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How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

nytimes.com

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Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#31

Post by lrem »

tzfld wrote: post #20

My concern about these deletion request is that you are totally at the will of the platforms, that they actually will delete your data. This already imply trust towards them. And if you have trust they handling data with responsibility, why would you need to ask for delete?

I feel I can trust Google today. What if Larry and Sergey sell the company tomorrow? What if I decide to go into politics and a written record of me saying the sky is blue and 2+2=4 becomes a problem?

As someone who supported a major database in Google some five years ago: the amount of development effort that went into the GDPR compliance (we haven't even heard that name then, only that the EU is brewing a law that requires us to be able to delete data) was very surprising. So at least one corp does actually delete the data correctly.

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#33

Post by nathias »

lrem wrote: post #31
tzfld wrote: post #20

My concern about these deletion request is that you are totally at the will of the platforms, that they actually will delete your data. This already imply trust towards them. And if you have trust they handling data with responsibility, why would you need to ask for delete?

I feel I can trust Google today. What if Larry and Sergey sell the company tomorrow? What if I decide to go into politics and a written record of me saying the sky is blue and 2+2=4 becomes a problem? As someone who supported a major database in Google some five years ago: the amount of development effort that went into the GDPR compliance (we haven't even heard that name then, only that the EU is brewing a law that…

if you feel you can trust Google today, you'll probably feel the same way in the future, regardless of what happens

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#34

Post by jefftk »

why-oh-why wrote: post #18

A few months ago someone posted a tool that cleared this and old tweets as well, but I can’t remember the name. I wish there was a tool that regularly nuked my Facebook history as well, from comments in random groups to likes across the site. I have no use for things I commented 10 years ago.

> I have no use for things I commented 10 years ago.

This attitude confuses me. Looking back at things I wrote ten years ago makes me think "huh, I used to believe X and now I don't, why did I change my mind?" and "X used to be really important to me and now it's not, what happened?". If I'm writing something today I'll often look back at what I've said about it previously (and I like having most of what I've written as blog posts so that's easy).

Then there's the benefit to others: being able to look back at what people were thinking in the past is super useful for understanding how the world has changed, and textual comments are great for that.

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#35

Post by jefftk »

creato wrote: post #16
sdan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of company, I don't want them to keep any "backups" of what I delete. In my view, if I say I want to "delete" my account, I don't want a single trace of my existence on that platform from then on. No emails, no backups, nothing.

By definition, any really effective backup (off site, offline) can't simply be modified instantly when you click a button in a web UI. The reason it takes months for backups to clear out your deleted data is that's how long it takes for the entire backup to be discarded and replaced by a new backup that reflects your deletions. While the data is likely inaccessible forever in this case, the reason the company can't j…

You can delete user data from backups much more quickly than that:

* Encrypt each user's data to a user-specific key

* Keep the key in hot replicated storage

* When you get a deletion request, delete the key

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#36

Post by hosteur »

nieve wrote: post #17
bambax wrote: post #7

> For those who don’t want Google to create a record of their location history at all, there’s a switch for that. On the My Activity page, click Activity controls and scroll to Location history and turn the switch to the off position. Yes, that's what I do. But then Google Maps on the phone nags you constantly that it should be on. Removing the nagging would be an immense improvement and proof of commitment to privac…

Be very careful about combining Inactive Account Manager with telling Google not to store activity data. I started getting countdown to deletion warnings telling me I needed to log in to show I wasn't inactive, but no matter how often I did it was ignored completely until I turned on activity tracking. I'm not sure if this is a rare bug or working as intended, but it could go badly. In the end I turned off Inactive a…

Sounds like a gdpr violation

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#37

Post by bambax »

anonytrary wrote: post #27
bambax wrote: post #7

> For those who don’t want Google to create a record of their location history at all, there’s a switch for that. On the My Activity page, click Activity controls and scroll to Location history and turn the switch to the off position. Yes, that's what I do. But then Google Maps on the phone nags you constantly that it should be on. Removing the nagging would be an immense improvement and proof of commitment to privac…

If they can't keep a cache of your recent locations, it would be difficult for them to apply optimization of your location, prediction of your car's path, etc. and Google Maps would be a much more jarring experience, akin to a GPS device. I think they do need the client to send recent locations per request if they want to deliver an optimal experience. For example, what if I wanted to implement loading automatic near…

> if they want to deliver an optimal experience

I should be able to decide what "experience" I want. I don't want "more", I'm happy with "good enough".

Anyway, I'm very fine with how it works now, except for the nagging. I allow the app to know my location, of course, just not to store any history.

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#38

Post by theelous3 »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #22
tzfld wrote: post #20

My concern about these deletion request is that you are totally at the will of the platforms, that they actually will delete your data. This already imply trust towards them. And if you have trust they handling data with responsibility, why would you need to ask for delete?

This is how I feel about it. I don’t have any faith that I’m going to be protected from current / future persecution because I ticked / didn’t tick some box on some control panel on some service provided by Morally Bankrupt MegaCorp .

That's a bit pessimistic/paranoid and off the bat doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

If your data is supposed to have been deleted but they ignored it, they have it illegally.

If someone from the state wants to prosecute you and requests the data, the company wouldn't own up to having it, because they're not allowed have it.

Why would they lie to you, and then sell themselves out to the state?

Fine, they might keep it, but not in order to assist in prosecutions lol

Re: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct

#40

Post by Lio »

theelous3 wrote: post #38
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how I feel about it. I don’t have any faith that I’m going to be protected from current / future persecution because I ticked / didn’t tick some box on some control panel on some service provided by Morally Bankrupt MegaCorp .

That's a bit pessimistic/paranoid and off the bat doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If your data is supposed to have been deleted but they ignored it, they have it illegally. If someone from the state wants to prosecute you and requests the data, the company wouldn't own up to having it, because they're not allowed have it. Why would they lie to you, and then sell themselves out to the state? Fine, they might keep i…

The way Google acts with regard to privacy law is similar to how they act with regard to tax law.

That is they look for loopholes and places they can use dark patterns to nudge users into giving up more data. They stay within the rules but push the envelope of what’s acceptable to the legal limit.

It’s not that they are holding onto data specifically to support prosecutions it’s that they hold onto data because that’s what Google do.

They’d hand that over because they have it and to not cooperate would unnecessarily cause them business friction they could easily avoid.

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