to it reasonably.

- You probably should worry more about the per user per connection logs your "loggless" VPN provider keeps in crappy open to the world datastores.

- The data sniffing and tracking your own ISP is doing.

- The uninstallable malware / bloatware etc that comes on huge number of phones built by third parties (ie, not google or apple).

Whenever I sign up for a "free" service (like google analytics or its equivalent for android) I am under almost no illusion that google isn't also using that data to help track users access the web target them, figure out what ads to show on my site (if I let them) etc etc.

And yes, we will find out that facebook tracks the URLs of sites people share on their platform and "snoopes" on that to figure out popularity trends. And twitter will watch tweet metrics related to their competitors. I wonder if we will get some headlines over those issues.

Finally, some folks come up with weird threat models - google is out to get me and now they can. Heads up, google could get you before this as well if they cared to. Can you imagine a govt having google's power. That would be a near dictatorship!

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

#109

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

euix wrote: post #105
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Google's rootkit replaced by CCP's one.

Doesn't the latest version of Mate 30 come on stock android since Google products cannot be factory installed due the export laws? In which case if you still don't feel safe you can wipe the device and install Lineage.

Wiping won't help if the hardware itself is compromised. Which is not totally implausible.

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

#110

Post by kazagistar »

burtonator wrote: post #101
throwaway189262 wrote: post #66

We 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…

HN loves to talk about how Open Source and distributed system are going to change the world. Apache and Linux were open source. The Internet was designed to be distributed. We failed. We still had centralization. We still have SPoF... The issue is economic, not technical. When corporations like Amazon and Google have severely unfair competitive advantages we're going up in this situation again and again and again. Th…

And the only way to reform tax law is to reform speech law to prevent blatant corruption.
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