What really devastated me was when I found out that even if you try to keep yourself private, you'll get exposed by your friends: Just by tracking that you are regularly close to others, for example meeting for a camping trip, you suddenly get camping advertisements - probably because your friends searched for something or booked the trip via Gmail or whatever. I don't really know how it works, but it's awfully scary.
Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
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Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#152Earlier 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…
Sometimes people confuse effort with security. You could build a fortress with eight foot thick reinforced concrete walls but it's not secure if you leave the back door open.
No doubt google puts in heroic efforts to make sure that nothing that doesn't make them money gets access to your private data.
The mere presence of heroic efforts isn't enough.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Got a better idea? I'd like to see them bankrupt and all their data being wiped, but I'm afraid that's just not going to happen. Breaking them up is the only option we realistically have as of right now.
I think we should simply pass laws to make their business model illegal (at least the evil parts), and let them sort it out. If they go under because they can’t adapt, well tough luck. There will be tons of smart businesses, investors, and individuals eager to chase all the new opportunities the death of Google would create. And since the evil business models are illegal, the ones that come next will (probably) not b…
Exactly which parts of their business model should be illegal? It's pretty standard Silicon Valley stuff - give away your product until there is no competition left, then you can do what you like.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#154At the same time, Google think allways I'm in germany on work, because our company has just one large internet connection for all company users from the whole world. And google does not even let me change the country.
Googles forced country localization is IMBECILICLY STUPID.
I am currently in a foreign country. My English OS laptop with English browser has been logging in to gmail in English for years, and I ask Google search to show results in English for 5 years and EVERY TIME it tries to show the local language. Going to google.com is IGNORED, why??
Google engineers are paid $$$$$$$$ of dollars to implement THE MOST STUPID CODE I HAVE EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH AAAAARGH.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#155I hate to repeat it, but the US really needs its GDPR.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#156Google 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…
> From the research I've seen, all this privacy-invading crap doesn't even improve ad performance much Which research? From my experience, personalized ads perform ~50% better than non-personalized ads. This would also explain why Google and Facebook are fighting tooth and nail to keep their tracking infrastructure.
You shouldn't lump search ads in with display ads -- search ads are relevant to the search terms, and are much more valuable than display ads. Search ads get a much smaller lift from personalization.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#157I'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.
You can use an Android phone without Google services. You don't even need root or a custom ROM for that — there's a "disable" button on the app details page of every Google app, including GSF. You can complete the initial setup fully offline, too. In case you do need Google services, but want to have a say about which and how, there's MicroG, an open-source implementation of some of the most used ones like GCM (push messaging).
You can't use an iPhone without Apple services, period. An Apple ID is a hard requirement to activate an iOS device, it literally won't let you past that screen without one. Even after you're done with that, you can only install apps from the app store, subject to that unfair, opaque approval process.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#158It used to be "don't be evil". Now its "hide, deny and obsfucate our evil".
The old company motto was a very effective canary.
Re: Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
#159Oddly, when loaded Google News this afternoon and clicked on "Local News" it showed me news for New York. I live in SW Missouri. I'm using Firefox with FB Container and Privacy Badger on a Mac mini (Late 2009).