Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome • Hacker News Board

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#131

Post by Crazyontap » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:43 PM UTC

I guess the majority of people on HN already know this more or less. The problem is still this: We still don't have good alternatives to Google's products and services.

1) Android: Google still owns all our phones. Even on rooted phones it hard to remove google services that god know send so many requests containing whatnot to the eeee addresses. Just install no-root firewall and you will be amazed the amount of pending requests that accumulate in 1 hour.

2) Google search: I guess I can manage with DDG but when it's not that straight forward search, subconciosuly I'm still thinking that let's just do a quick google search to see if i'm not missing anything. And often I find better results. While adblocks makes sure I filter most of the crap.

3) Gmail: Yes there are alternatives but switching emails is hard. It's a big commitment for most people to switch a 10 year old gmail address. And it still works great at filtering spam and whatnot.

And same for maps, youtube and all their services.They really have a big leverage on everyone.

Quiting facebook and instagram was child's play in comparison. I haven't logged in for almost an year now. Quitting google is really hard otoh.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#132

Post by obviouslynotme » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

I am going to make the real controversial opinion:

Who is surprised here? Google makes money by spying on people. Everything they make is designed to make money. Search history gathers what you are interested in. Android and Chrome vacuum your physical data and more. YouTube both gathers your interests and might become a serious advertising platform someday. Gmail vacuums up what Android messaging misses. Google Ads, Fonts, and Analytics catch anyone who isn't using Chrome with the help of webmasters. Every major Google product is designed around one purpose: knowing everything about you.

I have used Firefox for years and years because this is obvious to me. Google shuts down divisions that make a lot of money all the time. Yet somehow, they are just spending ungodly amounts of money on all this "free stuff." Please. I don't care if you watch a 30 minute YouTube video on how to set all of your Google settings in just the right way for them to graciously not upload live video of your face. Two patches later you have to do it again. This is all while trusting this highly sketchy company to honor its settings. It's like trying to set the perfect contract with a demon or wish for a monkey paw. The real way to win is to not do it.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#133

Post by nofunsir » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

tobasq wrote: post #86

loveistheanswer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do we know if turning off that setting actually does stop location tracking, considering what we know about Google's past history? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-lo...

I have long ago turned all of Google's activity tracking preferences off and erased the existing activity, yet once in a while some Google service reveals to me that it knows something it shouldn't.

Same.

Also, why must all the services attempt to guilt me into turning it back on?

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#134

Post by nojito » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

specialist wrote: post #130

danShumway wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of deceptive. Approving location data to be saved or used during a web search is not the same thing as approving location data to be used for advertising and product personalization. Same with contact information, same with browser history, same with search history and unique IDs. Also, none of that data is harmless. > I think DDG is exaggerating here Google shouldn't be basing advertising off of individ…

> location data to be saved or used during a web search Does location data even help with relevance? During road trips in 2018, location relevant results were turrible. Too many times I'd have to manually add my current location. eg "dog parks albuquerque nm" Sorry, no, I don't care about Dog Park Pub and Office Supplies in Duluth MN. Absolutely enraging.

Nope. There was a study released that location targeting in ads only works 40% of the time

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#135

Post by freedom42 » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:47 PM UTC

llimos wrote: post #117

sp332 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did this change recently? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18070183

No. I still can't use Home or Work. Maybe @google.com accounts have an exemption.

Does this work?:

Enable it, then set home and work. Then disable it.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#136

Post by martincmartin » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:48 PM UTC

Crazyontap wrote: post #131

I guess the majority of people on HN already know this more or less. The problem is still this: We still don't have good alternatives to Google's products and services. 1) Android: Google still owns all our phones. Even on rooted phones it hard to remove google services that god know send so many requests containing whatnot to the eeee addresses. Just install no-root firewall and you will be amazed the amount of pend…

Google Maps has the wrong street names near me, so I looked for something from OpenStreetMap. But there's nothing that works with Android Auto. In fact, there are only two Android Auto navigation apps, Google Maps and Waze. Both owned by Google, and Waze seems happy to send me through the most confusing intersections if it thinks it will save 5 seconds of driving time.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#137

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:49 PM UTC

obviouslynotme wrote: post #132

I am going to make the real controversial opinion: Who is surprised here? Google makes money by spying on people. Everything they make is designed to make money. Search history gathers what you are interested in. Android and Chrome vacuum your physical data and more. YouTube both gathers your interests and might become a serious advertising platform someday. Gmail vacuums up what Android messaging misses. Google Ads,…

Why does it matter who is surprised?

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#138

Post by weinzierl » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:50 PM UTC

NtGuy25 wrote: post #17

Grazester wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why Brave??

It's produced by a "Reputable" company and has a good update process. I can TRUST my software updates from brave. "Ungoogled Chromium", while FOSS, have no good update method, and since i'm not going to build it myself, I don't have the same level of trust that something malicious hasn't been implanted. Brave provides similar features to ungoogled chromium and I don't have to support Mozilla or Google and their pract…

Brave is still new and when it comes to security, we will have to see how it turns out.

You put quotes around reputable and rightly so. Brave just bought a ton of clickstream data, harvested stealthily by another "privacy-focused" browser. When it comes to privacy, no, I don't trust Brave an inch.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#139

Post by geocrasher » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

There was not anything in that list that I wasn't already aware of. I was expecting some kind of smoking gun that caused me to say "Aha! THAT is how I know Google is EVIL!" and it was never there. Half the things are opt in, the other half are disclosed if you read the TOS/AUP at all or even just think about why they don't charge for basic services. So yawn whatever.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#140

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #122

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #91

Why use DDG when you can use Bing directly?

Compare their privacy policies. Otherwise you are right and it's better to use https://yacy.net and SearX.

1) I use VPN anyway, so Bing doesn't know who I am.

2) Bing belongs to Microsoft whose primary business is to sell software, not ads, so they are less dependent on collecting user information.

3) If I wanted a search aggregator, I would use a non-US company, for example, Qwant.