Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google – My Activity

myactivity.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 246 posts

Re: Google – My Activity

#101

Post by IceWreck »

docker_up wrote: post #82
JohnFen wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. The only real solution is to delete your Google account(s), avoid using Google services entirely, and firewall off any access from your machines to Google servers.

You can't escape Google. I think there's been several articles talking about how deeply embedded they are.

You can. Its just that it requires more effort than most are willing to make

Re: Google – My Activity

#102

Post by okmokmz »

JohnFen wrote: post #80
docker_up wrote: post #55

The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. If you add so much random data then there's no way Google can pick up anything useful. I think the other tactic to defeat Google is to click on EVERY SINGLE AD you see. It will destroy their ad tracking capabilities and it will also destroy their business since they won't be able to tell what i…

> The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. The only real solution is to delete your Google account(s), avoid using Google services entirely, and firewall off any access from your machines to Google servers.

It's impossible to entirely avoid Google's infrastructure and tracking

Re: Google – My Activity

#103

Post by turshija »

IceWreck wrote: post #100
turshija wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I just noticed something that is even scarier. Under the "Chrome, Google Analytics, and more" I see "Used com.kongregate.mobile.adventurecommunist", which is a game installed on my iPhone. Ok, I also have my Gmail logged in there as well, so they somehow read shared data or whatever. But I also see "Used es.socialpoint.chefparadise" which is a game, installed on my iPad at home which is mostly used by my wife for…

Did you log into that game to save progress?

I haven't logged into my Google account on iPad at all. Game progress on iOS apps is usually saved to your Apple ID (Game Center) account. My Apple ID is registered on my gmail account of course, but I'm not receiving any emails from this game that Google might extract ...

Re: Google – My Activity

#104

Post by o10449366 »

It's honestly hilarious and sad to see so many commenters here defending and excusing Google because the services they provide are "free." Somehow Hacker News thinks this argument isn't applicable to Facebook. The truth of the matter is that both companies are committing huge privacy violations, but Google has managed to convince Hacker News and the US media (NYT in particular) that they aren't evil still. Good riddance to all of these companies.

Re: Google – My Activity

#105

Post by pcurve »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #69
glerk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you enjoy your free email account, free maps, free YouTube and free search?

My email (gmail) is bound with so many services (both online and offline) and it is part of my online identity. It would be so much effort to change the email now. I don't think there is an alternative to google maps which is in the same level as quality and richness in information. I would be totally lost without google maps when I'm traveling to other countries, especially when it comes to public transportation lik…

I don't use Gmail to register with any other websites. I have a separate email for that.

Re: Google – My Activity

#106

Post by joshuamorton »

la_barba wrote: post #91
joshuamorton wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my mind, its kind of like hiring an IP lawyer at a company. Even if your company is not litigious, there is a chance that at some point the lawyer initiates legal action to "prove their worth" or even advance their career inside the company. Same thing with this, why is Google paying developers to build this product if they're never going to use it? What is the business justification? Its certainly not for PR or…

>Useful features attract users. Users are a good thing. I think its a bit of a stretch calling this feature useful but I suppose you can re-define anything to be useful. Ads are useful too, because you can save money by buying the exact thing that you need. Its too bad that people are downloading ad-blockers by the millions. Google snooping on emails and extracting purchase related information to stick inside a dossi…

So I've rehashed this argument a lot recently: Google has to snoop on your emails. Every email provider does. Spam classification, automatic labelling/filtering, things like the "we think this is phishing" banners, etc. all require some form of analysis. You could (and seem to be) calling some of that "snooping", but some of it is acceptable. So the question is where is the line drawn?

> I think its a bit of a stretch calling this feature useful but I suppose you can re-define anything to be useful.

It's used to alert you on upcoming packages you may receive or bills you need to pay (if you have an android phone/google assistant). I think that's useful.

> The labels, are almost noise because its data that is an abstraction away from telling advertisers what will get you to open your wallet - which is the end goal.

Statements like this amaze me! You really think that manually curated labels would be less useful than automated inference about an email? Supervised learning is basically always easier than unsupervised, and email labels are, quite literally, labels for the data. It's a model-maker's dream!

> I don't think you can, and I could not follow the argument you made.

That's because you personally find labels useful and non-invasive, but feel that this other feature is not useful and is invasive. That's the only difference. If you felt you got value from the purchase history tools, which again, some people do, or if you didn't have an unfounded belief that everyone was lying to you and this data was being used in ways it isn't, you wouldn't find what is essentially automatic labelling of some emails invasive.

The argument is that labels are useful to some people. Google could misuse the data derived from labels. Similarly, purchase history info is useful to some people. Purchase history data could be misused by Google. If you trust Google to not misused labels, then why don't you trust them to not misuse purchase history? If you do trust them in both cases, this doesn't matter, and if you don't trust them at all, why are you using an email client that you think is completely lying about how they're using your data?

Re: Google – My Activity

#107

Post by detaro »

o10449366 wrote: post #104

It's honestly hilarious and sad to see so many commenters here defending and excusing Google because the services they provide are "free." Somehow Hacker News thinks this argument isn't applicable to Facebook. The truth of the matter is that both companies are committing huge privacy violations, but Google has managed to convince Hacker News and the US media (NYT in particular) that they aren't evil still. Good ridda…

You see plenty people defending Facebook too. Trying to assign a single opinion to a large group of people doesn't work.

Re: Google – My Activity

#108

Post by eutropia »

losvedir wrote: post #84

I guess I'll be the lone voice chiming in that I find this pretty useful. There's been a number of times I've been like "oh, what's that song I asked Google to identify a month ago?" or "what was that page I managed to find last year by searching about [x]?" that I've been able to remember via this tool. Yeah, Google knows everything about me. C'est la vie. At least it's useful. What exactly is the threat model that…

I liked the map[1] of all the places my phone has been. I mean, my damn telco and various three-letter agencies already have this info for wherever I have my smartphone -- so its nice that at least I have it too. I can reminisce about the frijte stand in Amsterdam.

[1]: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?authuser=0&pb

Re: Google – My Activity

#109

Post by Cd00d »

aylmao wrote: post #33

This goes deep. I see not only when I have used Instagram, but it knows which instagram profiles and direct messages I opened. I'm using Android at the moment, of course.

I don't see that. I see that I opened the Instagram app, but my in-app activity is in no way displayed.

What steps did you take to see what profiles you opened?

Re: Google – My Activity

#110

Post by arctia »

UtahDave wrote: post #71

I'm not the most tin foil hat kind of person. I don't mind some of the tracking Google does as long as I know about it. This url shocked me. They apparently track every app I open and use on my Pixel phone. They had individual entries for when I skip a song in Google Music. I feel physically sick. I went through and deleted most of what I could and turned off tracking where I could.

You don't think Spotify or any other music app (or any app for that matter) does the same thing? How do you think Spotify or any app provide you with recommendations?
Post reply on HN