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Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

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Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#161

Post by berbec »

briandear wrote: post #30
tdb7893 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main barrier is that people are generally unwilling to pay for these products now so it's hard to fund things with anything besides ads. If someone finds other ways to fund it I could see it but for now even with them vulnerable it would be hard to compete with them if you also were funded via ads.

They pay for similar services when they buy an Apple device. That’s why Apple Maps exists: to give people reasons to buy their hardware. iWork is free and not ad supported when you buy a Mac. Yet, when you buy a Chromebook, are Google Services ad-and-tracking free? Apple has proven that you can do “free” and respect privacy. Is ad-targeting/tracking happening when you use Google Services on a Pixel?

I don't defend Google long slide into hard-core-stalkerdom, but there is a slight price difference between a Macbook Air and a Chromebook. Apple uses hardware income to support software dev costs; Google uses tracking and ads to pay for same and keep device cost low.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#162

Post by berbec »

amf12 wrote: post #94
murukesh_s wrote: post #76

Looks like google has hit a gold mine with some algorithm to better sell ads or is under pressure from competitors (Facebook) to gather more data than they have currently. Their lack of presence in social media will hurt them in the long term. In Facebook you upload pictures, you like stuff, you spend more time on someone's profile, you hover more on an ad even if you don't click all these while you are logged in. Go…

>you upload pictures, you like stuff, you spend more time on someone's profile >Google doesn't have that graph Google has that information from the contacts of all Android phones, Google Photos, etc. Granted they don't probably have the information from iPhones, but then a lot of people don't have or use their FB account too. > No one logs into Google search and give their identity No one here. Most of the non-tech p…

And remember, logging into any Google service in Chrome now means you're logged into Chrome so more tracking!

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#163

Post by rjzzleep »

maxwellito wrote: post #143

But the funny part is Google keep your saved addresses. It only block the access. If you have your home and/or work address set in Gmaps, and you disable all tracking in myactivity.google.com. The address will disappear and GMaps will invite you to reactive App and Web tracking. If you do it, your saved addresses will reappear. This is slightly dodgy.

There is another interesting thing. You need to allow google tracking if you want to do searches in google maps. If you block it maps will crash. Turns out it needs a proper country code to work, regardless of where you're searching.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#164

Post by izacus »

lvs wrote: post #34
digitaLandscape wrote: post #26

There was a lot of uproar about this internally but nothing changed. They told us that this was the only "practical" option. The company has rotted.

From the outside, it seems to have reached a tipping point in the past year that is now getting quite dramatic. A whole string of heavy-handed, anti-user, and privacy-hostile decisions. What just happened to the culture that would allow all this evil behavior? Or did we misunderstand it all along?

> From the outside, it seems to have reached a tipping point in the past year that is now getting quite dramatic.

There was no real tipping point - the media just noticed it's easy to get clicks if they repeatedly write about Google. Google was always Google and they had similar ethics for years now.

It's pretty much why you also see all the Google articles on this page (just like you saw all the FB bashing a few months ago which now disappeared). I believe Reddit community calls this group behaviour a "circlejerk". People posting same content to reinforce their opinion.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#166

Post by rjzzleep »

jorblumesea wrote: post #70
digitaLandscape wrote: post #26

There was a lot of uproar about this internally but nothing changed. They told us that this was the only "practical" option. The company has rotted.

Most large companies have a "jump the shark" moment where business needs and biz dev take over the engineering/product side and starts running the show unilaterally. It becomes less of an equal affair and more dictating terms. Microsoft's was in the 90s in the os/browser wars.

Same thing happened to Sun Solaris

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#167

Post by a_imho »

aviraldg wrote: post #144
a_imho wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing dark about this, they are doing this in plain sight, there is very little people (who wants to use Google services*) can do about it. Even GDPR looks more and more toothless as days go by and nothing happens to obvious violators and it only covers European users of course.

Why should they not be able to control how they provide access to a product they develop and provide for free?

Because in the case of the EU it is against the regulations of the market they want to operate in.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#168

Post by ax0ar »

user111233 wrote: post #87
tdb7893 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main barrier is that people are generally unwilling to pay for these products now so it's hard to fund things with anything besides ads. If someone finds other ways to fund it I could see it but for now even with them vulnerable it would be hard to compete with them if you also were funded via ads.

People are paying $1000+ for Pixel phones. I think that should cover the cost of an alarm app.

The thing is, you don't only need an alternative for the alarm app if you want to get rid of GApps.

The hidden costs of apps Google gives you for "free" is probably above $1,000. I guess the majority would give away their privacy for that amount these days.

Re: Google Maps won't let you save home address without allowing all Google tracking

#169

Post by maybebad »

jchw wrote: post #80
digitaLandscape wrote: post #26

There was a lot of uproar about this internally but nothing changed. They told us that this was the only "practical" option. The company has rotted.

Was there internal uproar? Did they say this was the only "practical" option? I have missed all of this if so, I thought this is how Maps worked since this feature first popped up.

There is only uproar for war contracts... turns out "Do No Evil" isn't as important as "get a paycheck that allows you to live in the most expensive real estate in the known universe"
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