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Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

theintercept.com

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Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#221

Post by jiaweihli »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #82
nil_pointer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Variants of "pixel trackers" still work fine on Gmail despite this. To this day a lot of marketing, recruiters and others are tracking when you open their message on Gmail.

Even with images disabled?

No, disabling images breaks pixel tracking. One way to quickly sanity check a mail client's priorities is whether it gives you the option to disable images by default.

Some clients that don't allow you to disable by default: Polymail, Gmail on iOS, Inbox (Google) on IOS

If it's free, you're the product...

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#222

Post by jiaweihli »

prepend wrote: post #81
jaclaz wrote: post #10

>Emails demanding deletion of the memo contained “pixel trackers” that notified human resource managers when their messages had been read, recipients determined. This seems like the worst part (not that the rest is not bad), anyone has an idea of what this "pixel trackers" are and how they actually work?

This is the reason why you never enable images in your email client. Gmail sucks a bit because it always enables certain images in email and that means that google pixel trackers are really hard to block if you use google mail. If I were an employee, I’d switch to a non-google email client. The privacy issue is problematic, but their functionality is also buggy. Untrained users will misinterpret them as they can get…

Do you mean desktop Gmail enables certain images, even if you disable images by default? That's news to me, can you give examples of some sites for whose emails this is true?

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#223

Post by UncleMeat »

zelon88 wrote: post #56
tomlu wrote: post #43

Disclaimer: I work for Google. I also think that there is an anti-Google bias on hacker news, holding Google to a standard not applied to others and taking any excuse to roll out the same old tired rants in response to almost any Google post (DAE Google Reader etc). If what I read is true then this is the first thing that has truly rocked my confidence that the company generally tries to do the right thing (while mak…

> Disclaimer: I work for Google. I also think that there is an anti-Google bias on hacker news, holding Google to a standard not applied to others and taking any excuse to roll out the same old tired rants in response to almost any Google post (DAE Google Reader etc). I hate to break this to you, but the anti-Google bias is well beyond HN. Google is pissing off conservatives who think you censor them, civil rights ac…

> When was the last time Microsoft or Apple publicly disclosed a Google Zero Day?

Microsoft and Apple don't have as good of a pentesting team. PZ publishes exploits that affect Google software all the time.

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#224

Post by IBM »

bduerst wrote: post #219
IBM wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>so you think the Chinese government would really allow the sale of unbreakable end to end encryption domestically just because it's Apple? Yes. Apple has even said this in court filings during the FBI legal fight [1]: >Finally, the government attempts to disclaim the obvious international implications of its demand, asserting that any pressure to hand over the same software to foreign agents “flows from [Apple’s] de…

The FBI is a US Government Agency, not China. And even then, the declaration you quote (made in a US Court case referring to the FBI) was made two years before Apple gave the keys over to China. Apple has deleted VPN apps from the Chinese store at the request of the Chinese government. They also added a clause to their TOS that allows the state-owned data company to access all user data. When they rolled this out and…

>was made two years before Apple gave the keys over to China.

I was wondering why you kept making these bad faith assertions but I see now that you're a Google employee. That explains it.

I'm sorry that your employer can't operate in China as Apple does. Apple's "special treatment" in China comes from the fact that millions of people are employed assembling their products.

Google's going to have to open up a lot more AI labs to get close [1].

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/12/google-opening-an-office-f...

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#225

Post by mactrey »

aikah wrote: post #111
tomlu wrote: post #43

Disclaimer: I work for Google. I also think that there is an anti-Google bias on hacker news, holding Google to a standard not applied to others and taking any excuse to roll out the same old tired rants in response to almost any Google post (DAE Google Reader etc). If what I read is true then this is the first thing that has truly rocked my confidence that the company generally tries to do the right thing (while mak…

> holding Google to a standard not applied to others When Microsoft was deemed "evil" under Balmer, Google acted like it was a "cool startup which didn't do evil" and used that positive PR to grow as they were seen more "ethical" than the competition. That's why they are held to higher standards today. Microsoft for instance never claimed they had any sort of moral compass other than the morals of making money.

Now that Microsoft is the underdog they are claiming exactly that. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/technology/microsoft-mora...

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#226

Post by MrEldritch »

JoshMnem wrote: post #29
mtgx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that is part of the reason why Microsoft has been hated/less trusted than Google for so long (and still is). Google is making a very big mistake ruining this image and supposedly core principles with the actions it's been taking in the past couple of years. They won't recover for decades from this, just like Microsoft still hasn't fully. Google's "Don't be evil" has been a huge branding asset, but it seems Google…

> These days I distrust almost every move Google makes by default, and I imagine there is a growing number of people like me. Google has lost its way, not just with this, but with AMP/Chrome/URLs, and their impending destruction of one of the great achievements of modern technology -- the decentralized, open WWW. The Web was always under attack but to see the fatal blows delivered by Google is very depressing. I've a…

The Web would have been dead no matter what Google did. Its death was as inevitable as any human's - just a matter of which organs fail, in what order, and when.

If there's one thing we can learn from all this, it's that decentralization of a network is best understood as a temporary process for electing the monopoly node(s).

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#227

Post by sincerely »

18pfsmt wrote: post #192
JoshMnem wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromium has many of the same problems as Chrome. I don't think Google can be trusted to not abuse their position any more.

Have you looked at this project? https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

That has the same issue as Waterfox and other projects where you lose out on quick fixes for discovered exploits.

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#228

Post by sincerely »

ehsankia wrote: post #195
lph wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that this appeasement will make Google a contender in China is blazingly ignorant of Chinese politics. No foreign company will ever be allowed to gain significant market share; it would be seen as a national security threat. The only way for Google would be to forge an equal partnership with a Chinese tech giant---Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, or maybe one of the two dominant cell carriers. Google is selling out…

Ok, they will never be as huge as local companies, but what's the downside to trying? Google being there doesn't make chinese access to internet any worse. If anything, their government would have to pump in more money into the local companies to stop Google from gaining a foothold, which would be a positive for their citizens.

The downside to trying is being knowingly complicit in human rights abuse lol

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#229

Post by sincerely »

prepend wrote: post #88

I guess we’ll get a new blog post from Pichai about the people he fired because tracking users against their wishes, exposing data against their wishes, and compelling employees to delete their own files “contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct.” [0] Fortunately Google is an ethical company and not hypocritical when it comes to very important issues. Maybe this will be positive and result in new US law l…

Reminds me of this tweet: https://twitter.com/nmgrm/status/1038790691529273345

>programmers get upset about the words “master/slave” in software now, but are happy to keep constructing a global surveillance economy and becoming middle caste

Re: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

#230

Post by codedokode »

quickben wrote: post #194
DenisM wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for me it doesn't. 69 on Mac OS.

Where are you two located? I have noticed Google discriminates per location. For example creating a Gmail account from Canada isn't possible without a phone number, whereas creating one from Europe is.

It probably depends on IP address reputation. For me in Russia, Google always requires a phone number, but I saw reports by others that phone isn't required for them.
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