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Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#281

Post by nerdponx »

gobip wrote: post #213
evocatus wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for confirming that Google is no longer run by the same people I trusted (at least, somewhat more than I do now) over a decade ago. I encourage everyone to make the leap to DDG or some other search engine that doesn't just treat you as a data cow to be milked for your precious, precious "insights." Even GMail is no longer an attractive proposition - the risk of being locked out (perhaps, even automatically!) o…

What do you use in replacement for GMail?

Fastmail

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#282

Post by defanor »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #64
scarface74 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When has Google ever been the champion of user experience? Their core product is barely usable without an adblocker.

Gmail was a way, way, way better experience than Hotmail or anything else when it started (and even almost a decade later). Maps blew everyone's mind at launch too and instantly made an entire group of direction and mapping websites irrelevant. Google Earth was magical just spending hours trotting around the globe too. Reader (RIP) was by far the best RSS reader.

> Gmail was a way, way, way better experience than Hotmail or anything else when it started

I recall seeing it as sluggish and awkward when I finally decided to check it, abusing Ajax. Other web interfaces (that I tried) were more lightweight and predictable, and regular mail clients I found to be a much better UX. So I've mostly attributed Gmail popularity to Google promoting it, possibly using that invite-only policy to make the users to spread the invitations. It sounds like at least some users actually liked it, but I don't think it's a clear example of a good service by Google.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#283

Post by causi »

riverguardian wrote: post #70

Hello hello, PM for the feature checking in here. amf12's reply is quite on-point. Web and App Activity is designed to store search activity across all Google services, and we're splitting Workspace data out since it's governed by strict data handling guarantees, with the hope that more people will feel comfortable getting the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-into search history being trac…

Workspace without having to opt-into search history being tracked for all Google services.

What's going on lately? First Google Maps refusing to navigate unless the user consents to Google using their phone to wardrive and now this? Can it really be coincidence?

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#284

Post by benrapscallion »

gobip wrote: post #213
evocatus wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for confirming that Google is no longer run by the same people I trusted (at least, somewhat more than I do now) over a decade ago. I encourage everyone to make the leap to DDG or some other search engine that doesn't just treat you as a data cow to be milked for your precious, precious "insights." Even GMail is no longer an attractive proposition - the risk of being locked out (perhaps, even automatically!) o…

What do you use in replacement for GMail?

Fastmail and HEY

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#286

Post by Razengan »

riverguardian wrote: post #70

Hello hello, PM for the feature checking in here. amf12's reply is quite on-point. Web and App Activity is designed to store search activity across all Google services, and we're splitting Workspace data out since it's governed by strict data handling guarantees, with the hope that more people will feel comfortable getting the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-into search history being trac…

Do you happen to know why YouTube has started throttling the number of views on videos by channels with few subscribers?

Google is becoming even more infuriatingly scummy. Literally a minute ago I saw this post about YouTube throttling the number of views on videos by new channels:

https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/sim12o/well_...

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#287

Post by liveoneggs »

gobip wrote: post #213
evocatus wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for confirming that Google is no longer run by the same people I trusted (at least, somewhat more than I do now) over a decade ago. I encourage everyone to make the leap to DDG or some other search engine that doesn't just treat you as a data cow to be milked for your precious, precious "insights." Even GMail is no longer an attractive proposition - the risk of being locked out (perhaps, even automatically!) o…

What do you use in replacement for GMail?

hotmail?

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#288

Post by janoc »

tazjin wrote: post #273
gobip wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you use in replacement for GMail?

I recently moved to Yandex 360. We previously had DNS, mail etc. on Google until an outage[0] occured. The outage was the classical story of "billing error in related Play Store (!) account nuked entire GCP setup", which diminished trust enough that I decided to move everything away from Google. I'm a Xoogler, but even then getting through to the right support channels is hard . Yandex services are pretty nice (they…

Uhm, sorry but Yandex of all things? Given that this is a Russian company with Kremlin having a "golden veto" power in?

No, thanks. Google may be evil but moving my data from Google to the Russian government spooks is really not a solution.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#289

Post by smilebot »

social_quotient wrote: post #30
justin_oaks wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to agree. Companies don't seem to switch to being good once they go evil. I would love it if someone could share a counterexample. I want it to be true that companies don't just turn evil but can become better too.

How about Microsoft?

Firstly, Windows is getting progressively more complex. Each new version seems to have a new ux. I help some old family members with their computers and they have a hard time knowing what’s what when I bring them a new pc.

Secondly, I found it very difficult to install another browser like chrome. It wouldn’t let me install chrome unless I downloaded a specific app from Microsoft store to allow my machine to use another browser besides edge. All the while closing annoying pop ups about how edge is just like chrome.

I’m done with their products.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#290

Post by tazjin »

janoc wrote: post #288
tazjin wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently moved to Yandex 360. We previously had DNS, mail etc. on Google until an outage[0] occured. The outage was the classical story of "billing error in related Play Store (!) account nuked entire GCP setup", which diminished trust enough that I decided to move everything away from Google. I'm a Xoogler, but even then getting through to the right support channels is hard . Yandex services are pretty nice (they…

Uhm, sorry but Yandex of all things? Given that this is a Russian company with Kremlin having a "golden veto" power in? No, thanks. Google may be evil but moving my data from Google to the Russian government spooks is really not a solution.

Yeah. I live in Russia and I trust this government more than e.g. the American one. It's always a matter of perspective.
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