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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

#41

Post by ryanmercer »

bambax wrote: post #37
anonytrary wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>I should be able to decide what "experience" I want.

You can. You can use their 'free' app that you pay for with your location data or you can pay a one time fee for a road atlas with no updates.

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

#42

Post by subjectupstairs »

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 .

I feel the same way brother.

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

#43

Post by lima »

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…

Yandex' open source ClickHouse analytics database also had significant engineering effort applied to enable selective and permanent deletion of data in what used to be an append-only database that could only drop whole partitions. Regulation works, and the large tech companies are the most likely to be compliant, since they have the most to lose and have mature compliance and legal processes. Google is particularly good about this - consumer trust is their #1 asset.

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

#44

Post by mda »

acollins1331 wrote: post #39

Does anyone have any insight on what actually happens to this data? Is it really deleted or just stored in a warehouse somewhere inaccessible to me but accessible to some snooping government or hacker?

Many time discussed before on HN with some input by Google SREs. It is totally deleted (with some delay because of backups)

https://policies.google.com/technologies/retention?hl=en

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

#45

Post by lima »

hosteur wrote: post #36
nieve wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Or an edge case they didn't consider, and will likely fix.

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

#46

Post by LocalPCGuy »

nathias wrote: post #33
lrem wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This just ... isn't true. People can and do evolve their opinions, feelings and levels of trust over time. I.e. people change. Particularly in response to external changes as you imply ("regardless of what happens").

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

#47

Post by jedimastert »

acollins1331 wrote: post #39

Does anyone have any insight on what actually happens to this data? Is it really deleted or just stored in a warehouse somewhere inaccessible to me but accessible to some snooping government or hacker?

If Google didn't want to delete your data, they wouldn't lie about it, they just wouldn't give you the option.

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

#49

Post by zentiggr »

ryanmercer wrote: post #41
bambax wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

>I should be able to decide what "experience" I want. You can. You can use their 'free' app that you pay for with your location data or you can pay a one time fee for a road atlas with no updates.

Or you can use the Navigator app by someone else, that has a free option, nothing feeds to the Google monster, and behaves pretty much exactly like an old style GPS device with some modern additions.

Good enough indeed.

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