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Google moderates Google Collections items

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Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#31

Post by justin101 »

jp-x-g wrote: post #13
justin101 wrote: post #4

I am as horrified as you probably are, but Google is quite possibly not allowed (by law) to share certain links. Even if technically allowed, their lawyers would likely not let them participate or facilitate sharing links to sites that would be deemed "facilitating illegal activity". People are starting to learn why all their s*t should not be up in the cloud.

I think this depends on a radical redefinition of what it means to "share" something. If I put a book in a self-storage unit, and later go to retrieve it, is the owner of the property "providing" or "sharing" the book? What if I am leasing an apartment from a landlord? I suppose it is an issue inherent to services set up to run through central providers, who can institute arbitrary controls on the services, i.e. if t…

Irrespective of this is right or wrong, the concern of the lawyers at google would not be "If Google _should_ be held accountable for the private activity of users", the concern of the lawyers will always be "what _could_ they be held accountable for."

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#32

Post by justin101 »

heavyset_go wrote: post #29
justin101 wrote: post #4

I am as horrified as you probably are, but Google is quite possibly not allowed (by law) to share certain links. Even if technically allowed, their lawyers would likely not let them participate or facilitate sharing links to sites that would be deemed "facilitating illegal activity". People are starting to learn why all their s*t should not be up in the cloud.

Section 230 of the CDA shields Google from liability for the links users choose to share using their services or not.

I doubt that applies if they have a court order or request from the FBI to block certain domain names or links.

If you had a court order or "request for cooperation" from the FBI to block that domain name, would you do it?

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#33

Post by rossjudson »

freedomben wrote: post #20
kome wrote: post #10

use firefox. the personal information stored on their cloud service (such as bookmarks) can't be accessed even by mozilla. so, c'mon. just use firefox.

How do they manage the e2e key? Is it derived from your password?

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/11/firefox-sync-privacy/

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#34

Post by rossjudson »

freedomben wrote: post #20
kome wrote: post #10

use firefox. the personal information stored on their cloud service (such as bookmarks) can't be accessed even by mozilla. so, c'mon. just use firefox.

How do they manage the e2e key? Is it derived from your password?

And more interesting detail here: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/account-recovery-co...

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#35

Post by hiisukun »

jeffbee wrote: post #9

I use Chrome sync and nothing from my bookmarks appears at https://www.google.com/save/ so there must be more to it than the title implies.

Your comment made me a little curious about what this might include, and for me that same URL has only some lists of places I have saved in Google Maps (on Android).

They appear in the same categories but grouped as "collections", eg. "Want to go" and "Saved places", which are both default options and identified on the map by different icons.

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#36

Post by themacguffinman »

kmeisthax wrote: post #26
pvg wrote: post #6

This is about Google Collections (a sort Pinterest built into recent Android and potentially sharable) not your Chrome browser bookmarks which are private. Of course, e2e encryption is also optionally available for much of browser sync content, bookmarks included - if you're extra paranoid, turn that on. https://www.google.com/collections

On the other hand, if users are confusing Collections and sync'd bookmarks, is that really the user's fault? Or is it Google's for designing a UX that has people "accidentally" sharing bookmarks thru Google instead of using the E2E-able browser sync? I can see someone saying, "ok, we launched Collections, your KPI is to increase usage by X%", and some UX designer figures "oh then we need to put Collections above Book…

Google Collections isn't featured on Chrome for Android or any other platform, it's primarily managed by the Search app with some integration with Maps.

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#37

Post by airhangerf15 »

Why would you trust Google or Mozilla with any of your data? They're both horrifically untrustworthy. Self-host your bookmarks:

https://github.com/sissbruecker/linkding

Linkding has plugins for Librewolf (privacy aware Firefox) and all the Chrome-garpage (Brave, Vivaldi, etc.) that can handle tagging as well as inject your own bookmarks into your search results.

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#38

Post by pvg »

kmeisthax wrote: post #26
pvg wrote: post #6

This is about Google Collections (a sort Pinterest built into recent Android and potentially sharable) not your Chrome browser bookmarks which are private. Of course, e2e encryption is also optionally available for much of browser sync content, bookmarks included - if you're extra paranoid, turn that on. https://www.google.com/collections

On the other hand, if users are confusing Collections and sync'd bookmarks, is that really the user's fault? Or is it Google's for designing a UX that has people "accidentally" sharing bookmarks thru Google instead of using the E2E-able browser sync? I can see someone saying, "ok, we launched Collections, your KPI is to increase usage by X%", and some UX designer figures "oh then we need to put Collections above Book…

Could be but that's an awful lot to "see" from a single irritated user posting their irritation on smilodon in somewhat confusing terms.

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#39

Post by Aissen »

I'm not sure we can really blame users for mistaking "saved items in the google app" and "bookmarks in the browser app" considering everything Google has done to blurry the line. Look at some screenshots:

https://www.guidingtech.com/guide-use-google-collections-mob...

Searches in the Google app open in an embedded browser. It has a handy "save" (bookmark) icon. Wait, you mean this is not a Chrome bookmark ? How could I know ? I just tried it, and the icon appears even if you have never interacted with https://www.google.com/collections.

Re: Google moderates Google Collections items

#40

Post by CoolGuySteve »

TylerE wrote: post #18
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't sharing, these bookmarks are private to the user in question.

It is for sharing. This is their shared/public bookmark collections, not browser bookmarks.

No it's not, read the comments. This is their synced bookmarks that are not publicly shared.
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