71–80 of 348 posts
This could all be solved by breaking 'web & app activity' up into more granular permissions.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2f1EcuWQAQYD8R?format=png
And "breaking up toggles" was one strategy Google used to get people to share their location info
[1] https://e.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/e-state-of-d...
Amusingly, I've shared my location permanently with a couple close friends on Google Maps, and Google will not shut up about it, reminding me every month about it. I get aggressive monthly warnings "Are you SURE you want to share your location with XX,YY,ZZ?". I wish there was a toggle where I could say "yes, I absolutely positively am OK with the privacy implications here, because I don't care very much; please fore…
From the research I've seen, all this privacy-invading crap doesn't even improve ad performance much - it's small incremental gains at best. And per this article, those gains are clearly coming at the expense of user trust and goodwill, something not reflected in click thru rates and RPM.
Here's hoping we can get past all this invasive retargeting / surveillance / privacy-invading crap and get back to straightforward contextual ads, like car parts ads on a hot rod website - our world would be better for it, and maybe Google could restore a little of its rapidly fading goodwill.
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)
> GrapheneOS is a privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility
What does that mean? Is it a built-from-scratch OS with an Android compatability layer (like Blackberry 10), or is it just an indirect way of saying they’re based on Android (like Cyanognemod/Lineage OS)?
Earlier this week there was a post regarding Google and its utilization of private health information. A number of Googlers came forward to describe how very seriously Google takes user privacy and keeping inappropriate data from being shared across silos. I got the overall impression of Googlers taking the position of “you guys don’t know how seriously we take peoples privacy.” If any of those Googlers would please…
Which specific factual aspect of this story do you believe contradicts those claims? I'm a Xoogler, not a Googler, but in my post-Google experience I haven't seen anything that was even in the same league as Google's privacy controls. In my personal privacy threat model I think Google scores 10/10. They protect my data against external attackers, which in my view is the main problem faced by personal data, and their…
The thing Googlers and Xooglers alike seem absolutely unable to grapple with is that Google itself is a major privacy threat, and we don't want Google itself to have this information.
The fox is guarding the henhouse, and all the fox is doing is telling us it's protecting it from other foxes.
Amusingly, I've shared my location permanently with a couple close friends on Google Maps, and Google will not shut up about it, reminding me every month about it. I get aggressive monthly warnings "Are you SURE you want to share your location with XX,YY,ZZ?". I wish there was a toggle where I could say "yes, I absolutely positively am OK with the privacy implications here, because I don't care very much; please fore…
This isn’t the point of the article. The point is that you can’t share your data with your friends without sharing that data with Google the company as well.
It used to be "don't be evil". Now its "hide, deny and obsfucate our evil".
I think a more useful life lesson is that an organization's motto is not a useful measure of its true internal or external ethics - regardless of what it says - regardless of the type of organization. A motto is, by definition, marketing. Even more generally, I worry about the trend on social media to value words so much more than actions.
The latter needs to be regulated.
I disagree that a motto is just marketing fluff. Especially in smaller companies, a mission statement can provide guidance that, in practical terms, acts as a tool for decision making for every employee in the organization (and to some extent, partners and clients)
But once they’re large enough where they could collapse the world economy if the CEO snorts a bad batch one day and decides to fire everyone, then that type of stuff is meaningless.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Google has a financial incentive to violate your privacy, and all of it's products are designed to serve that goal. So everything that could stay on the device is designed to collect and send data to Google, for their purposes, while they tell you it's to benefit you.
It's a very distinct difference, and the entire design of their respective ecosystems reflects that.