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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

#321

Post by MerelyMortal »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #163
reustle wrote: post #5

What is going on inside Google? Far worse search results recently, verbal ads during Maps navigation directions, and stuff like this. Do they see some writing on the wall (eu pressure?) and they’re squeezing as much as they can while it’s an option?

> verbal ads during Maps navigation directions Say what? I've neither experienced nor heard others mention this, is this recent? Coincidentally, as a result of an HN post earlier in the day (wifi required for GPS) I installed Osmand+ to try out for navigation.

There's another reply-chain, but yes, I get that ads for Jack In The Box, and it sounds like another user gets it for Dunkin Donuts. And it's not for lankmark purposes.

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

#322

Post by jcranberry »

riverguardian wrote: post #120
twhb wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments and the email both are written like nobody really wants tracking off, at least not if they know what’s good for them. Is that what you believe?

I think "tracking" is a bit misleading here. It's product (search) usage activity. None of the Workspace data you provide is ever used outside of Workspace, nor is it used for any other purpose than for the benefit of you and your users (we can't create machine learning models from your data to improve the experience for other customers, for example, without your prior consent), and that data is never used for ads.

Honest questions:

When you say you cant use the data to create machine learning models, is that you talking about this (workspace) use-case, or is that a principle that Google uses in general?

How does one give consent? Is it you have to voluntarily go into the settings and turn that feature on? Or is it agreeing to a pop-up ToS agreement?

And in general for features where doing an ML model isn't necessary for basic benefit to the user, are those consent options separate?

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

#323

Post by jcranberry »

titzer wrote: post #298
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…

I encourage you, unreservedly, and without any personal malice, to fight the reality distortion field that causes people to make decisions like the above. Users do not want this. Engineers, PMs, and executives want this. Google's 23% YoY revenue growth wants this. To Google, users who don't subject to dystopian tracking, who don't consent to Google knowing everything about them, who just want to go about their own li…

If there's one feature that I would assert almost everyone wants which requires tracking some data, its search history recommendation.

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

#324

Post by jcranberry »

Mezzie wrote: post #297
pilif wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm relying on search history in my Google Workspace account every single day. It's very convenient and I have a feeling most people would agree with that. What is a double-edged sword is how this history is being used. If it's just about offering search history for each individual user, then it's not a privacy issue and strictly an improvement in convenience. Turning it on offers the convenience, turning it off, rem…

I have a use case for turning it off: I'm in the middle of trying to create a taxonomy of our unwieldly internal documentation (which exists, to my despair, mostly in Google Workspace Apps). Part of this is recreating how other employees find and access things, including search. And oftentimes when I'm searching in this capacity, I'm looking specifically for documents that are hard to find or that I've never had to t…

Thanks for sharing, that's a very cool use case.

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

#325

Post by tazjin »

enriquto wrote: post #294
tazjin wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't get this point of view. If you live in Russia, of all places, you'd likely want to avoid Yandex. On the other hand, for people from non-Russian countries Yandex is probably a better and safer choice than Google.

I don't really understand your point.

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

#326

Post by Mezzie »

scarface74 wrote: post #62
indymike wrote: post #6

Dear Google: you are becoming less likable by the second. For a long time you were the champion of user experience and you forced a lot of sleazy products to change or go out of business. Recently, it's like you've systematically discovered every dark pattern your evangelists once scorned. Please, please flip the don't be evil bit back to on. Evil Google is not very likable.

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

Early Google set themselves apart with the user experience. For example, Google Search's homepage's simplicity was astonishing at the time; a direct inverse of the bloated pages most of their competitors at the time favored (Yahoo, Alta Vista, AOL, and Dogpile were pretty bad if I remember correctly, and Ask Jeeves was somewhere in the middle. The others I don't remember as well). GMail may have not been the best technically speaking (I don't know), but from a user standpoint it was cleaner than the alternatives, who would include things like links to news stories in their inboxes.

I recommended people use Google in part because there was, at the time, less risk of them clicking on something and being confused by it. (Why is there news in my email? Where's my email? How do I search?)

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

#327

Post by jcranberry »

gruturo wrote: post #153
extr wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I think the point is reasonable. I personally find it useful to refer to my past searches/activity, especially in a professional context, and it would be unintuitive to me if such a feature was turned off by default.

People are just asking to have it off if they currently have the related setting off.

They answer it fairly clearly

It is off if the related setting is currently off if you're a non paid user. However if you're a paid user it is currently on.

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

#328

Post by tedivm »

jcranberry wrote: post #313
tedivm wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever Google does something awful a product manager comes in here and tries to justify it. We get that there's business reasons why you'd do this, but it's still deeply unethical. The fact that we can't disable this feature for our workspace is also pretty messed up. Yes disabling the feature could remove some functionality- but that's a choice the users should make.

It seems like you can disable it, it'll just be a different button.

> - The ability of Google Workspace organizations to turn off “Web & App Activity” for all users will be removed.

You can't disable it on a workspace level, each user has to do it individually now.

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

#329

Post by casralad »

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…

Google used to be a pretty respected brand in tech spaces, didn't it?

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

#330

Post by codechad »

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…

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