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

Post by vertis » Wed, Feb 02, 2022, 3:55 PM UTC

Lewton wrote: post #248

cik wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Active, soon to be former user here. Constantly moving things around, to at the very least temporarily hoover data from users is wrong. The changes going on recently mean, that I'm finally eliminating my use of the G. I've dropped paid services. I'm dropping (paid) GSuite/Workspace/whatever it's now called for my family, and for a couple of businesses. I've embraced other search engines again - and they're surprising…

I had my first DDG beats google moment yesterday I searched for ‘low more guitar sound’ and top result was an awesome YouTube video recreating the guitar sound of Low - More (song with amazing guitar tone) Went to my other computer that defaults to google, searched the same thing Pages of irrelevant crap, searched for ‘low more %nameofyoutubechanbel’ Nothing Searched for exact title of YouTube video Nothing Had to ma…

Post by justin_oaks » Wed, Feb 02, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #299

justin_oaks wrote: post #26

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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.

Your problem is you think companies are good to begin with. Companies exist to make money. Nothing more or less.

Post by dang » Wed, Feb 02, 2022, 4:13 PM UTC

ramblerman wrote: post #190

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…

Look we all know how the world works so please, spare the BS. By all means do your job, and hit your metrics. But this is just a dark pattern, which comes up with some new product boundaries so you can default these settings back to on. There's a certain arrogance to coming into HN of all places and offering a sales explanation that it's actually in our benefit.

Post by dang » Wed, Feb 02, 2022, 4:17 PM UTC

matkoniecz wrote: post #232

riverguardian wrote: post #120

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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.

> 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 (...) that data is never used for ads. This is a blatant lie. Google will share this data with law enforcement, also on request by evil and/or totalitarian regimes. --------- And even for use within a Google: It is as believable as FB promising to not use 2FA for…

Post by dang » Wed, Feb 02, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

nixass wrote: post #89

riverguardian wrote: post #77

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Great question. The premise here is that search is an integral part of the product experience of using Google Workspace. We don't offer controls that separate each piece of functionality within Workspace products. The reason there _is_ one governing both Workspace and non-Workspace data (the current Web and App Activity setting) is mostly historical in nature, and the fact that there are two existing controls (one fo…

I don't wanna ruin the conversation here but: > Great question This is exactly how politicians (or whoever is doing something nasty) will start the answer on sensitive question. Shady business.