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

New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

forbrukerradet.no

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 463 posts

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#141

Post by sidibe »

sbuk wrote: post #121
sidibe wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GDPR does not allow you to trade services in return for using your data for ads. A website can't deny you service if you opt out of tracking, so EU has decided that business model should not be viable even if both parties agree.

That makes no sense. If both parties legitimately agree, then there is nothing that the GDPR can do about it. The issue arises if one party decides that they no longer wish the other party to hold on to their data anymore, and the other party refuses to delete the information and withdraw services. The unacceptable business model for GDPR is providing a service that requires personal data in order to function. Google…

>The unacceptable business model for GDPR is providing a service that requires personal data in order to function. Google making search unavailable to those not providing PII would be in breach of the regulation.

Seems like we are on the same page? This in essence means you can't pay for a service with your data. The service always has to be provided whether you choose to let them use your data or not.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#142

Post by beezischillin »

delusional wrote: post #132
dddddaviddddd wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally hypocritical since turning location history back on will restore your home address — Google's been keeping it all along and just denying you access to it.

Even worse. Using navigation to your home address, they will actually ask you to "Save your home address", but then pop up a permission to track your search history. Want to use the assistant to turn on your lights? You better believe that requires the huge "Web and App activity" which also includes location.

That's nuts! As barebones as Siri is, I guess this is one of the things Apple got right with their software integration.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#143

Post by [deleted] »

tirpen wrote: post #28
mscasts wrote: post #5

This is scary stuff. Thank you norway for taking the fight against Google. How can you turn this off on an android?

You can turn of "Location History" and "Web & App History", for your google account from https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization Before you deactivate them, I suggest looking through the data Google has saved in them for a while so you grok the full scale of how horrible those settings truly are.

[deleted]

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#144

Post by SomeoneOnTheNet »

aherz wrote: post #123
levesque wrote: post #4

I tried using Google Maps without search history turned on. It's basically a downgraded version. They tied saving locations with the search history, so it won't let you search for friends' contacts, set a home address, etc. Is it on purpose? I don't know, but I find it weird that they would tie some unrelated features together. Why does setting a Home address require search history?

As manipulative as Google can be, we should keep in mind that Google Maps is incredibly useful and we get to use it for "free". Yes we pay with our data and privacy and Google can do a better job of making that transparent but we can only get so upset when we don't get the full version of a product when we don't want to give our data.

Maps is not free - as you mentioned, you pay with data.

However, there are FOSS and privacy respecting alternatives, most are based upon OpenStreetMap - wikipedia style map of the world. Some data is still lacking, but at least you yourself can fix it if you want to.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#146

Post by stickfigure »

levesque wrote: post #4

I tried using Google Maps without search history turned on. It's basically a downgraded version. They tied saving locations with the search history, so it won't let you search for friends' contacts, set a home address, etc. Is it on purpose? I don't know, but I find it weird that they would tie some unrelated features together. Why does setting a Home address require search history?

This seems pretty reasonable to me, although perhaps they named the switch poorly. My guess is that the product manager is trying to provide a single simple "privacy fiend" setting.

You apparently want fine-grained privacy controls ("save my personal locations, but not my search history"). It's reasonable to want that, but it seems awfully entitled (not you, but many others on this thread) to demand it. Especially since we've seen from past history that a multitude of fine-grained privacy controls tends to propagate the narrative "Evil corporation confuses users with complex privacy UI".

Product management is way harder than you are giving it credit for.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#147

Post by lostmyoldone »

gerbilly wrote: post #81

I read an article a while back, that argued[1] that openness to tracking and surveillance may be linked to helicopter parenting. The argument goes that because millenials have been raised to be under continuous adult supervision, that predisposes them to view surveillance as benign and benevolent. [1] I can't find the source.

This was (essentially) the assumption that made me decide that teaching my daughter to expect privacy by respecting hers was the only way to go. It turned out well, and I feel like a lot of other positives emerged out of it.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#148

Post by heywire »

On the subject of Dark Patterns, Linkedin has to be one of the biggest offenders. Almost every time I open their app (which isn't very often), they try to trick me into uploading my contact list. I wonder if it'll come to some sort of regulation that requires companies to respect your opt-out answer and not continuously badger you into opting back in.

Re: New study: Google manipulates users into constant tracking

#150

Post by jayd16 »

beezischillin wrote: post #136
kache_ wrote: post #6

They constantly berate you to deactivate no tracking preferences on google maps. When you're aware of this fact you start seeing it everywhere, not just on google. For example, on Pinterest they will berate you to sign up using highlighted buttons on land, and the x button is out of the way on the top right corner. This end result is due to product managers/devs looking at conversion rates and optimizing for whatever…

Same goes for trying to turn on Voice Match (and the voice activated OK, Google), a feature that's supposed to take a snapshot of your voice and activate the assistant, like "Hey, Siri!". They will force you to activate: 1. web/activity history, 2. saving all your voice requests to the Google and they push you to activate Location History. While Voice Match learning the sound of your voice sounds like a completely lo…

>While Voice Match learning the sound of your voice sounds like a completely local task

But voice rec is not local. The reason it asks to store your voice is because they need to send it to their backend for recognition.

Post reply on HN