141–150 of 399 posts
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Maps app -> Settings -> Notifications -> Your Contributions (and uncheck boxes as desired). The controls exist.
But does that mean Google stops collecting the data? Sure, no notifications, but will they still know what restaurant I just walked past?
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Also, if they were behind a configuration option and defaulted to on, most people would be fine turning it off and forgetting about it. This seems to be about lack of control. It's good for developers to think carefully before they ship products that do things with no way of being told not to. EDIT: Welp. Apparently these settings exist. I don't understand the point of the blog post then. Why is it so upsetting, if y…
Default on is outrageous. It's clear the average person doesn't know how to access and manage even some of these settings, much less understand what they do or be able to understand what privacy violations will continue despite turning something off in one place.
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I'm sorry, what makes Google so "deeply unethical?"
Well I feel like it’s kind of easy to guess what they mean. I’m sure it’s related to spying and data hoarding and tracking and privacy issues and their incentives are highly misaligned and encourage unethical anti consumer behavior.
[citation needed]
> data hoarding
Collecting data is "deeply unethical"? So then the census and hospital and anyone else who collects data are unethical too?
> tracking
You can disable location permission on everything.
> privacy issues
[citation needed]
> their incentives are highly misaligned
How is bringing you the most relevant data "misaligned"? That is their incentive as an ad company. Showing you things that you will like.
> encourage unethical anti consumer behavior
[citation needed]
The real question is: is this creepy or ingenious? The reality is that their products are the best because they are able to crowdsource the masses for practically free. Google Maps- How do you think they are so good with traffic and or know when a place is busy? [Google admits it tracked user location data even when the setting was turned off]( https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/21/16684818/google-location... ) Tensorf…
Google are a deeply, deeply unethical company and all of their employees are complicit. On a more practical note, I live in apartment above a restaurant. My phone now asks me to review this restaurant every time I come home and wants me to post photos I take in my apartment to the restaurant's map page. Now that OSM data is as good as Google and Maps.Me is a good enough client, my next phone will be completely de-Goo…
Why did you purchase a phone with an OS provided by what you believe to be a deeply unethical company?
The industry has to figure out how to deal with privacy concerns, because a digital assistant which is continuously aware of your location and what you're doing will be tremendously useful. It's a little friend in your pocket that we won't be able to imagine living without.
Traffic jam ahead? Got you covered.
Can't remember someones name? I've got it here.
Need to remember the name of that great you discovered last time you were in this area? Got it here.
Looks like you need an ambulance.. it's on the way.
Privacy issues abound, but possibilities are endless and people _want_ these features. At present many of the benefits from a smart phone that we have become accustomed to are only possible because of data harvesting. Perhaps as hardware continues to evolve, and these features commoditized we can convince organizations that we will actually pay for the services if we can have greater control over our data.
Thanks for sharing your views on what is "creepy". Not everyone agrees (as can be seen from the comments) and I have a feeling that what feels creepy today will seem normal tomorrow, but your concerns are valid.
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Also, if they were behind a configuration option and defaulted to on, most people would be fine turning it off and forgetting about it. This seems to be about lack of control. It's good for developers to think carefully before they ship products that do things with no way of being told not to. EDIT: Welp. Apparently these settings exist. I don't understand the point of the blog post then. Why is it so upsetting, if y…
Maps app -> Settings -> Notifications -> Your Contributions (and uncheck boxes as desired). The controls exist.
I admit though, as a user of the data, I find this very helpful. Google is absolutely brilliant at give real time traffic information to roads and businesses. You want to know if Costco is busy right now, they'll tell you. Accident getting there going to cost you 5 minutes, they'll tell you that too.
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"Google are a deeply, deeply unethical company and all of their employees are complicit." ... "My phone now asks me to review this restaurant every time I come home ..." Why are you using their products (specifically, their phones with their ecosystem built-in) if they are "deeply, deeply unethical") ? Every single step you take while your phone on is giving them more data and building their resource base.
because in the world we live in there are only two practical options; Android or iOS. Yes, you can do your homework and spend serious time customizing either one through the numerous amounts of gotchas to increase your privacy. At the end it boils down to "do you want Internet, email and maps that work in your phone? Good, deal with all this then!". If there was a single option that offered all of this at a reasonabl…
No, people would still go for the free product, killing the other option.
If Google charges $1 per month for no tracking whatsoever, I'd bet that the vast, vast majority of the population wouldn't pay.
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Maps app -> Settings -> Notifications -> Your Contributions (and uncheck boxes as desired). The controls exist.
But does that mean Google stops collecting the data? Sure, no notifications, but will they still know what restaurant I just walked past?
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You shouldn't have to opt out of spam.
For most people it's not spam.
I did not sign up for any product promotion notifications, so if I receive any it's spam.