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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

#41

Post by tedk-42 »

Your convenience at the expense of your privacy.

I personally think it's great that I can lookup what I did two months ago thanks to Google services. I adblock and disable as much ad tracking as possible but I'm pretty happy with how useful google services are for my day to day errands. It reminds me of places I went two years ago that I couldn't remember without it.

I find it strange people complain about it, yet still use their services. That's hypocrisy right there as well as a deeply unsettling conflict within.

Everyone is entitled to make their choice of what phone they buy.

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

#42

Post by feralimal »

If this is a surprise to you, it shouldn't be. Phones (android or apple) are sugar-coated tracking devices. The point of them, is that they externalise the internal. They were planned to make your private information into a commodity.

It also shouldn't be a surprised that no action will taken against them. Corporations are the government.

Well, 'they' might even put up a show of pretence in "punishing" a corporation. But they will only do that once they know how they will achieve their plans anyway. And let's not forget that the media are corporations too - in their news shows, they will only present what's expedient.

Its a sad story, but until a majority of people are on board with the idea that corporations/media/government are different sides of the same beast, nothing will change. Government is slavery. You are (or should be) your own master. Self-sovereignty is what you need. If you ever wonder why we think "anarchy is chaos", its because to the government, it is! But to me, its just the beginning.

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

#43

Post by pizza234 »

deostroll wrote: post #31

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…

> 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.

I'm one of those mortals; my data connection is disabled on the phone and used only for emergencies (last time I've used it was months ago).

Ultimately it fits in the big picture of the connected life. One can still live disconnected, and pay 10% of the "convenience price", but save 100% of the associated problems.

I don't blame the connected lifestyle but the more I think about it, the more it looks like an addiction to me, and the big companies are capitalizing on it. I don't agree with them, but I can hardly blame them - it takes one tap to switch the connection off.

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

#44

Post by est31 »

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…

If other devices in your network send data to Google, the network is uniquely identifiable by Google, no matter what individual devices of guests etc. do.

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

#45

Post by yreg »

vixen99 wrote: post #20
meibo wrote: post #3

Is posting such baity non-journalism on here nowadays a way to farm karma? This doesn't give anyone actual value, most of the things listed are common sense and if you use Google Maps, you are probably already aware of it. I'd wager that some people use Maps exactly because these features make it convenient.

Try not to imagine everyone sees the world through your eyes.

This is hn, I expect the content of the article to be obvious to everyone here.

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

#46

Post by randomsearch »

feralimal wrote: post #42

If this is a surprise to you, it shouldn't be. Phones (android or apple) are sugar-coated tracking devices. The point of them, is that they externalise the internal. They were planned to make your private information into a commodity. It also shouldn't be a surprised that no action will taken against them. Corporations are the government. Well, 'they' might even put up a show of pretence in "punishing" a corporation.…

> They were planned to make your private information into a commodity.

Are you seriously suggesting then when Apple launched the iPhone it was a plan to spy on you?

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

#47

Post by ecabuk »

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…

I bet Google can do better job than the MaxMind but even the city accuracy isn’t that enough? I think it is enough to effect your localized ads.

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

#49

Post by inquirerofsorts »

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.

Behind a CGNAT, which most mobiles devices are, makes that point fairly moot. When I look up "my ip" on the phone it's always in a capital city 6 hours away.

Your mileage may vary of course.

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