They constantly berate you to deactivate no tracking preferences on google maps. When you're aware of this fact you start seeing it everywhere, not just on google. For example, on Pinterest they will berate you to sign up using highlighted buttons on land, and the x button is out of the way on the top right corner.
This end result is due to product managers/devs looking at conversion rates and optimizing for whatever their metric of success is, which in this case is creating accounts and users being more "engaged" with the platform. 3 or 4 rounds of A/B testing and you get the most efficient (read: manipulative) method of getting users "engaged". There may be no intention of manipulation but using empirical evidence to achieve your metric of success will tend to make your product manipulative.
Same goes for trying to turn on Voice Match (and the voice activated OK, Google), a feature that's supposed to take a snapshot of your voice and activate the assistant, like "Hey, Siri!". They will force you to activate: 1. web/activity history, 2. saving all your voice requests to the Google and they push you to activate Location History.
While Voice Match learning the sound of your voice sounds like a completely local task, they will force you to keep a history of all your voice commands, searches and activity. Voice activation and match won't even work without that on. Even tho the assistant works just fine if you leave those off.
Not to mention all the rest of these that happen, they even push for these during your first phone activation.
I got my first Android phone this year after taking a very long break from Google phones in 2014, due to getting fed up with how much of a mess Android still was around version 5 and Google's unwillingness to fix the issues so I ended up switching to iOS for years. Now I decided to switch my second phone to an Android purely out of curiosity to see what's been happening to the platform and all these creepy-ass prompts in version 9 don't instil much confidence.
This end result is due to product managers/devs looking at conversion rates and optimizing for whatever their metric of success is
Just wait until the product managers and devs are taken out of the loop and A/B testing becomes automated A/B...X/Y/Z testing through AI. Web interfaces will start to look like those crazy AI-generated YouTube videos. Anything to feed the shareholders.
80% of the time, for all online services, users get the choice to opt-out from the tracking, but trackers are on by default and users are encouraged to keep them on. This is what I call the fundamental principle of privacy settings: all privacy settings are based on the assumption that the vast majority of users will not understand, care, or make an effort to toggle all the knobs to opt-out from the tracking.
This is how online services meeting the regulatory requirements and creating a positive image of being privacy-respecting, "we are giving people a choice over their data", meanwhile still allowing the unhampered collection of personal data in practice.
Or the principle can be worded as, "If everyone opt-out from the tracking in their privacy settings, our business is finished". You can opt-out, but their business model remains the same, and you are simply an outlier.
As I see it, the most interesting case study is Do-No-Track. When DNT has just became a standard, the response was mostly positive. Then something dramatic happened, Microsoft enabled DNT in IE 10 by default! Then amusingly, it triggered a total backlash from the industry. If you see the principle, it's easy to explain that.
But Microsoft surely understand this point. Then why did it decide to do this? I highly suspect Microsoft's decision was a conspiracy to intentionally kill DNT, even if most people won't active it anyway, but they may believe that having a simple and universal privacy toggle is still being a potential threat to the business of the industry, so they decided to sabotage it by making it default-on, thus nobody will treat it seriously, and Microsoft can use the "we care about your privacy" as an excuse.
One can't fix the privacy issues with a privacy setting. One needs to have an alternative business model in the age of Surveillance Capitalism.
> 3 or 4 rounds of A/B testing and you get the most efficient (read: manipulative) method of getting users "engaged"
Now replace “engaged” with “to buy stuff” and that’s essentially online advertising. You’re being tricked by gurus of the mind to send your money to someone else. How this is legal represents a gap between traditional laws and modern times.
The sad truth for us software engineers is, a lot of the most exciting work is at least tangentially related to refining this trickery: big data, machine learning, etc. For example, implementing GDPR where I work has been a bizarre experience from a human standpoint. On the one hand, we all surely feel privately it’s a good thing for people, but we talk about it to each other as if it’s a burden and a setback for our business (which it is).
Another one is body sensors. I disabled body sensor permission for play services. Whenever I am using Google Maps, it would complain about the permission every few minutes. Thankfully, found later an option to disable that nagging in maps setting. Maps still worked fine.
I've actively been avoiding Pinterest and Quora because I know they'll pester me about signing up an hide their content behind a soft wall. I don't share links to these sites with anyone anymore.
These are the basic forces of commerce. Or any interaction. Amazon, target, even my loca coffee shops are not aligned with what’s best for me. They’re aligned with what’s best for them, with an eye towards maximizing overlap.
But where they want the customer to do something the customer wouldn’t, that happens everywhere. It’s not limited to tech.
* switch default search engine to DuckDuckGo (can still use !s bang when one wants to see what Google has)
* use tracking blocker (uBlock origin, BlockBear on iOS)
* use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently)
* use Zoho as a replacement for shared Google docs
* use Youtube either in private window, and/or download content with youtube-dl
* use Apple Maps or OpenStreetMaps instead of Google maps, though still revert to Google maps sometimes. It's good. (But never log in, and don't use the apps).
* long ago switched to different email for main email, and forwarded gmail account to it (nobody uses it anymore). (In fact, I use a catch-all domain now (very easy to set up), and a fresh email for basically every account. Quite handy.)
* for contacts, photos, etc. I use Apple's built-in stuff. I do trust Apple a bit more (and it's a different business model; quite evidently unfortunately when you look at recent iPhone prices.)
All in all, I think a fairly degooglified life is eminently possible.
> * use tracking blocker (uBlock origin, BlockBear on iOS)
You could also use Firefox Focus in iOS. It comes with a built-in ad/content/tracker blocker. Since content blockers are common to all browsers on iOS (everything using Safari/WebKit underneath), it would help other browsers too.
Android users are pushed through a variety of techniques:
Deceptive click flow
Hidden default settings
Misleading and unbalanced information
Repeated nudging
Bundling of services and lack of granular choices*
Deceptive click flow is the click-flow when setting up an Android device pushes users into enabling “Location History” without being aware of it.*
Hidden Default settings is [when] setting up a Google account, the Web & App activity settings are hidden behind extra clicks and enabled by default.
Third one is users not given sufficient information when presented with choices, and are misled about what data is collected and how it is used.
Repeated nudging is users being repeatedly asked to turn on “Location History” when using different Google services even if they decided against this feature when setting up their phone.
And finally, bundling services when for example if the user wants features such as Google Assistant and photos sorted by location, Google turns on invasive location tracking.
I would believe most of us HN crowd are fully aware of the pros and cons of such tracking and make our choices accordingly (using these tools/software/devices). However, for the majority (yes, they may not appear to be interested in privacy as yesterday's FB quarterly report shows), are they aware of how much data is being collected, how it could be misused, etc.? We, as a society, should do our part in pushing back against such indiscriminate tracking. No specific call to action. For my older parents, I have switched them to iPhone 6S and have gradually gotten older family relatives to do the same as well.
I would've liked it if they included photos and videos of these "deceptive" interactions. Instead they have this flashy video which basically is just showcasing the Timeline feature, and pretending it's some secret malicious data collection plan.
I particularly dislike seeing buttons like "Make Google Better" that if pressed will turn on search history.
That pushed me to Firefox and "temporary container tabs" add-on. Now I _can't_ be logged in while using search, so I can't accidentally press some deceptive button that will turn on additional collection. When the tab's gone, so are all the cookies. But mail.google.com and the login domains load in a persistent tab so I can still use those.
A search link fixer add-on prevents capture of what I clicked from that search menu, and the resulting page opens in a new temporary tab separate from the one I searched Google on originally. It's a second layer of separation so that I don't have to depend _just_ on ublock/umatrix to prevent what's sent back from resulting tab from correlating.
Still not perfect, but it makes me feel more comfortable. I still don't feel comfortable enough with results from DuckDuckGo to use it by default, but it has been getting a lot closer.
I tried using Google Maps without search history turned on. It's basically a downgraded version. They tied saving locations with the search history, so it won't let you search for friends' contacts, set a home address, etc. Is it on purpose? I don't know, but I find it weird that they would tie some unrelated features together. Why does setting a Home address require search history?
This dark pattern seems to be spreading. Amazon recently pushed out an update to their (beta last I knew) web app that allows you to use their smile.amazon.com charity donation through the app. But in order to turn that on, you have to turn on all the notifications the app has, including their rather constant pushes of "deals I may be interested in". They're holding you hostage to their notifications because "it's for charity!"
Not that this is news, but clearly Silicon Valley has no intention of retraining itself in any manner. Every wheedling trick in the book will be used to track you, up to and including holding arbitrary charities emotionally hostage.
Ethically I think the good old days of software products were superior to the current days of software services. Services are paid for by subscription or ads or selling data, so that they are forced to optimize for continued use. Products are sold as-is, with the hope that they are useful enough that enough people will buy them once and own it forever.
It should work this way: you spend N months making a useful product that fills a real need, start selling it, and ideally make just enough money to cover the time you spent working on it. As soon as you start selling it and money comes in, you start working on another product. This has flaws though. You have to have the cash up front to pay your own bills for the first N months. And you risk not making up the time you spent.
But what I see happening is worse: people make products that sell, get greedy over the money they can make, and milk that product to death, first by paid upgrades (which isn't inherently unethical) but then turning to subscriptions or free but selling you to ad- or data-companies.
Whenever you tap a link in the iOS YouTube app, it starts nagging you to download Chrome, or continue with the old boring Safari... There's a pre-checked switch at the bottom of the dialog that says "Ask me which app to use every time". Now, even if you uncheck the switch and choose Safari, they will only let you off the hook for around a day; after this cooldown period you're "offered" to download Chrome yet again, ad nauseam!
Just a gut feeling, but I think if I had installed Chrome once, they would never show me this dialog again... :)
Seriously Googlers, how do you look into the mirror each morning?
Also, the Gmail app doesn't open links in the "proper" Safari app, so you're never signed in to anything!!! It's infuriating and I began switching e-mail provider because of it.
Google Maps works just fine with the GPS from my phone's sensors, but _every single time_ I bring up the app, it asks me to enable device location and Google Location Services.
I stubbornly (and maybe foolishly) keep opting out of every Google tracking option, it's crazy how annoying they are if you do this.
I have had to visit the #nixos channel in Freenode (IRC) lately on a computer with all tracking disabled and the Recaptcha that is usually just click and continue becomes a multi-minute endeavor finding street signs, cars and buses. You really get punished if you opt out of tracking.
I for one are happy to be tracked so that my experience is optimal.
Edit: I understand the potential issues and especially with someone like Google using it for other things. But I am more concerned about the backlash against using data to improve our world.
There are many different areas which would be improved greatly from more data and would be to everyone's benefit.
Personally I have always shared as much as I can as I believe that the more we share the more the problem corrects itself. But each to their own.
Privacy is like drinking water: no one in the US cares about it until it's on the news.
Why don't people care about clean water? Because federal agencies set standards and test for them. You could bore someone to death talking about it until Flint happened. And sure some people buy water tests to verify they're not getting poisoned, or setup their own filtration systems but most people don't want to waste the time or don't have the knowledge. Just the same as privacy.
Not every can or will get educated about privacy, and really they shouldn't have to, it should be a waste of their time. But it's not because we don't set standards for it. Most people give it away without knowing it's value only to have it bite them in the ass later through identify theft, data breaches, or eventually giving into a surveillance state where the government and big corporations know more about your than your mom does.
This is why it needs government intervention, because without it corporations will claim to give you a choice every step of the way but no one will understand what those choices entail, and it turns out they'll badger and pester you to make the choices that benefit themselves.
Relatedly, this is why I am OK with iOS being a walled garden. Sure, they make bank from it, but that incentivises them to make it protected. As I said in another thread, they're the only one capable and willing of enforcing privacy rules until the government steps up.
FTA: "Bundling of services and lack of granular choices - If the user wants features such as Google Assistant and photos sorted by location, Google turns on invasive location tracking."
I unplugged my google home precisely for this reason. It wouldn't operate with all kinds of web and location tracking turned on. And when I turned them off it would only respond with something along the lines of "you have to turn on <tracking_feature_x> for google home to work properly."
The hell I do. Amazon doesn't require me to turn stuff like that on to work just fine.
It was blatant and a bit nauseating. After that I understood the google-free movement very well.
I would still like an all-on-site voice assistant that respects privacy.
At some point we need to sit down and map, exactly what kind of information can be extracted from which meta-data sets.
For instance, screen time is also sleeping habits, for some its toiletbreaks. If its toiletbreaks, its stomach/health related. Couple that with location, its eating habits and risk factors. Couple that with phonelogs its much much more.
Once we have that mapped out, we can do an honest evaluation of whats being tracked, because every extrapolation possible will at some point be turned into usable data (my theory).
On the subject of Dark Patterns, Linkedin has to be one of the biggest offenders. Almost every time I open their app (which isn't very often), they try to trick me into uploading my contact list. I wonder if it'll come to some sort of regulation that requires companies to respect your opt-out answer and not continuously badger you into opting back in.
Definitely. I think the initial setup of an android phone is pretty similar to that of windows 10. You have to read everything very carefully to avoid all the dark patterns and hidden consents for tracking.
The thing that drives me nuts is (at least last time I set them up) Google Home and Android Auto both require Location and Web Activity permissions at an account level. I don't understand why Google just can't offer a subset of functionality on these devices rather than forcing you to have enable these permissions.
What Android desperately needs is an additional API layer that provides apps like Google and others with fake location data and fake contact data so there's simply no way they can tell that you're holding information back. Turning off these data sources just makes them use dark patterns to get you to turn them back on; spoofing the data is the real solution.
The privacy settings user interface on my Android is deceptive. It lures you into thinking that you have changed all the settings and does not show all the settings in one go. Google is creepy.
Another example of Google not even trying to give the account holder an option to pause tracking is the purchase/order-linking feature for purchases history. They scan the users Gmail account for orders/receipts and quietly storing that information into the purchases history as can be seen by going to https://myaccount.google.com/purchases.
Instead of giving the account holder an option to delete this history, their helper section vaguely mentions you can go to Gmail and "manage" the corresponding message. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7673989
I read an article a while back, that argued[1] that openness to tracking and surveillance may be linked to helicopter parenting.
The argument goes that because millenials have been raised to be under continuous adult supervision, that predisposes them to view surveillance as benign and benevolent.
[+] [-] kache_|7 years ago|reply
This end result is due to product managers/devs looking at conversion rates and optimizing for whatever their metric of success is, which in this case is creating accounts and users being more "engaged" with the platform. 3 or 4 rounds of A/B testing and you get the most efficient (read: manipulative) method of getting users "engaged". There may be no intention of manipulation but using empirical evidence to achieve your metric of success will tend to make your product manipulative.
[+] [-] beezischillin|7 years ago|reply
While Voice Match learning the sound of your voice sounds like a completely local task, they will force you to keep a history of all your voice commands, searches and activity. Voice activation and match won't even work without that on. Even tho the assistant works just fine if you leave those off.
Not to mention all the rest of these that happen, they even push for these during your first phone activation.
I got my first Android phone this year after taking a very long break from Google phones in 2014, due to getting fed up with how much of a mess Android still was around version 5 and Google's unwillingness to fix the issues so I ended up switching to iOS for years. Now I decided to switch my second phone to an Android purely out of curiosity to see what's been happening to the platform and all these creepy-ass prompts in version 9 don't instil much confidence.
[+] [-] contravariant|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pje|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colordrops|7 years ago|reply
If random airmchair commentators can see the results as manipulative I guarantee that the program managers and devs can see it too.
[+] [-] Tepix|7 years ago|reply
A/B testing a user choice by manipulating him/her like that seems like a no-no.
[+] [-] reaperducer|7 years ago|reply
Just wait until the product managers and devs are taken out of the loop and A/B testing becomes automated A/B...X/Y/Z testing through AI. Web interfaces will start to look like those crazy AI-generated YouTube videos. Anything to feed the shareholders.
[+] [-] segfaultbuserr|7 years ago|reply
This is how online services meeting the regulatory requirements and creating a positive image of being privacy-respecting, "we are giving people a choice over their data", meanwhile still allowing the unhampered collection of personal data in practice.
Or the principle can be worded as, "If everyone opt-out from the tracking in their privacy settings, our business is finished". You can opt-out, but their business model remains the same, and you are simply an outlier.
As I see it, the most interesting case study is Do-No-Track. When DNT has just became a standard, the response was mostly positive. Then something dramatic happened, Microsoft enabled DNT in IE 10 by default! Then amusingly, it triggered a total backlash from the industry. If you see the principle, it's easy to explain that.
But Microsoft surely understand this point. Then why did it decide to do this? I highly suspect Microsoft's decision was a conspiracy to intentionally kill DNT, even if most people won't active it anyway, but they may believe that having a simple and universal privacy toggle is still being a potential threat to the business of the industry, so they decided to sabotage it by making it default-on, thus nobody will treat it seriously, and Microsoft can use the "we care about your privacy" as an excuse.
One can't fix the privacy issues with a privacy setting. One needs to have an alternative business model in the age of Surveillance Capitalism.
[+] [-] jimmytucson|7 years ago|reply
Now replace “engaged” with “to buy stuff” and that’s essentially online advertising. You’re being tricked by gurus of the mind to send your money to someone else. How this is legal represents a gap between traditional laws and modern times.
The sad truth for us software engineers is, a lot of the most exciting work is at least tangentially related to refining this trickery: big data, machine learning, etc. For example, implementing GDPR where I work has been a bizarre experience from a human standpoint. On the one hand, we all surely feel privately it’s a good thing for people, but we talk about it to each other as if it’s a burden and a setback for our business (which it is).
[+] [-] thisisweirdok|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwawaymjabba|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonytrary|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] james_s_tayler|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nameisu|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] abapologist|7 years ago|reply
But where they want the customer to do something the customer wouldn’t, that happens everywhere. It’s not limited to tech.
[+] [-] FabHK|7 years ago|reply
* switch default search engine to DuckDuckGo (can still use !s bang when one wants to see what Google has)
* use tracking blocker (uBlock origin, BlockBear on iOS)
* use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently)
* use Zoho as a replacement for shared Google docs
* use Youtube either in private window, and/or download content with youtube-dl
* use Apple Maps or OpenStreetMaps instead of Google maps, though still revert to Google maps sometimes. It's good. (But never log in, and don't use the apps).
* long ago switched to different email for main email, and forwarded gmail account to it (nobody uses it anymore). (In fact, I use a catch-all domain now (very easy to set up), and a fresh email for basically every account. Quite handy.)
* for contacts, photos, etc. I use Apple's built-in stuff. I do trust Apple a bit more (and it's a different business model; quite evidently unfortunately when you look at recent iPhone prices.)
All in all, I think a fairly degooglified life is eminently possible.
[+] [-] pyr0hu|7 years ago|reply
instead of this, I just use Firefox and use the Multi-Account Container function to separate my browsing
[+] [-] ultimoo|7 years ago|reply
>long ago switched to different email for main email, and forwarded gmail account to it (nobody uses it anymore).
Neat! How do you set up auto forwarding with gmail?
[+] [-] sandov|7 years ago|reply
[1]https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
[+] [-] teekert|7 years ago|reply
I do still have an Android phone (Lineage), I tried without play services... I gave up after 1 day.
[+] [-] newscracker|7 years ago|reply
You could also use Firefox Focus in iOS. It comes with a built-in ad/content/tracker blocker. Since content blockers are common to all browsers on iOS (everything using Safari/WebKit underneath), it would help other browsers too.
[+] [-] kirion25|7 years ago|reply
You can play youtube directly in major video players (mpv, vlc), at least on linux. Although, afaik, they use youtube-dl in the background.
[+] [-] maximtheory|7 years ago|reply
https://amiunique.org/fp
[+] [-] annapurna|7 years ago|reply
Hidden Default settings is [when] setting up a Google account, the Web & App activity settings are hidden behind extra clicks and enabled by default.
Third one is users not given sufficient information when presented with choices, and are misled about what data is collected and how it is used.
Repeated nudging is users being repeatedly asked to turn on “Location History” when using different Google services even if they decided against this feature when setting up their phone.
And finally, bundling services when for example if the user wants features such as Google Assistant and photos sorted by location, Google turns on invasive location tracking.
I would believe most of us HN crowd are fully aware of the pros and cons of such tracking and make our choices accordingly (using these tools/software/devices). However, for the majority (yes, they may not appear to be interested in privacy as yesterday's FB quarterly report shows), are they aware of how much data is being collected, how it could be misused, etc.? We, as a society, should do our part in pushing back against such indiscriminate tracking. No specific call to action. For my older parents, I have switched them to iPhone 6S and have gradually gotten older family relatives to do the same as well.
[+] [-] ehsankia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] heroprotagonist|7 years ago|reply
That pushed me to Firefox and "temporary container tabs" add-on. Now I _can't_ be logged in while using search, so I can't accidentally press some deceptive button that will turn on additional collection. When the tab's gone, so are all the cookies. But mail.google.com and the login domains load in a persistent tab so I can still use those.
A search link fixer add-on prevents capture of what I clicked from that search menu, and the resulting page opens in a new temporary tab separate from the one I searched Google on originally. It's a second layer of separation so that I don't have to depend _just_ on ublock/umatrix to prevent what's sent back from resulting tab from correlating.
Still not perfect, but it makes me feel more comfortable. I still don't feel comfortable enough with results from DuckDuckGo to use it by default, but it has been getting a lot closer.
[+] [-] levesque|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jerf|7 years ago|reply
Not that this is news, but clearly Silicon Valley has no intention of retraining itself in any manner. Every wheedling trick in the book will be used to track you, up to and including holding arbitrary charities emotionally hostage.
[+] [-] sephoric|7 years ago|reply
It should work this way: you spend N months making a useful product that fills a real need, start selling it, and ideally make just enough money to cover the time you spent working on it. As soon as you start selling it and money comes in, you start working on another product. This has flaws though. You have to have the cash up front to pay your own bills for the first N months. And you risk not making up the time you spent.
But what I see happening is worse: people make products that sell, get greedy over the money they can make, and milk that product to death, first by paid upgrades (which isn't inherently unethical) but then turning to subscriptions or free but selling you to ad- or data-companies.
[+] [-] aaaaaaaaaaab|7 years ago|reply
Just a gut feeling, but I think if I had installed Chrome once, they would never show me this dialog again... :)
Seriously Googlers, how do you look into the mirror each morning?
[+] [-] falcolas|7 years ago|reply
So, pretty much like everyone else associated with companies that do moderately shady things.
[+] [-] Phenomenit|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hesarenu|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sefrost|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sborra|7 years ago|reply
I stubbornly (and maybe foolishly) keep opting out of every Google tracking option, it's crazy how annoying they are if you do this.
[+] [-] ingenieroariel|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ThomPete|7 years ago|reply
Edit: I understand the potential issues and especially with someone like Google using it for other things. But I am more concerned about the backlash against using data to improve our world.
There are many different areas which would be improved greatly from more data and would be to everyone's benefit.
Personally I have always shared as much as I can as I believe that the more we share the more the problem corrects itself. But each to their own.
[+] [-] AlexandrB|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marricks|7 years ago|reply
Why don't people care about clean water? Because federal agencies set standards and test for them. You could bore someone to death talking about it until Flint happened. And sure some people buy water tests to verify they're not getting poisoned, or setup their own filtration systems but most people don't want to waste the time or don't have the knowledge. Just the same as privacy.
Not every can or will get educated about privacy, and really they shouldn't have to, it should be a waste of their time. But it's not because we don't set standards for it. Most people give it away without knowing it's value only to have it bite them in the ass later through identify theft, data breaches, or eventually giving into a surveillance state where the government and big corporations know more about your than your mom does.
This is why it needs government intervention, because without it corporations will claim to give you a choice every step of the way but no one will understand what those choices entail, and it turns out they'll badger and pester you to make the choices that benefit themselves.
Relatedly, this is why I am OK with iOS being a walled garden. Sure, they make bank from it, but that incentivises them to make it protected. As I said in another thread, they're the only one capable and willing of enforcing privacy rules until the government steps up.
[+] [-] daveguy|7 years ago|reply
I unplugged my google home precisely for this reason. It wouldn't operate with all kinds of web and location tracking turned on. And when I turned them off it would only respond with something along the lines of "you have to turn on <tracking_feature_x> for google home to work properly."
The hell I do. Amazon doesn't require me to turn stuff like that on to work just fine.
It was blatant and a bit nauseating. After that I understood the google-free movement very well.
I would still like an all-on-site voice assistant that respects privacy.
[+] [-] lbj|7 years ago|reply
For instance, screen time is also sleeping habits, for some its toiletbreaks. If its toiletbreaks, its stomach/health related. Couple that with location, its eating habits and risk factors. Couple that with phonelogs its much much more.
Once we have that mapped out, we can do an honest evaluation of whats being tracked, because every extrapolation possible will at some point be turned into usable data (my theory).
[+] [-] heywire|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackbravo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sf_rob|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxxxxx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lez|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dreamcompiler|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sn41|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hypnotortoise|7 years ago|reply
Instead of giving the account holder an option to delete this history, their helper section vaguely mentions you can go to Gmail and "manage" the corresponding message. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7673989
[+] [-] gerbilly|7 years ago|reply
The argument goes that because millenials have been raised to be under continuous adult supervision, that predisposes them to view surveillance as benign and benevolent.
[1] I can't find the source.