Google’s snooping proves big tech will not change – unless governments step in
I dispositivi Android devono poter funzionare anche senza Google Apps anche se l'utente non è un hacker. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/14/googles-snooping-prove...> A recent investigation by the Associated Press has revealed that Google records your movements regardless of whether you have disabled the “location history” setting. This is egregious, especially considering Google’s support page on the issue states: “With location history off, the places you go are no longer stored.” While it is possible to prevent Google from time-stamping your every digital footstep, it is not exactly intuitive. You must log in to your Google account, go to the “manage your Google activity” section, open “activity controls” and disable the permissions there, which are enabled by default. This stops apps such as Google Maps and browsers from recording your location. However, it doesn’t wipe your past location data; more steps are needed to delete that. Going through the above is a hassle with which most people won’t bother – as I imagine Google knows well. Who cares about privacy these days, after all? It seems big tech has realised it can afford constant data-based scandals, because not enough people care that the minutiae of their daily existence is being relentlessly mined and monetised without their informed consent. This apathy is, in part, attributable to the fact we are told we shouldn’t care about privacy if we have nothing to hide. Google has helped propagate this notion. The company’s former CEO Eric Schmidt once said: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” [...]
Aka #deviceneutrality In data 15 agosto 2018 4:50:20 AM Alberto Cammozzo <ac+nexa@zeromx.net> ha scritto:
I dispositivi Android devono poter funzionare anche senza Google Apps anche se l'utente non è un hacker.
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/14/googles-snooping-prove...>
A recent investigation by the Associated Press has revealed that Google records your movements regardless of whether you have disabled the “location history” setting. This is egregious, especially considering Google’s support page on the issue states: “With location history off, the places you go are no longer stored.”
While it is possible to prevent Google from time-stamping your every digital footstep, it is not exactly intuitive. You must log in to your Google account, go to the “manage your Google activity” section, open “activity controls” and disable the permissions there, which are enabled by default. This stops apps such as Google Maps and browsers from recording your location. However, it doesn’t wipe your past location data; more steps are needed to delete that.
Going through the above is a hassle with which most people won’t bother – as I imagine Google knows well. Who cares about privacy these days, after all? It seems big tech has realised it can afford constant data-based scandals, because not enough people care that the minutiae of their daily existence is being relentlessly mined and monetised without their informed consent. This apathy is, in part, attributable to the fact we are told we shouldn’t care about privacy if we have nothing to hide. Google has helped propagate this notion. The company’s former CEO Eric Schmidt once said: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
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participants (2)
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Alberto Cammozzo -
Stefano Quintarelli