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Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

theguardian.com

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Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#161

Post by sharcerer »

phs318u wrote: post #106
ggm wrote: post #63

I have two feelings about this. The first is, that if my data usefully supplies information to "the commons" which makes services like maps better for everyone including me, there is a zero-sum win-win here, and I'm ok. The second is, that if there is some private leveraged advantage Google gets, over other people, which dis-equilibriates in the commons, This is not good, and I should be told quite clearly thats the…

> if my data usefully supplies information to "the commons" This could be achieved using an approach like differential privacy[0] which Apple use. [0] https://images.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_O...

Fyi, google also uses it. Has been using it before Apple. Even opensourced it so that people could make sure its effectiveness. Also, right now its AI division is doing considerable research in federated learning ( its basically, diff. provacy). But,apple promoted this as if it was their breakthrough. Heard of Ian Goodfellow (the GANfather)? He is one of the geniuses at G researching in this area.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#162

Post by gaius »

voltagex_ wrote: post #137
lysp wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume that not all that information would require real-time feeding of data back to Google. So quite a lot I'd assume would be buffered and sent back while you're on a wifi connection.

On many, many Australian ADSL connections you'd notice anything sending that amount per month purely because how slow the connection would become.

When you look at a page that has 5k of text you want to read and 5Mb of JS, that’s what this is

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#164

Post by askvictor »

gaius wrote: post #159
askvictor wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your realistic options are to move the EU or to stop using Google. Maybe one day they'll offer a subscription based fee for it's services, but for now you pay with your data.

If Google or FB ever offered a paid option they would still track you. Why wouldn’t they?

Google offer enterprise services for a fee, and don't track you.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#165

Post by leohutson »

_ptgt wrote: post #100
code_duck wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t have to send back all of the raw data, just analyses like ‘person X’s face detected, is in a noisy place’ or ‘conversation included these 5 keywords’. The processing and data transfer could also be deferred until the phone is idle or on WiFi.

It's just as farfetched to think they're doing constant image/voice recognition with your phone's processor without you knowing. Those models are big and take a lot of computing power

Exactly, that's why "OK Google" isn't a thing.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#166

Post by Lio »

mdekkers wrote: post #151

I'm really sick of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and every other company that uses lies, deceit, ambiguity and general dark patterns to coerce me into parting with the ownership of my systems. Google must be laughing their asses off with all the Facebook scrutiny - I am pretty sure that the profile FB has on users and non-users alike is but a vague precis when compared with the profile Google has on all of us. M…

Could I suggest you look at https://puri.sm/products/ for both private phone and laptops running Linux.

They can't deliver everything that RMS would look for in a laptop or phone yet but they are actively working to remove all binary blobs from their CoreBoot BIOS and to disable the Intel Management Engine.

Their OS is already FSF compliant.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#167

Post by dx034 »

raihansaputra wrote: post #158
dx034 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I turned all assistant features off (search obviously still works) and only location on for apps. Location history and sharing are also off but I'm not sure if they still save some location information. I'll wait for the 25th May and then download data (I'm in the EU) to see what they have..

You now can download what's currently available through Google's Takeout. Maybe once GDPR is in effect more stuff can be available, but I'm not sure what those will be.

That's why I wait. Don't want to do the work twice in one month. It could be that they already provide all data but I'm only sure from the 25th.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#168

Post by mseebach »

goldenkey wrote: post #148
mseebach wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try making a controlled experiment. Humans are notoriously good at seeing patterns that aren't there.

The patterns are there. But often the connection is meaningful, not causal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity

The pattern in this case is the connection between surreptitious listening and the suggestion.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#169

Post by merb »

sjwright wrote: post #38
merb wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course it isn't. I own the phone, not Google. Maybe the phone, but not the software running on it.

I don't know why that comment was being voted down, but it is a correct and important point. Consumers' idea of product ownership is more aligned with that of cars and coffee machines. Most consumers don't realise how little of their phone is purchased and how much of it is licensed, rented or reliant on corporate existence. Imagine if Apple and Google magically disappeared from the universe—the value and utility of…

> Consumers' idea of product ownership is more aligned with that of cars and coffee machines.

Well in germany there is a good sentence about that. 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse'. So basically no matter what you know of anything you won't be guarded by laziness (at least if you are under normal conditions of course).

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#170

Post by lakechfoma »

gaius wrote: post #159
askvictor wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your realistic options are to move the EU or to stop using Google. Maybe one day they'll offer a subscription based fee for it's services, but for now you pay with your data.

If Google or FB ever offered a paid option they would still track you. Why wouldn’t they?

I wonder about this with news sites that are increasingly going paywalled. Do they also turn the tracking or even ads entirely off, or do we just pay money to be tracked now?
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