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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

#411
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Turn after the Dunkin Donuts on the right onto Maple Street"

These aren't ads, they're intended to provide a point of reference for users.

You _really_ need to brush up on your ability to recognize when you're being manipulated. If you can't see these as advertising you're probably misidentifying countless other ads in your life.

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

#412
post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which drive files I open is 100% in my web browser history.

But searches made in the drive UI are not. (and gmail history certainly is not, and actually drive files viewed in certain contexts aren't either)

> But searches made in the drive UI are not.

What? Yes they are! Browser history includes every page you navigate to, including the "search results for 'tps report'" page of a cloud storage service.

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

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But searches made in the drive UI are not. (and gmail history certainly is not, and actually drive files viewed in certain contexts aren't either)

> But searches made in the drive UI are not. What? Yes they are! Browser history includes every page you navigate to, including the "search results for 'tps report'" page of a cloud storage service.

Ah you're quite right (I was expecting that the queries would be POST-like, not GET-like).

This distinction doesn't matter too much though, because having the browser be responsible for this fails in at least two ways:

1. The browser shouldn't need knowlege of how to parse every query language of every webapp you use.

2. The browser can't actually give you the results of those queries. If I search for "tps reports", the browser knows I entered that query string, but it doesn't know what the 15 results were, and so can't, for example take my prior search into account when I search for "12/17/2022" to uprank the TPS report for that date, as opposed to some other report. Nor can it even do the weaker bit and assume that since I searched TPS yesterday, when I search "reports" today, it should consider upranking tps reports.

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

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to clarify this comment is sarcastic right? It gets confusing in text. (genuinely asking)

No, I wasn't being sarcastic

Ah ok! So then the other replies are valid then. Agree with others, to me this is useless. Browser handles it already if I wanted it, and I never use that anyway.

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

#415
post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then it’s a trivial feature that you can simply ask people if they want to enable rather than opting them in when they opted out.

The users in question never opted out, their domain admins opted out of a different feature. And the corollary equally applies: it's a trivial feature with no privacy impact, why require opt-in. I don't want to be spammed with opt-ins every time every app I use adds a trivial new feature. I'd be clicking a dozen boxes a day.

It does have a privacy impact.

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

#416
post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The users in question never opted out, their domain admins opted out of a different feature. And the corollary equally applies: it's a trivial feature with no privacy impact, why require opt-in. I don't want to be spammed with opt-ins every time every app I use adds a trivial new feature. I'd be clicking a dozen boxes a day.

It does have a privacy impact.

In what way?

Keep in mind all the user data collected is still under the workspace data use agreement which is very strict and disallows using the data for pretty much anything that isn't directly providing that service to that user/organization.

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

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 As recent court finding revealed this is most likely a lie, and even Googlers themselves don't know how to turn off pervasive tracking across apps. If that setting was off it must remain off even if you "change product boundaries". Is this such a hard concept to u…

> As recent court finding revealed this is most likely a lie

You can of course link to this court finding, right?

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

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But searches made in the drive UI are not. What? Yes they are! Browser history includes every page you navigate to, including the "search results for 'tps report'" page of a cloud storage service.

Ah you're quite right (I was expecting that the queries would be POST-like, not GET-like). This distinction doesn't matter too much though, because having the browser be responsible for this fails in at least two ways: 1. The browser shouldn't need knowlege of how to parse every query language of every webapp you use. 2. The browser can't actually give you the results of those queries. If I search for "tps reports",…

I admire how focused you are on drive & gmail search quality. I have a lot of concerns about using user data to improve search that are larger than this specific feature or discussion. This leads me to implement strategies to reduce new data generated, such as loading URLs directly instead of accessing them from search. I’d like to conclude by conceding your approach will generate the better results, but that the best search results aren’t what I’m optimizing for.

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

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your reason for splitting this into two separate settings is understandable. >> ...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 tracked for all Google services. This is unacceptable. People have already opted out or been opted out by their admin. If they want to opt back in now that the setting is more granular,…

> Let's be honest, the real reason for making this opt-out again is that you hope lots of people won't notice and you can start collecting their data. Please reconsider. I'm keen on seeing if there's any legal code or case law that addresses opting someone back in who's already opted out. And I'm hoping there's personal culpability for the change, too. Not just corporate fines. But this is probably just wishful think…

A. Google a multi-billion dollar company does things that impact (billions?) of paying users without caring about consequences.

or

B. All those things were considered and in the end the executives though it was worth the backlash and the risk of paying a fine.

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

#420
post #369
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.thegu…

Yes, that's the point of using tools from unfriendly countries -- though I wouldn't be surprised if there's data sharing there, I haven't heard evidence of it.
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