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Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

theverge.com

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Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#11

Post by aboringusername »

Hopefully Google is forced to follow Apple's lead and implement consent dialogs into Android to allow/deny tracking or usage of any form of identifier/fingerprint.

I am surprised the EU haven't investigated Android and found it breaches GDPR requirements, simply due to the fact it's too easy to collect information that can later be used for analytical purposes without the users consent.

I imagine you can find instances of GDPR breaches in all modern OS' if you looked hard enough - something as simple as a HTTP POST request may be illegal depending on the payload.

Sadly, progress is often slow, but Apple's progress in this area will hopefully inspire Googlers like the one in this article to make statements and drive progress forward.

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#12

Post by wruza »

"The current UI is designed to make things possible, yet difficult enough that people won’t figure it out."

Let's be honest. Don't attribute it to the system complexity or interop failures — that's bullshit. When they need to shove you an ads under your finger, the complexity suddenly vanishes.

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#13

Post by gruez »

Spooky23 wrote: post #6

There's a usability aspect to this. If you disable location services for Yelp, it's pretty unfriendly -- it chooses to make it as difficult as possible for you to use the app to get you to turn location back on. The Google approach for Maps is more pragmatic IMO -- lower resolution location data makes sure I don't get a McDonald's in Finland when I'm in Kentucky. The hard thing is that I don't want Yelp, Google, etc…

>The hard thing is that I don't want Yelp, Google, etc tracking my movements in a 10-meter radius forever, but I want location from a contextual perspective. I don't think you can do that without meaningful policy controls outside of your local computer.

Isn't this just a separate location permission for coarse location (which both OS), and allowing the user to choose between the two (not on either OS, but in iOS 14 beta)?

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#14

Post by ocdtrekkie »

Spooky23 wrote: post #6

There's a usability aspect to this. If you disable location services for Yelp, it's pretty unfriendly -- it chooses to make it as difficult as possible for you to use the app to get you to turn location back on. The Google approach for Maps is more pragmatic IMO -- lower resolution location data makes sure I don't get a McDonald's in Finland when I'm in Kentucky. The hard thing is that I don't want Yelp, Google, etc…

Apple is fixing this in iOS 14. It allows you to give an app access to only approximate location.

Note that if your location history (precise every five minute location stored to your account) is off, Google won't even suggest a locally-stored list of previous locations you used with Maps. Which is an absolutist position that is usability-wise incredibly frustrating.

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#15

Post by sukilot »

Barrin92 wrote: post #9
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #3

This quote basically disproves the phrase Sundar repeatedly parroted to Congressional members about making it easy for people to configure their privacy settings. You can bet this quote is going to be read to his face if there's another hearing. The author of the statement was redacted in the public version, but my bet is if that is still a current employee, they won't be for much longer. Because this quote is going…

>And as many Google people are probably being reminded this week: Assume all of your work emails may some day be public, and used against you or your employer in a court of law. They don't need to be reminded because Google has been coaching staff to basically adopt some sort of Google newspeak: "One part of the presentation, subtitled “Communicating Safely,” advises employees on which terms are “Bad” and “Good.” Ins…

That's regular legal speak.

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#16

Post by [deleted] »

robin_reala wrote: post #8
RandallBrown wrote: post #7

This isn't a surprise. Google is a huge company with probably hundreds of teams working on these things. The fact that the privacy settings can be figured out at all is a bit of a miracle. I doubt the privacy settings are "designed" as much as it is a bunch of disparate teams working on it together with maybe somebody coordinating it.

Sorry, that might be an explanation but it’s not an excuse. Privacy controls in a global organisation are a legal requirement for your software, and you don’t get to just haphazardly throw it together.

[deleted]

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#18

Post by lotsofpulp »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #3

This quote basically disproves the phrase Sundar repeatedly parroted to Congressional members about making it easy for people to configure their privacy settings. You can bet this quote is going to be read to his face if there's another hearing. The author of the statement was redacted in the public version, but my bet is if that is still a current employee, they won't be for much longer. Because this quote is going…

> Assume all of your work emails may some day be public, and used against you or your employer in a court of law.

Why wouldn’t you? One of the biggest benefits of written communication is being able to avoid a he said she said scenario.

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#19

Post by sukilot »

robin_reala wrote: post #2

I used to be pretty much in favour of opt-out for stuff like this, but I think at this point the industry itself has managed to prove that it can’t be trusted with anything but legislation guaranteeing opt-in.

That's not relevant to the article. The complaint is about data collection and handling that is constant regardless of opts.

Re: Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings

#20

Post by sukilot »

the_snooze wrote: post #4
robin_reala wrote: post #2

I used to be pretty much in favour of opt-out for stuff like this, but I think at this point the industry itself has managed to prove that it can’t be trusted with anything but legislation guaranteeing opt-in.

Absent legislation, I'm all for a "nuke it all" approach when it comes to ad-blocking and tracker-blocking. It won't catch everything, especially platform-level privacy concerns like this, but it does move good usable defaults over to the user's control. No need to rely on companies who continue to fail to act in good faith.

You can't block an app or site from accessing your geolocatable IP workout extreme measures.
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