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

Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 452 posts

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#291

Post by avsteele »

What crazy to me is how hard to parse the email was. I could hardly make heads or tails of it, and I'm no dummy. It almost seemed intentional, and now it makes sense.

Even manually setting this feature once you understand it I can't do either!

So first you might land here:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/11194328#zippy=%2Chow-do...

Then the instructions say:

> You can enable or disable Google Workspace search history:

> * Go to the My Activity page.

> * Click Other Google activity and then Google Workspace search history.

> * Click On or Off.

But this is wrong! When you follow the link the "Google workspace search history" is hidden in a hamburger menu in the top left. You have to click that to open the menu, THEN you can click on "Other Google Activity". But on THAT page there is no setting called "Google Workspace Search History". Just the old "Web & App Activity"

So what, I have to set a reminder for after 3/29/22 to come back to this screen? Madness!

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#292

Post by pclmulqdq »

foota wrote: post #110
tesseract wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Turn after the Dunkin Donuts on the right onto Maple Street"

These aren't ads, they're intended to provide a point of reference for users.

These aren't supposed to be seen as ads, but they are ads. I've never heard "turn right at the public library," but I have heard "turn right at the tiny dunkin donuts across the street from the huge public library."

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#293

Post by blackboxlogic »

riverguardian wrote: post #70

Hello hello, PM for the feature checking in here. amf12's reply is quite on-point. Web and App Activity is designed to store search activity across all Google services, and we're splitting Workspace data out since it's governed by strict data handling guarantees, with the hope that more people will feel comfortable getting the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-into search history being trac…

"No, your honor. They didn't consent. But I have corrected that."

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#294

Post by enriquto »

tazjin wrote: post #290
janoc wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm, sorry but Yandex of all things? Given that this is a Russian company with Kremlin having a "golden veto" power in? No, thanks. Google may be evil but moving my data from Google to the Russian government spooks is really not a solution.

Yeah. I live in Russia and I trust this government more than e.g. the American one. It's always a matter of perspective.

I don't get this point of view. If you live in Russia, of all places, you'd likely want to avoid Yandex. On the other hand, for people from non-Russian countries Yandex is probably a better and safer choice than Google.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#295

Post by blackboxlogic »

blackboxlogic wrote: post #293
riverguardian wrote: post #70

Hello hello, PM for the feature checking in here. amf12's reply is quite on-point. Web and App Activity is designed to store search activity across all Google services, and we're splitting Workspace data out since it's governed by strict data handling guarantees, with the hope that more people will feel comfortable getting the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-into search history being trac…

"No, your honor. They didn't consent. But I have corrected that."

"No, it's ok officer. We consented For them."

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#296

Post by marcosdumay »

mikro2nd wrote: post #124
kornhole wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the spiral of businesses based on personal data. They are pressured to meet quarterly earnings targets. As more people flee with their data, they must squeeze more out of what they have and can get. They are trying to diversify into business services and hardware, but those are struggling even though often heavily discounted. Their tarnished reputation is making it harder for customers in those markets to tru…

"quarterly earnings targets" It's worse than that: It's YoY revenue growth targets that really matter to the stock price, hence the never-ending push to put more ads into places you never expected to see them. FWIW I've pretty-much given up on YouTube due to the aggressive ad insertions.

Or, in other words, the huge price/earnings of all stocks (even large companies) require that those companies grow even when this is physically impossible. Otherwise there is a huge downwards correction on the price, and people that brought it by the unrealistic price (that's anybody that brought it) lose most of their money.

This is the price of participating in an irrational market.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#297

Post by Mezzie »

pilif wrote: post #171
greyface- wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You challenged the tone of the question, but you didn't attempt to answer it. Do you believe that nobody in their right mind would want this functionality turned off?

I'm relying on search history in my Google Workspace account every single day. It's very convenient and I have a feeling most people would agree with that. What is a double-edged sword is how this history is being used. If it's just about offering search history for each individual user, then it's not a privacy issue and strictly an improvement in convenience. Turning it on offers the convenience, turning it off, rem…

I have a use case for turning it off:

I'm in the middle of trying to create a taxonomy of our unwieldly internal documentation (which exists, to my despair, mostly in Google Workspace Apps). Part of this is recreating how other employees find and access things, including search.

And oftentimes when I'm searching in this capacity, I'm looking specifically for documents that are hard to find or that I've never had to touch before. My history is not only not helpful, I don't want it on because I don't want it influencing my thinking or searching.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#298

Post by titzer »

riverguardian wrote: post #70

Hello hello, PM for the feature checking in here. amf12's reply is quite on-point. Web and App Activity is designed to store search activity across all Google services, and we're splitting Workspace data out since it's governed by strict data handling guarantees, with the hope that more people will feel comfortable getting the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-into search history being trac…

I encourage you, unreservedly, and without any personal malice, to fight the reality distortion field that causes people to make decisions like the above.

Users do not want this. Engineers, PMs, and executives want this. Google's 23% YoY revenue growth wants this. To Google, users who don't subject to dystopian tracking, who don't consent to Google knowing everything about them, who just want to go about their own lives while not being studied like a lab rat, or pestered to let an all-powerful force in the sky wring their lives of all digital value, are a round-off error. Google has shifted from its default modes of putting the user first, offering them services and information at their request, of being uninteresting in who or why is asking...that it has become one of the leading forces eroding user privacy, agency, and trust.

Inside of Google, the reality distortion field is intense. It doesn't feel intense, it feels rational and right. Google sees itself as an infinitely benevolent force for good in this world that occasionally makes mistakes. It literally cannot fathom what an abusive, creepy, and unfeeling machine it's become. It sees itself as being made of very moral people. It cannot understand that its enormous size, its market position, and its list of priorities have created a configuration of people that can do nothing but eat the world, and at this point it is doing so, despite what those people have in their heads.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#299

Post by endisneigh »

justin_oaks wrote: post #26
jjulius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the very extensive track record you allude to is more than enough to convince me that Google's never flipping the "don't be evil" bit back on. It's gone. Done. Sayonara. Adios. Bon voyage. Kaput. Fin. Au revoir. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I tend to agree. Companies don't seem to switch to being good once they go evil. I would love it if someone could share a counterexample. I want it to be true that companies don't just turn evil but can become better too.

Your problem is you think companies are good to begin with. Companies exist to make money. Nothing more or less.

Re: Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off

#300

Post by tedivm »

riverguardian wrote: post #70

Hello hello, PM for the feature checking in here. amf12's reply is quite on-point. Web and App Activity is designed to store search activity across all Google services, and we're splitting Workspace data out since it's governed by strict data handling guarantees, with the hope that more people will feel comfortable getting the benefits of better search in Workspace without having to opt-into search history being trac…

Whenever Google does something awful a product manager comes in here and tries to justify it. We get that there's business reasons why you'd do this, but it's still deeply unethical.

The fact that we can't disable this feature for our workspace is also pretty messed up. Yes disabling the feature could remove some functionality- but that's a choice the users should make.

Post reply on HN