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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

#111

Post by tobyhinloopen »

howzitallworkeh wrote: post #95
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.

Unfortunately, you will find iOS bad in different ways. For example: you cannot install NoScript, or anything like it, on an iOS browser. You must choose between "all JS on" or "all JS off", and third-party browsers like Firefox are crippled because Apple forces all iOS browsers to use their WebKit engine under the hood. The myriad of Safari "content blocker" apps are also pretty dismal, and often expensive. So ad-bl…

Ad blocking works perfectly fine, wdym?

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

#112

Post by amelius »

clairity wrote: post #110
amelius wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we have a smart contract system where every company in possession of some user data can be asked to provide a machine-verifiable proof that it legally obtained that information?

sure, but it’s essentially a social/legal problem, not a technical one. the onus is on the company holding data to show the chain of consent, which doesn’t require anything fancy outside a purpose-built database.

So how does that work then? How does Google prove that I clicked that accept-EULA button? Or that I approve of them keeping track of my information? I never put my signature anywhere and still there are companies holding or even trading my information.

> it’s essentially a social/legal problem, not a technical one

And ironically, it's the tech companies who are getting away with it.

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

#113

Post by pbhjpbhj »

vageli wrote: post #85
dv_dt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way it seems pragmatic. You say all the boundaries are being violated, you might as well get something out of it. Also I’m not sure there’s a lot of difference in loss of privacy and tapping or swiping a credit card.

> Also I’m not sure there’s a lot of difference in loss of privacy and tapping or swiping a credit card. Well for one thing, at least in my experience, most credit card transaction data does not include granular information about the transaction (like the list of groceries you bought).

But the supermarkets gather that data, for sure. Several times I've bought a brand name item, then reverted to generic, then got offers related to that brand (just because I was buying based on value). I assume if they can establish a buying pattern with a few offers then often that will convert someone to the brand goods. (It's way easier just to pick the packet that looks like the one you got before than it is to look for the best offer).

One thing about returning to relative wealth is how much stress it removes from 'weekly' shopping.

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

#114

Post by toast0 »

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.

Caller ID blocking only affects the consumer level feature, not Automatic Number Identification which was historically available with PBX lines and toll free numbers, but might be available to more people these days.

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

#115

Post by foobiekr »

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 Fiber was about:

threatening behavior of the carriers and net neutrality

obtaining access rights to add fiber when new placement occurred

… not trying to build a viable new business.

Waymo (and basically all of X) is there to make google look sexy and to provide an exec playground than actual businesses. The Waymo team is the most competent team in the space and they know there is no business there this decade.

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

#116

Post by foobiekr »

amelius wrote: post #105
clairity wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

personal data should be 2-party consent for every data sale transaction by law, not this ‘opted-in by corporate mandate and backed by regulatory capture and monopolistic power’ we have now. people should be able to negotiate a rate at which they’re willing to allow the corporation to sell their data, including not allowing it at all ever.

Can't we have a smart contract system where every company in possession of some user data can be asked to provide a machine-verifiable proof that it legally obtained that information?

There is no technical solution to this problem. First parties can just lie or use dark patterns to gain permission.

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

#117

Post by coliveira »

QuadrupleA wrote: post #74

Google had a brilliant advertising business with AdWords originally, where the ads were simply based on the search term and not a bunch of Orwellian surveillance on the person searching. 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 goodwi…

My opinion is that the target ads is just a cover, the real reason they want to track users is to give more data to their in-house AI system that learns what people do once they reach certain page. This knowledge (what people will do) is what is important to them, rather than simply showing certain ads. For example, if Google knows the profit potential of certain actions, they will raise the ad cost on that property by the true value, instead of relying on non-targeted auctions.

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

#118

Post by howzitallworkeh »

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #111
howzitallworkeh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, you will find iOS bad in different ways. For example: you cannot install NoScript, or anything like it, on an iOS browser. You must choose between "all JS on" or "all JS off", and third-party browsers like Firefox are crippled because Apple forces all iOS browsers to use their WebKit engine under the hood. The myriad of Safari "content blocker" apps are also pretty dismal, and often expensive. So ad-bl…

Ad blocking works perfectly fine, wdym?

I mean that 1Blocker is terrible compared to uBlock+NoScript, and that's the best content blocker I could find after spending days researching them. Plus, it costs $3/mo or $40 for something that barely functions.

Web browsing in iOS is incredibly frustrating and privacy-unfriendly compared to Android. I recently bought an iPhone for the app tracking protection, but the difference between Safari and Firefox is like night and day.

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

#119

Post by rantwasp »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #43

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?

so an android phone without the store? intriguing. at that point you might as well switch to a dumbphone. are dumb phones still a thing?

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

#120

Post by amelius »

foobiekr wrote: post #116
amelius wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we have a smart contract system where every company in possession of some user data can be asked to provide a machine-verifiable proof that it legally obtained that information?

There is no technical solution to this problem. First parties can just lie or use dark patterns to gain permission.

Look, if some authority finds your personal information on some server, and they can't produce your digital signature on a contract which says that the company can keep the information from some date to some other date, then they are in violation. It is simply not possible to lie about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature

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