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Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

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Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#31

Post by deostroll »

Is there another way? This form of crowd sourcing data is how you are able to know when your next bus or train arrives.

But what is the alternative?

Should the concerned government body take it up? Your government releases a Maps application and asks citizens to use that...People are still going to have privacy concerns with that!

Or we simply decide to wait for the next bus and not bother to know when it arrives. Go back to a laid back life? Many mortals think that is a good idea, and, that is OK.

Like it or not, privacy is a problem of our civilization. Privacy problems are not going to go away. It up to the kingdom of humanity to live in good faith...But I have faith we might figure this out one day. Just not today...

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#32

Post by swebs »

prower wrote: post #11
ffpip wrote: post #9

Tired of opening maps and getting a prompt to turn on 'make location bettter' every fuckingtime. Are the people working at Google that dumb? How many times do I have to decline. Other than that, the article is one of the most clickbaity one I've read

I suspect the "alright I accept just stop it!" approach is part of the design.

The James Bond method of acquiring consent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RRhhewFqyw

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#33

Post by stinos »

teekert wrote: post #19
stinos wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost definitely so. Like Youtube telling my epxerience will be 'better' if I login, each time again. But it won't (well, apart from me not to having to click the button each time). How low can you go as a company?

My annoyance gets bigger and bigger and I see myself more and more often saying, never mind! And being left with a bad feeling. Soon I will just stop clicking yt links and find alternatives.

saying, never mind!

Can always try to look for ways around first. Invidition (Firefox plugin to make use of Invidious automatically when seeing Youtube links) worked ok-ish for a while for me, lately less so.

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#34

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

izacus wrote: post #23
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #18

One of the most disappointing changes in Android recently is that any network-assisted geolocation plugins must now be installed as a system app, not a user app. That means that even if you use LineageOS where most Google stuff has been stripped out, getting a GPS fix through network assistance still sends data to Google servers. Only a tiny minority of users are comfortable working with the command line and will ins…

Hmm, wouldn't in that case Lineage be able to preinstall such service themselves? I'd expect them to?

No, the LineageOS devs say that their project does not aim to completely de-Google the OS, only remove Google Play Services and some Google applications like Maps. Thus, geolocation, DNS and login portal detection in LineageOS still use Google's servers.

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#35

Post by Nextgrid »

prower wrote: post #5

As a comparison, how does Here Maps fare on the "creepiness scale"?

Here Maps has the Facebook SDK embedded in the app that pings Facebook upon every opening of the app (sending a persistent ID, IP address and device fingerprint including language, phone make/model and mobile carrier).

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#36

Post by 0x_rs »

izacus wrote: post #23
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #18

One of the most disappointing changes in Android recently is that any network-assisted geolocation plugins must now be installed as a system app, not a user app. That means that even if you use LineageOS where most Google stuff has been stripped out, getting a GPS fix through network assistance still sends data to Google servers. Only a tiny minority of users are comfortable working with the command line and will ins…

Hmm, wouldn't in that case Lineage be able to preinstall such service themselves? I'd expect them to?

I am pretty sure MicroG Lineage builds have NLPs other than Google's own preinstalled and being prerooted (or easily rooted with the extra zip) should be easily interchangeable from their settings. Though this is mostly an annoyance since an user installing Lineage should already be a little comfortable with adb and a terminal, it seems another sad step towards locking down Android furthermore.

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#37

Post by sdfhbdf »

ecabuk wrote: post #26

Just using GMail could help Google to find your approx. location 7/24. Your phone checking emails all the time, so google knows your ip.

IPV4 geolocation is based on maintained databases (e.g. Ma Mind) that usually are city or street accurate.

The popular rhetoric that having an IP is having the location is most often wrong unless Your users have static IPs registered to them. The way law enforcement does it is by subpoening the owner of the IP of pointing to the user associated with the IP at specific time but that still is prone to errors because of NATs - many distinct clients behind a single address.

All in all fingerprinting is using IPs pretty rarely nowadays.

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#38

Post by mnd999 »

submeta wrote: post #25

I am about to delete Google Maps on my iPhone. Are all those issues valid on an iPhone as well or does Apple limit it‘s privacy evading features? Edit: Done. Deleted it. Now if only I had an alternative to Garmin Connect. Love my fitness watch (Garmin Fenix), but hate the way they collect data about me. And no alternative.

I did this and I don't miss it. Apple Maps is good enough these days.

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#39

Post by raxxorrax »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #18

One of the most disappointing changes in Android recently is that any network-assisted geolocation plugins must now be installed as a system app, not a user app. That means that even if you use LineageOS where most Google stuff has been stripped out, getting a GPS fix through network assistance still sends data to Google servers. Only a tiny minority of users are comfortable working with the command line and will ins…

I always deactivate geolocation and I assume and hope it doesn't phone home to Google in that case. I still deactivate network if I don't need it. Android devices cannot really be trusted and it seems to be getting worse.

Of course I am not using contact tracing either in this case, but I certainly won't allow Google to trace my location.

Re: Google knows where we are, and so do advertisers

#40

Post by tpmx »

sdfhbdf wrote: post #37
ecabuk wrote: post #26

Just using GMail could help Google to find your approx. location 7/24. Your phone checking emails all the time, so google knows your ip.

IPV4 geolocation is based on maintained databases (e.g. Ma Mind) that usually are city or street accurate. The popular rhetoric that having an IP is having the location is most often wrong unless Your users have static IPs registered to them. The way law enforcement does it is by subpoening the owner of the IP of pointing to the user associated with the IP at specific time but that still is prone to errors because of…

The combination of occasional GPS/Wifi location data and continuous IP data is pretty powerful though.
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