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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

#61

Post by ausbah »

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.…

this just reads like another plausible-sounding-yet-still-wrong conspiracy theory peddled by a unhinged libertarian to promote their worldview

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

#62

Post by oblio »

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.…

> 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.

You went from 0 to 100 in half a second with that part of the comment.

You might want to elaborate on "self-sovereignty" and "anarchy" because everything I know and have read about human nature point out to the fact that they devolve into "might makes right". Or at some point something emerges to regulate things, let's call that thing "a state".

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

#63

Post by izacus »

tabs_masterrace wrote: post #57

The number of government requests for user information is actually scary: https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/overview So Google handed over info on 175k accounts in the last half of 2019 alone? It seems it's becoming common practice to routinely pull citizens data, without much of a warrant and without the target's knowledge. There used to be a thing called secrecy of correspondence, preventing governmen…

Not only that, but here in Europe we've gotten laws lately where the ISPs and companies like Google are forced to retain data for just such requests. (This data retention is, of course, excluded from GDPR as well.)

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

#64

Post by vntok »

randomsearch wrote: post #46
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?

Of course. See iPhones having an active backdoor from the get go [1], NSA slides referring to Jobs as "Big Brother" and iPhone users as "zombies" [2], FSF's analysis of the iPhone and their conclusion that the iPhone is "exposing your whereabouts and providing ways for others to track you without your knowledge" [3], etc. etc.

[1] http://www.cellphonedigest.net/news/2008/08/iphone_3g_has_a_...

[2] https://venturebeat.com/2013/09/09/nsa-calls-iphone-users-zo...

[3] https://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-the-039-Warden-039-of-...

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

#65

Post by aminozuur »

I personally don't care. My location data is anonimized anyway. And there are sensible reasons for why advertisers can target audiences by region/location. No advertiser can identify me personally. And if I must be shown ads, I choose relevant ads to the nonsense I saw 20 years ago (flashy banners saying I won $1M).

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

#66

Post by njanirudh »

randomsearch wrote: post #46
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?

No but it was done with collection of personal data to make money in mind.

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

#67

Post by cassepipe »

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…

Do you have any links/tips on how to become part of that minority of users that use Mozilla's service?

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

#68

Post by iso1631 »

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.…

> If you ever wonder why we think "anarchy is chaos", its because to the government, it is!

Meanwhile in places without functioning government things are rosy, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, the DRC, the CAR, Afghanistan outside of Kabul, rural parts of Nigeria, etc.

Places with functioning governments like Finland and New Zealand are hellholes.

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

#69

Post by cassepipe »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #34
izacus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What about /e/ ? It's been a while I haven't heard about them.

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

#70

Post by BiteCode_dev »

The place where I currently work assigned me a gmail address, and I wanted to check them on my phone.

I was using k9 for my personal stuff, and wanted another app for the pro mails, so I pulled out the gmail app.

Just one step before finalizing the setup process, I realized that google was asking me to accept Google Play terms of service.

WTF?

It turns out the gmail app setup process does much more, google takes over your entire phone, binding the omniscient google account to it, and all apps using google sdk, the calendar, maps, etc.

I innocently wanted to check my work mails, and if I hadn't being cautious, I would have given my whole life to Google despite the fact I took great length to never do that (I don't have a personnal gmail/youtube account, I use an alternative app store, etc.)

Sneaky, and scary. There is no way regular users notice that.

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