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Google: Open Letter to Australians

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Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#81

Post by mgraczyk »

skissane wrote: post #79
mgraczyk wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still do this per-query by typing `-site:quora.com`. news.google.com allows you to hide publications, probably at the domain level but I can't tell. I use this extensively, but I don't know if those choices are honored in the Google search news tab.

I know about `-site:`, but it is a pain to have to keep on typing it in, they used to have a feature to permanently block certain domains in results, from your Google settings. (Plus, `-site:` only works for a few sites, since it counts against the search keywords limit.) When I go to news.google.com, I can't work out how to hide news sources. I do have a "Hidden Sources > Manage" option in the settings, but it doesn…

You have to click on the vertical ... button. It's a little hard to find on desktop, but on mobile it's very clear.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#82

Post by mgraczyk »

jjj123 wrote: post #73
mgraczyk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely possible to have a good experience without personalization. Depending on how much you inherently value google not storing data about you, it may be the only way for you to be happy. But it's very unlikely the actual product experience would be worse with personalization enabled, measured by probability that a search includes something relevant near the top.

There are lots of examples of where personalization results in a worse experience for users but better metrics for the tech company. Somehow the Instagram ads algorithm has figured out exactly what I’m self conscious about with my own body; all I see are ads for invisible braces, skin cleansers, and hair treatments. I don’t actually want to buy any of these things, and they make me feel bad to look at. A de-personali…

You can click the ... menu, then "hide ad". It will show you fewer similar ads in the future.

An unpersonalized IG ad experience would be teenage women's clothing and Netflix branding (assuming you're in the US). You probably don't want that either.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#83

Post by mickotron »

iamshs wrote: post #14
jp0d wrote: post #10

I'd probably trust the Australian govt to protect my data better than Google or even worse Facebook. The way the article has twisted the words in Google's favour is commendable though. Marketing really is everything.

Looking at how many people opted out of MyHealth over the concerns of Government having their data, I think your reason will not resonate with many.

I really hope they made good on that. Can we confirm that if we opted out, we indeed don't have a my health record, or whether they just set one up regardless?

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#84

Post by skissane »

mgraczyk wrote: post #81
skissane wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know about `-site:`, but it is a pain to have to keep on typing it in, they used to have a feature to permanently block certain domains in results, from your Google settings. (Plus, `-site:` only works for a few sites, since it counts against the search keywords limit.) When I go to news.google.com, I can't work out how to hide news sources. I do have a "Hidden Sources > Manage" option in the settings, but it doesn…

You have to click on the vertical ... button. It's a little hard to find on desktop, but on mobile it's very clear.

Okay, I worked it out – really confusing UI. The "Hide" option only appears on the vertical ... menu on certain screens, not others. The "Headlines" page displays it, so do "Sections" and "topic" pages, but not search results. I was trying to find it on a keyword search result page, which is why I couldn't find it anywhere.

Also, blocking a source hides it from "Headlines"/"Sections"/"Topic" pages, but not from keyword search results pages. You'll still get your blocked sources displayed in those. (Confusingly, when you search for "brexit", you can get back two different "Brexit" topic pages, which have the same title but different pictures, or you can get a keyword search results page, which behaves differently.)

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#85

Post by ImaCake »

shakna wrote: post #20
jp0d wrote: post #10

I'd probably trust the Australian govt to protect my data better than Google or even worse Facebook. The way the article has twisted the words in Google's favour is commendable though. Marketing really is everything.

> I'd probably trust the Australian govt to protect my data better than Google or even worse Facebook. I would not. The Australian government seems entirely incapable of creating any technical project of a decent size correctly. The list of disasters is quite long, but a few from recent memory are ones such as the census website which collapsed when people tried to use it [0] and the myGov project which has had so ma…

I run on the assumption that the government has my data anyway. So it doesn't really matter whether they get it directly or via google. Since google wants to target me with ads, I preference removing google as a middle man. Bonus points for removing the only half-decent excuse for collecting that data anyway, so now the surveillance state is a bit less defensible.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#88

Post by dang »

skissane wrote: post #75
stirlo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been highlighted below but the reason this is posted here and up voted is that Google choose to 404 any requests coming from non Australian IP addresses. Hardly seems to be the thing you do when you're acting above board...

It turns out there are two URLs for this, one which only works for Australian IPs, one which works for everybody. Australia-only URL: https://about.google/google-in-australia/an-open-letter/ Global URL: https://about.google/intl/ALL_au/google-in-australia/an-open... Alias which redirects to Global URL: http://g.co/australia-letter However, when I first posted this, Google was showing a message to people using Google…

Changed now. Thanks!

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#89

Post by Rebelgecko »

jp0d wrote: post #10

I'd probably trust the Australian govt to protect my data better than Google or even worse Facebook. The way the article has twisted the words in Google's favour is commendable though. Marketing really is everything.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140747-laws-of-mathema...

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#90

Post by [deleted] »

reaperducer wrote: post #43

To all the people (hopefully Australians) who paint this as the government propping up legacy media: Isn't it better to have control of your media in local, Australian-owned and regulated megacorps, rather than some faceless megacorp in another country?

[deleted]
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