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

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

#361

Post by seba_dos1 »

pilif wrote: post #171
greyface- wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You challenged the tone of the question, but you didn't attempt to answer it. Do you believe that nobody in their right mind would want this functionality turned off?

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'm relying on search history in my Google Workspace account every single day.

What for? I fail to see the convenience of it at all. If I'm searching for something I was already searching for, my browser will already prompt me with suggestion to fill the phrase for me based on local history which is synchronized between my devices on my terms - which isn't all that useful anyway since I already know what I'm looking for!

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

#362

Post by neatze »

zht wrote: post #271
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 feel sort of bad for this comment. The reason is because the reason given is perfectly sound. “We have to split this out because of perfect reasonable reasons like laws, data retention policies, etc etc”. And everything afterwards is pure unadulterated propaganda. I don’t know if the commenter knows how patronizing they sound. “We did this for you because even though you’ve previously explicitly opted out, we think…

> “We did this for you because even though you’ve previously explicitly opted out, we think we know better than you and we’re doing you a favor to enhance your experience”

This is issue industry wide not just in google, and it is not only privacy settings, but applies to general GUI of some applications and operating systems.

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

#363

Post by nullify88 »

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?

https://www.migadu.com/

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

#364

Post by dessant »

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…

It's fascinating to see Google and Facebook employees defending the undefensible here almost daily, using all the upbeat expressions they can muster out to obfuscate the fact that they are not accepting no from people when it comes to data collection.

One would hope that there will be an effort to shame these engineers for their role in normalizing mass surveillance, and for their shallow attempts to play down the damage they cause to society.

A year ago I've seen a Google engineer boasting here about his occasional donations to charities, while he works on ads and regularily defends his employer in public, dismissing some of the illegal activities that are taking place at Google.

I'd understand working for your own selfish reasons on something harmful to other people out of necessity, but I doubt most Google and Facebook engineers are only designing and writing the code that intrudes on our personal lives because they just could not find an engineering job at a less scummy company.

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

#365

Post by vertis »

zht wrote: post #271
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 feel sort of bad for this comment. The reason is because the reason given is perfectly sound. “We have to split this out because of perfect reasonable reasons like laws, data retention policies, etc etc”. And everything afterwards is pure unadulterated propaganda. I don’t know if the commenter knows how patronizing they sound. “We did this for you because even though you’ve previously explicitly opted out, we think…

There was this thing in Melbourne cafes for a while (and maybe still, I'm not in Melbourne any more), where you would walk in and order your usual from other cafes "a large Flat White" and the barista would go "We only make coffee in one size".

At which point I would walk out and go to another cafe. The same experience, "I want coffee in a certain way", "we know better than you and will only serve you coffee how we like to make coffee"

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

#366

Post by belter »

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.

Yandex has the best image reverse search algos of all the search engines. Dont take my word for it, just go and try it. If you live in the US what is the most dangerous for you? To be spied by your own government, or a government on the other side of the planet?

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

#367

Post by Lev1a »

scim-knox-twox wrote: post #275
usrbinbash wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The default for any data collection no matter what it is for, should be OFF. End of discussion.

That's why I don't understand GPC ( https://globalprivacycontrol.org/ ). GPC setting is for opt-out, without GPC header it's treating like opt-in. > Now you can exercise your legal privacy rights in one step via Global Privacy Control (GPC), required under the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) and Europe’s Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I don't think this is consistent with GDPR. GDPR require opt-o…

> GDPR require opt-out by default

You probably meant to write either "optED-out by default" or "opt-in default", right?

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

#368

Post by chiefgeek »

microtonal wrote: post #233
Ensorceled wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm dropping (paid) GSuite/Workspace/whatever it's now called for my family, and for a couple of businesses. What are you switching to? I'm in the same situation of a couple of family groups and a couple of small businesses on GSuite and looking for alternatives.

For mail, calendars, and address books we have, as a family, switched to Fastmail a couple of years ago. It has been great!

I've been using Fastmail for years. Love it. Rarely a problem. Support always responds within 24 hrs if there is. Ended up having to move my calendars back to Google Workspace so they could sync with Acuity (SquareSpace) Scheduling. Really annoying that they can't provide hooks into other standard CalDAV services.

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

#369

Post by vertis »

ori_b wrote: post #338
tazjin wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand your point.

The bureaucrats and agents don't cooperate. Your surveillance data ends up locked on the drives of agencies with no power to affect your life.

I don't know about Russia, but this is not really an accurate perception. US laws tend to protect US Citizens and residents. Even citizens of friendly countries like Australia don't have protection.

In some ways it's worse because Australia is five-eyes, so they can do a, I'll spy on your citizens you spy on mine kind of thing (which we know from Snowden was exactly what they were doing)[1][2].

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/us-uk-secret-d... [2]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jun/10/nsa-offers-...

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

#370

Post by Mezzie »

scarface74 wrote: post #358
Mezzie wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tec…

On the other hand, now search for “bicycles” on Google.

Oh, there's a reason that I said 'recommended' past tense. ;)
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