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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

#281

Post by larkeith »

wutbrodo wrote: post #270
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way, and it makes me sad. I was so bullish on Google when I first got a job and investing my savings, bought into the company when it was still Google. I thought the rebrand to Alphabet was a good idea like everything Google, though their abandonment of 'Don't be Evil' planted the first seed of doubt. What made that doubt grow was that I use Youtube as a customer and... well. I'm sure you've seen the…

Can you elaborate on the problem with YouTube? Other people have mentioned it too here. I use it pretty frequently and it seems to work the way it always did, more or less. Hell, they don't even bug me with original content recommendations the way they did briefly (and the way Netflix continues to).

Not OP, but I posted a comment regarding YouTube for mobile here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18075895

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

#282

Post by vorpalhex »

Tor3 wrote: post #271
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, at least the official story is that that is because doing a scan on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is in fact enough to locate you regardless, so it now requires the permission to do so.

A scan on Bluetooth (although N/A for this situation) can't possibly give away any position. A scan of wifi might, if the device happens to pick up a wi-fi source that Google has already collected (by some means). Still not very relevant though - it would mean that location permission would be needed in order to use wi-fi at all , because how would it otherwise find the hotspot or access point you want to connect to.…

You now have to have that location tracking permission to scan wifi SSIDs, and it came about because spammy data stealing apps were using SSID maps to get rough location.

Not to say Google isn't evil because they certainly seem to be headed to hell while holding us in a hand basket, but this one is legit.

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

#283

Post by dx87 »

ubercow13 wrote: post #274
snarfy wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search for anything, watch the video, then watch the next recommended video. Keep following the recommendations. See where you end up. If you know exactly what you want to watch it's fine, but the whole browsing/surfing experience sucks.

I agree that if you leave it playing it will go off on a tangent, but I find the list of recommended videos along the right side to be _very_ good. It really does list things I would want to watch based off past viewing and what's currently playing. I find it to be the most useful (only useful?) recommendation engine in any product.

It's good at finding things you'd watch, but not necessarily things you should be watching. Ex-youtube employees said that the algorithm is trained to keep you engaged and watching videos, so the recommended videos keep getting more and more extreme. This isn't really an issue with music because it just ends up at more niche artists, but if you watch a political video and keep following its recommendations, eventually you end up wathcing extremist left/right wing propaganda. Sure, it's something you don't mind watching once you get there, but it's not necessarily something you would have wanted to watch before the youtube algorithm led you there. Again, this is how the algorithm was described by an ex-youtube employee, not just a casual user.

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

#284

Post by a_imho »

okal wrote: post #275
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.

Dark patterns aren't dark because they're "hidden". They're dark because they're misleading, or coercive.

Dark patterns are misleading, like highlighting the opt-in box for GDPR. No one is tricking users here, there are no options, they are told to suck it up.

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

#285

Post by larkeith »

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.

Also of note: On the maps app, saved home and work locations are unavailable any time you have the location function disabled. Allow maps access to your location, and suddenly all saved locations are once again visible.

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

#286

Post by pluma »

mikejb wrote: post #243
pluma wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference. But in practice the difference doesn't matter. As a user you expect a reasonable level of privacy unless the software explicitly requests your consent for providing certain information or explicitly asks you to provide that information manually. If the software then hands that information off to a third party you expect that only to happen with explicit consent. The problem in this case is that…

There is a difference, and in practice as in theory, it matters a lot. You can delete your data on your Google account - that gets rid of your data. Deleting that data after it was sold to 3rd parties is like trying to delete your drunk party picture from the internet. Sure, you can try to invoke GDPR, but that's going to be hard when the data was sold to some Chinese company that doesn't operate financially in Europ…

You don't seem to comprehend the fact that in the scope of the GDPR they can't sell to "some Chinese company" without your consent.

If you can only explain why selling is worse by creating a scenario where the selling is done without consent or in an equally malicious/shady way, that doesn't demonstrate that selling is inherently worse.

Selling isn't worse. Selling without regard for a user's rights is bad. But Google is already engaging in abusive behavior as far as users' rights are concerned.

Also, I know this is hard to understand if you're not used to real privacy laws, but if a company sells your data and you invoke your rights against the company, it's the company's responsibility to go after whoever they sold the data to, not yours.

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

#287

Post by dmitrygr »

balladeer wrote: post #67
dmitrygr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you can easily uninstall it

Can you please tell us how unless it's a custom ROM/non rooted Android phones? (Not disabling)

Disable == uninstall. It is the same thing as far as package manager is concerned. No code ever runs. No data ever used.

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

#288

Post by taneq »

MKinley wrote: post #249
jamesb93 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps is insanely laggy on my Xiaomi Redmi note 4x. THis is with the performance kernel configuration on with GPU running 100%. Its just horribly optimised and has so much clutter now. Does anyone know a decent alternative? (please don't say waze)

Have you tried Open Street Maps? You can get their app from F-droid. Edit: Maps (Offline OpenStreetMap maps) - https://f-droid.org/app/com.github.axet.maps

I've been using OSMAnd+ for a while now and it's awesome. Offline maps, navigation with voice prompts, pretty much everything you expect, and it doesn't spam your location to a third party. Yay!

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

#289

Post by chillingeffect »

ubercow13 wrote: post #269
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way, and it makes me sad. I was so bullish on Google when I first got a job and investing my savings, bought into the company when it was still Google. I thought the rebrand to Alphabet was a good idea like everything Google, though their abandonment of 'Don't be Evil' planted the first seed of doubt. What made that doubt grow was that I use Youtube as a customer and... well. I'm sure you've seen the…

What's wrong with YouTube?

In addition to those technical options, they have been substantially reducing revenue to producers and their algorithms have been shifting popular videos out of visible areas. Often popular producers will see sudden losses in their incomes.

Videos are not enough to sustain, they're like apps; a part of a larger revenue model. This disincentivizes smaller, interesting producers and pushes the platform to be more like network television was, with handfuls of large, conventionally attractive people.

I don't find it terrible at all now, but i hope it doesn't keep going in this direction. It's currently a wonderful resource for people who want to do all kinds of things from home and garden improvements, to cooking, improve mental and physical health, etc. Far closer to the utopian dreams of early internet enthusiasts than most other sites.

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

#290

Post by taneq »

oblio wrote: post #151
mtrycz2 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The company has rotted. It has always been the plan, it's literally their business model.

Yeah, I read some posts from a former employee. The ad model was there from day 1 and people can't just act like Page and Brin are brilliant yet failed to see the potential for harm in their business model.

There's a difference between "serve ads next to web search results" and "harvest literally every data point we can befuddle or coerce people into giving up."
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