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Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

businessinsider.com

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Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#41

Post by quotemstr »

JCM9 wrote: post #13

There’s a huge privacy battle on the horizon in tech. The initial scuffles are just the beginning. Google and Facebook’s business models depend deeply on being able to track information that consumers are increasingly unhappy to share. Both companies attempts to diversify their dependency on such info for their revenue have been broadly unsuccessful (Google fiber or a Google car anyone?). Meanwhile the likes of Apple…

> Google and Facebook’s business models depend deeply on being able to track information that consumers are increasingly unhappy to share

I see no evidence that regular people are particularly unhappy with sharing their information. While it's true that on the internet there's a loud privacy activist movement that's grown over the past few years, I don't think this movement reflects the true preferences of the silent majority. I think it's a self-serving moral panic.

Users benefit from the services that their information funds. It would be a mistake to incinerate trillions of dollars of institutional value on the say-so of a few strident and unrepresentative activist voices.

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#42

Post by dlsa »

This cant be just location either. Anything you'd think of as private. I wonder what the privacy implications of using something like DDG on an android phone is like. I'm fairly sure google are quite desperately keen to grab any and all data from anything visited using the DDG app. I don't see any way to stop Google from doing it either.

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#43

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

what about users who don't sign into their android phones with a google account and don't actively use google apps like maps or chrome or whatever they have? i suspect they still have your data but it isn't tied to "you" unless you tell them by linking who you are so you should be fine?

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#44

Post by ttt0 »

toastal wrote: post #30
Taek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the use cases for cryptocurrency. Decentralization means there is no company in the middle that can force you to give up your data.

In this case, Bandcamp, which I generally like, doesn't yet support crypto. I think it's also a lot to ask a small band to pick anything other than PayPal for international payment.

Setting up a Monero wallet or whatever shouldn't be that hard.

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#45

Post by jeffbee »

kyralis wrote: post #38
jeffbee wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK "siphoned" is an opinion. Apple Maps also provides location services to other Apple products on its platform. Unless I disable the switch which is buried at Settings, Privacy, Location Services, System Services, Significant Locations, Apple will "allow your iCloud connected devices to learn places significant to you in order to provide useful location-related information in Maps, Calendar, Photos, and more." If I…

That data isn't actually shared with Apple. It's used on device by the client applications for those services.

OK, but I don't find the distinction as stark as others on HN seem to. My location data being used by Apple-authored applications running on my device, none of which I've ever intentionally used, is not that different to me than my location data being used on my behalf by Google-written applications, many of which I personally enjoy, running in Google data centers. I like that I can see my location history in Google Maps for web, I also like that I can get that data as KML from Google Takeout.

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#46

Post by tomrod »

Vespasian wrote: post #39
JCM9 wrote: post #13

There’s a huge privacy battle on the horizon in tech. The initial scuffles are just the beginning. Google and Facebook’s business models depend deeply on being able to track information that consumers are increasingly unhappy to share. Both companies attempts to diversify their dependency on such info for their revenue have been broadly unsuccessful (Google fiber or a Google car anyone?). Meanwhile the likes of Apple…

Google even managed to incur heavy losses from offering cloud infrastructure services. A business which usually is a guaranteed golden goose. They are really bad at making money with anything that isn't advertising.

I'm pretty sure they're doing that to draw folks from AWS and similar.

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#47

Post by Karsteski »

C-x_C-f wrote: post #26
sunstone wrote: post #3

I've had a string of Google phones going back to the Nexus 5x but, for the very reasons laid out in this article, my next phone will likely be from Apple. That will be my first Apple product.

FYI you can install GrapheneOS on a Pixel (3rd to 5th gen)

Or even more friendly, CalyxOS. Works perfectly, easy to install and very few problems in the 6 months I've been using it

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#48

Post by nojito »

quotemstr wrote: post #41
JCM9 wrote: post #13

There’s a huge privacy battle on the horizon in tech. The initial scuffles are just the beginning. Google and Facebook’s business models depend deeply on being able to track information that consumers are increasingly unhappy to share. Both companies attempts to diversify their dependency on such info for their revenue have been broadly unsuccessful (Google fiber or a Google car anyone?). Meanwhile the likes of Apple…

> Google and Facebook’s business models depend deeply on being able to track information that consumers are increasingly unhappy to share I see no evidence that regular people are particularly unhappy with sharing their information. While it's true that on the internet there's a loud privacy activist movement that's grown over the past few years, I don't think this movement reflects the true preferences of the silent…

>I see no evidence that regular people are particularly unhappy with sharing their information.

There's actually a pretty cool graph from Google from the court docs that says the opposite.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2f1tSEWYAAVHGY?format=jpg&name=...

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#49

Post by abawany »

mormegil wrote: post #27
toastal wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ran into this today logging into PayPal (the password-must-be-8-20-characters payment service) for the first time in a long time to buy a band t-shirt. After jumping through two different types of CAPTCHAs, now they require you share your phone number to log in. I contacted support via Twitter saying they have my email if they want to verify a login because I'm not comfortable with SIM jacking nor how data-mining is…

Could you call them with Calling Line Identification Restriction? (I. e. caller ID blocking) There is usually a prefix you can dial to suppress your ID. But the exact prefix depends on your location, I think.

I believe such restrictions are defeated/not available for toll free lines.

Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private

#50

Post by mistrial9 »

JCM9 wrote: post #13

There’s a huge privacy battle on the horizon in tech. The initial scuffles are just the beginning. Google and Facebook’s business models depend deeply on being able to track information that consumers are increasingly unhappy to share. Both companies attempts to diversify their dependency on such info for their revenue have been broadly unsuccessful (Google fiber or a Google car anyone?). Meanwhile the likes of Apple…

as an American skilled in computer science, I am literally aghast at what the mobile phone has done in barely fifteen years, degrading decades and in fact centuries of individual rights mores.

Meanwhile, as far as I can tell, in East Asia, there was a completely different series of social evolutions, such that a large majority of people are not bothered and in fact expect services tied to identity tied to finance. This conveniently is expressed by a government issued ID tied to a smart phone number tied to banking. There are exceptions but not the majority. This simple formula is repugnant to my US Western sense of social boundaries.

Investors are the ones that seem to have no problem with individuals giving up their privacy, while the people in question cross the gamut of social condition.

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