I guess I'll be the lone voice chiming in that I find this pretty useful. There's been a number of times I've been like "oh, what's that song I asked Google to identify a month ago?" or "what was that page I managed to find last year by searching about [x]?" that I've been able to remember via this tool.
Yeah, Google knows everything about me. C'est la vie. At least it's useful. What exactly is the threat model that everyone is operating under which prompts all the comments here?
I have to say I'm almost more shocked at the number of "shocked" comments here than at the page itself. Not only because of what you mentioned, but also one would expect an audience like HN to know about this. Google has even nagged me with notifications to take a look at this page several times in the past.
Also, for some weird reason (maybe because I'm using browser extensions?) my entries seem to come from the future:
Does there have to be a a threat model for people to be uncomfortable with or unsupportive of surveillance? I just bought a new android phone, and if you accept the defaults they track so many different things (not even while you are using a google service necessarily). I disabled it all, and am constantly prompted to enable location history and a bunch of other tracking features. I don't like Google, I don't like their business model, I don't like how they go about what they do; a threat model isn't required to fundamentally disagree with an inescapable organization collecting and analyzing everything about me so it can be, at best monetized, and at worst used to manipulate people
What I find surprising is that Google is exposing themselves voluntarily to subpoenas [1]. The more info Google collects, the more courts will try to use Google records as evidence. Therefore, isn't it in Google's interest to collect and store only the exact info they need, expiring records ASAP so there's as little as possible for courts to collect?
Perhaps Google has factored that risk into their calculations and they have decided that in the current legal environment, the money they earn by storing everything outweighs the money they lose by complying with subpoenas.
I liked the map[1] of all the places my phone has been. I mean, my damn telco and various three-letter agencies already have this info for wherever I have my smartphone -- so its nice that at least I have it too. I can reminisce about the frijte stand in Amsterdam.
> Yeah, Google knows everything about me. C'est la vie. At least it's useful.
And that's fine. If you find being tracked to be useful and good, then I have no problem with you being able to do that.
But those of us who don't want it should be able to avoid it as well.
> What exactly is the threat model that everyone is operating under which prompts all the comments here?
I'm not sure what you mean by threat model here. But, at its core, the issue for me is that companies like Google collect data about me without my consent. That's just straight-up immoral and unethical.
Would I consent to having some data collected about me in exchange for some service? Sure, depending on the data and service. But it has to be my choice -- in other words, it has to be opt-in and I have to be correctly and completely informed of what's going to happen with my data.
This information is actively used to influence your behavior via advertisement, and places you in an echo chamber via personally tailored search results. Further, experience has shown that eventually this type of information will end being used by third party entities (hackers, governments).
I have seen people use this to spy on their spouse/partner (usually ex-partner, after that). Seeing their google searches, locations and email is a ton of data.
Obviously, never do this. It's illegal and a huge violation of privacy. To anyone tempted to do this, just assume it's time to breakup now, and deal with your issues as adults.
What is actually shocking is that these data are made so easily accessible when you are logged into Google anywhere. There should be additional hurdles to view the entirety of a person's history with Google beyond merely being logged in. The potential for very easy and all-encompassing snooping (e.g. from friends and colleagues) is staggering!
The fact that your personal activity log isn't in your hands at all. It's fine to collect this but google should be blind to whats in there. I agree, it is useful to go back and see what the hell you did, but I don't go around handing advertisers my diary for potential revenue streams either.
Turning off all of the controls under myactivity won't stop Google from scanning your emails to track any purchases you make. The only way to stop that is to switch off of Gmail.
This is what finally prompted me to move to Fastmail after being on G Suite since 2007. Even though I have to pay for Fastmail and was grandfathered into free on G Suite. Pretty happy with it so far.
Now going through the process of reducing all the places I use Google services. Moved my personal stuff from GCP to Digital Ocean. Gmail to Fastmail. Chrome to Firefox / Safari. Currently seeing if Zoho is a good substitute for Google Sheets and Docs.
Not sure I'll go so far as use DuckDuckGo fulltime, but maybe i'll give it another try.
This is pretty awful. A bad assumption to make was that by turning off all activity monitoring this would have also been stopped. You can delete these items by deleting the email itself but that's a ridiculous burden to put on the end user. Oh, you don't want us to know you spent hundreds of dollars on baseball tickets? Better delete the email invoices.
Wow, this is ugly. I don't like seeing all of this in one place. I shudder to think of what is actually stored behind the scenes if this is what they make publicly available.
The most creepy, though useful thing I've experience with google, was the android notification "You should leave for the airport now" for something I never set, based on my airline receipt.
Also, you can not delete it.
I deleted all mails in my Gmail, things still show.
Additionally, I can not even use the "download my data" options because it says "We can't verify it is you" and there is no way no authenticate myself.
So basically, Google really likes my data and holds it hostage.
I'm not the most tin foil hat kind of person. I don't mind some of the tracking Google does as long as I know about it.
This url shocked me.
They apparently track every app I open and use on my Pixel phone. They had individual entries for when I skip a song in Google Music. I feel physically sick. I went through and deleted most of what I could and turned off tracking where I could.
tell me why you feel physically sick that you now have a log of your own activity. which you could look through to find something you had done and forgot about. do you think someone at google is gonna sit there and sift through `your` very personal information and do...what?
You don't think Spotify or any other music app (or any app for that matter) does the same thing? How do you think Spotify or any app provide you with recommendations?
I'm sorry, but ... are you (and others here with similar reactions) serious? You don't think Google knows when you skip a song in Google Music? How do you think recommendations work exactly? I thought this was HackerNews, not my grandpa's Facebook feed.
Ok, I just noticed something that is even scarier.
Under the "Chrome, Google Analytics, and more" I see "Used com.kongregate.mobile.adventurecommunist", which is a game installed on my iPhone. Ok, I also have my Gmail logged in there as well, so they somehow read shared data or whatever. But I also see "Used es.socialpoint.chefparadise" which is a game, installed on my iPad at home which is mostly used by my wife for random games and stuff and I don't have any Google account logged in there.
Looks like they've removed the summary statistics in favor of a timeline. Still, it's nice to have it all searchable in one place. It also provides a nice place to check that I have all of the handy features turned on.
For a supposedly tech related group, I'm more surprised that you guys are surprised on whats being tracked. Yes Google has the ability to track A LOT because of the severvices most people use, but don't most people have an abundance of tracking and user metrics across their own product. I know every company I've worked at does the same.
https://www.google.com/maps/timeline is a similar tool that I've used to recall the name of places I've been to. In particular, one really good taqueria in San Diego.
Wow now this is scary. Even though I have my location closed they still track me.
The sad thing is most of my time is spent at school according to Google
Arguments & discussions about google tracking you and how some products are crippled if you disable it (looking at you Maps!!) aside, they at least recently introduced a way for you to delete all the information here:
The only real solution is to fill your history and your Gmail purchases with fake emails and fake clicks and fake purchases. If you add so much random data then there's no way Google can pick up anything useful.
I think the other tactic to defeat Google is to click on EVERY SINGLE AD you see. It will destroy their ad tracking capabilities and it will also destroy their business since they won't be able to tell what is a good click and what isn't. I've started doing this and I don't think there's anything else that can get them to stop actively violating our privacy.
Let me pay for my Gmail account. Let me pay for good support instead of automated decisions and getting kicked off the platform with no recourse. Otherwise I will render myself useless to your algorithms by changing my behavior so that algorithms won't be able to make sense of it.
I pay for my Gmail account, but there is still no way for me to disable this harvesting as far as I can tell.
As for the ad tracking bit, there is an extension called AdNauseam that google has repeatedly banned on the chrome store, but it essentially does what you said - register a click on most ads while simultaneously blocking the ads from rendering.
Why do you guys care so much that google is tracking your purchases? They will just that use your own habits to give you more personalized ads or recommendations which is better than random ads not related to your own habits. How does it hurt you as a consumer?
This is great. Now I can see in a single place how YouTube mixes other people's history with mine. It seems I watched "Funny Dinosaurs in Poop Fight", "Poop Cartoon 04: Fried Sh*t" and "Pirate Pete's Potty: Potty Training Video for Toddlers" yesterday. Fun.
(I've been getting some other kid's watched videos in my history, and Google doesn't care about this kind of history mixing, my reports got me nowhere).
[+] [-] losvedir|6 years ago|reply
Yeah, Google knows everything about me. C'est la vie. At least it's useful. What exactly is the threat model that everyone is operating under which prompts all the comments here?
[+] [-] edjrage|6 years ago|reply
Also, for some weird reason (maybe because I'm using browser extensions?) my entries seem to come from the future:
https://i.imgur.com/6TSiZIW.png
[+] [-] okmokmz|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hathawsh|6 years ago|reply
Perhaps Google has factored that risk into their calculations and they have decided that in the current legal environment, the money they earn by storing everything outweighs the money they lose by complying with subpoenas.
[1] https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/6151275?hl=en
[+] [-] eutropia|6 years ago|reply
[1]: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?authuser=0&pb
[+] [-] JohnFen|6 years ago|reply
And that's fine. If you find being tracked to be useful and good, then I have no problem with you being able to do that.
But those of us who don't want it should be able to avoid it as well.
> What exactly is the threat model that everyone is operating under which prompts all the comments here?
I'm not sure what you mean by threat model here. But, at its core, the issue for me is that companies like Google collect data about me without my consent. That's just straight-up immoral and unethical.
Would I consent to having some data collected about me in exchange for some service? Sure, depending on the data and service. But it has to be my choice -- in other words, it has to be opt-in and I have to be correctly and completely informed of what's going to happen with my data.
[+] [-] Skunkleton|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kekebo|6 years ago|reply
There are a couple of examples in history where similar attitude on a societal level ultimately led to the most terrible of outcomes.
[+] [-] mgbmtl|6 years ago|reply
Obviously, never do this. It's illegal and a huge violation of privacy. To anyone tempted to do this, just assume it's time to breakup now, and deal with your issues as adults.
[+] [-] msamwald|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asdff|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonvorhe|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danShumway|6 years ago|reply
Turning off all of the controls under myactivity won't stop Google from scanning your emails to track any purchases you make. The only way to stop that is to switch off of Gmail.
[+] [-] Xunxi|6 years ago|reply
Are there any other 'hidden' urls to expose what other data Google is siphoning off our private transactions or conversations for that matter?
I've had all controls under activity disable a long time and periodically check to make sure they stay that way.
This one crosses the line! To the point that the only way I can get rid of the older records is to delete the purchase receipts entirely.
This link needs a thread of its own
[+] [-] kelp|6 years ago|reply
Now going through the process of reducing all the places I use Google services. Moved my personal stuff from GCP to Digital Ocean. Gmail to Fastmail. Chrome to Firefox / Safari. Currently seeing if Zoho is a good substitute for Google Sheets and Docs.
Not sure I'll go so far as use DuckDuckGo fulltime, but maybe i'll give it another try.
[+] [-] SnowingXIV|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nostalgk|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GordonS|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tracker1|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] okmokmz|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zwaps|6 years ago|reply
Additionally, I can not even use the "download my data" options because it says "We can't verify it is you" and there is no way no authenticate myself.
So basically, Google really likes my data and holds it hostage.
[+] [-] stedaniels|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] highhedgehog|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duxup|6 years ago|reply
I saw a few odd ones that I had never heard of was sure I didn't listened to.
Until I realized ... it identified and logged songs in a movie my kids watched on a rainy day recently.
[+] [-] j88439h84|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UtahDave|6 years ago|reply
This url shocked me.
They apparently track every app I open and use on my Pixel phone. They had individual entries for when I skip a song in Google Music. I feel physically sick. I went through and deleted most of what I could and turned off tracking where I could.
[+] [-] spidermango|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arctia|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway287391|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] turshija|6 years ago|reply
Under the "Chrome, Google Analytics, and more" I see "Used com.kongregate.mobile.adventurecommunist", which is a game installed on my iPhone. Ok, I also have my Gmail logged in there as well, so they somehow read shared data or whatever. But I also see "Used es.socialpoint.chefparadise" which is a game, installed on my iPad at home which is mostly used by my wife for random games and stuff and I don't have any Google account logged in there.
[+] [-] jcwayne|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sajithdilshan|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] angryasian|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wenderen|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HNLurker2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] echeese|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _gmnw|6 years ago|reply
https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity
[+] [-] booleandilemma|6 years ago|reply
https://duckduckgo.com/
[+] [-] abraham|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kinkora|6 years ago|reply
https://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity
Not many people know about this so spread the word!
[+] [-] docker_up|6 years ago|reply
I think the other tactic to defeat Google is to click on EVERY SINGLE AD you see. It will destroy their ad tracking capabilities and it will also destroy their business since they won't be able to tell what is a good click and what isn't. I've started doing this and I don't think there's anything else that can get them to stop actively violating our privacy.
Let me pay for my Gmail account. Let me pay for good support instead of automated decisions and getting kicked off the platform with no recourse. Otherwise I will render myself useless to your algorithms by changing my behavior so that algorithms won't be able to make sense of it.
[+] [-] ilikehurdles|6 years ago|reply
As for the ad tracking bit, there is an extension called AdNauseam that google has repeatedly banned on the chrome store, but it essentially does what you said - register a click on most ads while simultaneously blocking the ads from rendering.
[+] [-] javagram|6 years ago|reply
https://gsuite.google.com/
[+] [-] jharohit|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spidermango|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dleslie|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jwr|6 years ago|reply
(I've been getting some other kid's watched videos in my history, and Google doesn't care about this kind of history mixing, my reports got me nowhere).
[+] [-] booleandilemma|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aylmao|6 years ago|reply
I'm using Android at the moment, of course.