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Google – My Activity

myactivity.google.com

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Re: Google – My Activity

#111

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

la_barba wrote: post #66
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it matter, though? They claim the list is there purely for your own personal consumption. If that's true, and you don't care to use it, it costs you nothing that it exists. If that's false, then it doesn't matter whether you can delete it or not, because if they're willing to lie about its uses, they would also be willing to lie about whether they deleted it.

> They claim the list is there purely for your own personal consumption The problem is that they are constantly thinking along these lines, and building products to enable this. Also, they are an advertising company, so this is something that is of value to them. Fox guarding the hen-house stuff. 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 th…

> What is the business justification?

They want to give users the ability to inspect the source data for various further derived features they provide, like shipping notifications.

Re: Google – My Activity

#112

Post by truebosko »

snowwindwaves wrote: post #65
truebosko wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's notable is that when I search though DDG, Google still is able to see and track my search item there. I did not even think about that, but a bit eye opening. (I am using Chrome, afterall)

Do you mean When you search using google through ddg via !g bang operator, not when you search just using DDG (which uses bing apparently)?

Ah yes, it's only when I use the !g bang operator. But if I recall, a selling point of DDG and searching Google via the operator was that lack of track-ability. Of course, again, I am using Chrome so not shocked, just notable.

Re: Google – My Activity

#113

Post by daveslash »

okmokmz wrote: post #97
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…

Does there have to be a a threat model for people to be uncomfortable with or unsupportive of surveillance? I just bought a new android phone, and if you accept the defaults they track so many different things (not even while you are using a google service necessarily). I disabled it all, and am constantly prompted to enable location history and a bunch of other tracking features. I don't like Google, I don't like th…

I don't have a "threat model", per se -- I haven't written anything down or drawn anything. However, I do use the term "threat model" in conversation. What I generally mean by this is "I've given a lot of thought to what/where the biggest threats are in my life and the steps I'm willing to take accordingly". My threat model is an informal mental-model more than an actual document (like the threat models I create at work).

Re: Google – My Activity

#114

Post by VikingCoder »

jwr wrote: post #47

This is great. Now I can see in a single place how YouTube mixes other people's history with mine. It seems I watched "Funny Dinosaurs in Poop Fight", "Poop Cartoon 04: Fried Sh*t" and "Pirate Pete's Potty: Potty Training Video for Toddlers" yesterday. Fun. (I've been getting some other kid's watched videos in my history, and Google doesn't care about this kind of history mixing, my reports got me nowhere).

Have you verified this?

https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity

Re: Google – My Activity

#115

Post by tambre »

sandworm101 wrote: post #78
flattone wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there a 'not google' solution? Real question. Also I'm thinking/wanting the same for my phone. (hardware and service). Is there a method for public owned cell phone service (not expecting it to exist, but as a feasibility question - regardless of current obstacles)?

Yes. There have been a few "linux phone" projects, including the ubuntu phone. I too want an open phone onto which I can install a variety of operating systems and would pay serious money for such a device. Sadly, no such product exists atm. If anyone is listening: I could not care less about instagram or reddit's app. Forget the app store ecosystem junk. Just give me a phone that can make calls and runs a basic web…

Librem 5? [0]

[0]: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

Re: Google – My Activity

#116

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

la_barba wrote: post #57
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I fully understand the objection here. The purchase list is a view over your email. They have the email, and they have the code to construct the purchase from the email. What possible additional security would there be in deleting the derived object if they still have the source material and the means to reconstruct the derived object? If you don't trust them to handle the derived object according to you…

I think the problem also is that Google scans incoming emails sent by non-google users who haven't agreed to such scanning. (Edit: also with personal domains, a sender may have no idea if this email will eventually find its way on Googles servers) > at least if you believe the news and Google's public statements, it doesn't use the contents of your email for ad targeting. True, but its important to note that it used…

> I think the problem also is that Google scans incoming emails sent by non-google users who haven't agreed to such scanning.

That is definitely not the problem. Email you send is owned by its recipient. Generally, the recipient can do what they want with it, including delegating to Google and allowing Google to scan it for purchase information.

> They didn't make it clear if they removed information mined from previous scanning of emails.

That information was ephemeral, IIRC. It was scanned when you loaded an email to allow advertisers to make bids for ads relevant to the given email. In any case, bits rot at Google like anywhere else. If a feature or system is no longer being maintained, it quickly stops working. There is approximately zero chance that they retained any data that they theoretically would have generated from emails scanned half a decade ago.

Re: Google – My Activity

#118

Post by angryasian »

For a supposedly tech related group, I'm more surprised that you guys are surprised on whats being tracked. Yes Google has the ability to track A LOT because of the severvices most people use, but don't most people have an abundance of tracking and user metrics across their own product. I know every company I've worked at does the same.

Re: Google – My Activity

#119

Post by o10449366 »

detaro wrote: post #107
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.

I see this argument a lot of Hacker News and Reddit. While it's true that both websites are comprised of a large and diverse body of individuals who share differing opinions and various subjects, that doesn't mean you can't discern real trends and biases within them. I think it's quite clear from reading any of the past month's discussions on Facebook:

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=facebook&sort=byPopularity&pre...

Re: Google – My Activity

#120

Post by kekebo »

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…

Usefulness shouldn't justify evil. It may be more comfortable to shrug it off that way but it also helps to normalize it.

There are a couple of examples in history where similar attitude on a societal level ultimately led to the most terrible of outcomes.

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