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I hate that google products are such crap if you don't let them remember everything about you. I deactivated the maps tracking on the privacy page recently beca
by imh 10y ago
I hate that google products are such crap if you don't let them remember everything about you. I deactivated the maps tracking on the privacy page recently because the wording made it sounds creepy, like they can keep track of where I am whenever they have it, not just the destinations I ask for navigation to. As a result, they don't suggest any places at all and instead make me type it out until the generic autocomplete gets it. No local storage on my phone, not even speeding up the autocomplete for the single place on google maps I have favorited. They seem to be very much all or nothing :( Either we track you everywhere or nowhere at all and gimp our products.
- striking 10y agoThe wording is exactly correct. If your devices send your location in any way, they may collect and store that sent location. It's probably just for their Location History thing. Which I actually really enjoy using, since I can see all of my past days and where I went. It's pretty neat.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoThe government thinks it's really neat too. ;)
- twwl 10y agoThe the people downvoting this thinking they're cute: totalitarianism is no joke, and your apathy infringes on my rights. You flat out do not get to be this lame. Get rid of your toys before your toys get rid of you.
- jk563 10y agoWhat right(s) of yours does my apathy infringe upon?
- striking 10y agoYeah, exactly. This Location History thing could provide me with an alibi if someone was trying to sue me for something I didn't do. It enhances my rights instead of lessening them, in my opinion. And it doesn't touch anyone else's rights.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoReminds me of the quote from The Dark Forest - "make time for civilization, for civilization won't make time."
- drusepth 10y agoThis is actually something I use very frequently, and wish had more data/functionality. It's insane to be able to answer the question of "where did I go" for yesterday[1] (we've all had bouts of bad short term memory), two weeks ago[2], or a year ago[3]. I've been using this feature for so long I assume it's opt-in (I don't remember), but I fully recommend it to anyone that has an inkling of a thought that they _might_ want it later, since you can always delete[4] your location history if you decide you don't. It's also really cool if you go on a lot of trips or take a lot of photos, because it'll map them out in a timeline view of where/when you took them throughout the day[5]. [1] http://i.imgur.com/gWzMgUp.png http://i.imgur.com/gWzMgUp.png [2] http://i.imgur.com/Eq7IGnK.png http://i.imgur.com/Eq7IGnK.png [3] http://i.imgur.com/HEeZupJ.png http://i.imgur.com/HEeZupJ.png [4] https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3118687?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3118687?hl=en [5] http://i.imgur.com/dF5TI3q.png http://i.imgur.com/dF5TI3q.png
- striking 10y agoYou opt in when you connect your Android device to your Google account for the first time, I think.
- kibwen 10y ago> the wording made it sounds creepy, like they can keep > track of where I am whenever they have it, not just the > destinations I ask for navigation to This is actually the case, as far as I can tell. Check it out for yourself by going to Google Maps (doesn't matter if it's the web client or the app), open the hamburger menu from the button in the search box, then click "My Timeline". From there enter any date (in the app, first click the calendar icon) and it'll show you where Google knows your phone was at on that date.
- tshibley 10y agoI mean from Google's perspective this sorta makes sense. It's a lot safer to turn literally any tracking/storage off than to get people accusing you of violating your user agreement.
- ForHackernews 10y agoWhat would happen if a company violated its user agreement? Are those agreements even legally actionable? Since you don't pay for most Google services, I doubt you could recover any damages.
- halflings 10y agoLegal action is the very large recourse. They would lose credibility, which would make them lose (a lot of) money indirectly.
- Pigo 10y agoThat is a good point, especially when you're dealing with people who are concerned with privacy. Sometimes they can be... uhm.. extremely zealous.. about their privacy. They probably feel they need to default to giving them complete autonomy.
- babinho 10y agoOne of my friends had an interesting remark about the "privacy opt outs". It's that google always tracks you, no matter what checkbox you check or uncheck. Why not use the data they are already collecting about you to improve your daily life then.
- akio 10y agoAnonymized data is more comfortable than identified data.
- oblio 10y agoAnonymized how? Even if you don't log in, Google can probably figure out with 99.99% accuracy who you really are.
- dashingdolphin 10y agoOut of habit, I tend to always use a not-logged in state for everything, and if I need a particular service (including Google), I do so in an Incognito window. However, I don't use a VPN or spoof my User Agent. Google 100% knows who I am without using any fancy tricks. I've wondered -- wouldn't I be better off logging in everywhere, with my Google privacy settings flipped to maximum? While it's certainly possible for them to map my fingerprint back to my account(s) and opt-out preferences, I think that's a bit much to expect for them. I might be shooting myself in the foot by always being logged out!
- TeMPOraL 10y agoThere is no such thing as "anonymized data". There's only "insufficient data to cross-correlate the identities back".
- halflings 10y agoWhy is your friend saying that? Is there any proof that Google is not taking those privacy options into consideration?
- ino 10y agoI share your pain. At least saved items are there and even synchronised. I'm using the save function more and more.
- fuqted 10y agoThey're doing that with their Speech-to-Text software. I know voice recognition is available offline for phones but it isn't available for download and use without connection to the cloud.
- Rudism 10y agoI use Xposed/XPrivacy to restrict my phone's Google app from accessing the internet, which forces voice recognition into local/offline mode. In this mode, it cannot do true dictation style text-to-speech, but it does still recognize and respond to voice commands.
- wineisfine 10y agoThis is the reason why I am reluctant to dive into the android ecosystem. And i wonder why not more people are? Your phone becomes basically a giant google-keylogger, with geo capabilities.
- paxcoder 10y agoAre you saying you use Apple's products for privacy reasons?
- outworlder 10y agoNot parent, but this is one of the reasons I prefer Apple. They have a better track record. Also, they sell hardware, your data is not the primary product.
- ainiriand 10y ago> they sell hardware Not always: http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/01/17/massachusetts-lawsuit-accuses-apple-of-misusing-customers-personal-info http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/01/17/massachusetts-laws... Also, you cant know how much Apple stores about you.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- danielrhodes 10y agoI'm almost annoyed Apple doesn't use more of my data: it would probably make many of their services better.
- akerro 10y agoF-Droid has OsmAnd~ for free for you, it's really good and worth recommending. No tracking, offline maps, offline searches, compatible with µG location services, save and browse POIs... plenty of options that GM or Apple won't offer. https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=net.osmand.plus https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=net.osmand.plus
- taneq 10y agoIt's not a technical limitation, either. There's plenty of cases where they could use use information locally on your device without sending it back to the mothership, but instead they deliberately cripple their services if you don't allow access. One example - have you ever noticed how Google Maps has barely any street names any more? And the streets that are named are random tiny side streets, no matter how far you zoom in or out. It's because it's designed to be used in Directions mode with location services enabled, and only in Directions mode with location services enabled. You don't need street names if you're a dot following a blue line. Just coincidentally, this is the mode where they get full information about your journey.
- teekert 10y ago"...They deliberately cripple" is the wrong wording, they designed it so that they extract maximum value out of you. Because you, are not paying them. Their services are maximally efficient... for them, and just efficient enough for you not to ditch them.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoWhich is pretty much equivalent. From their point of view, it's some optimum of profit-to-usability space. From my point of view, it's a hodgepodge of subpar features, user-hostile addons and stupid engineering decisions (being on-line when you don't need to), that I nevertheless can't abandon, because everyone else is doing an even worse job.
- taneq 10y agoI see where you're coming from, and I agree that they designed it to extract maximum value from their users. But when, in order to do so, they deliberately make their product punish non-data-yielding users, I think that absolutely deserves to be described as "deliberately crippled."
- Wyverald 10y ago> It's because it's designed to be used in Directions mode with location services enabled, and only in Directions mode with location services enabled. If you don't provide a source for this, I'm going to call bullshit. Screenshot of desktop Google Maps without sign-in: http://prnt.sc/d4j744 http://prnt.sc/d4j744 Screenshot of Android Google Maps without sign-in: http://prnt.sc/d4jwdy http://prnt.sc/d4jwdy Both look full of street names to me.
- paulcole 10y agoYou get what you pay for.
- noja 10y agoExactly. Want to find that place you just searched for? No can do, unless you let us track you 24 hours a day.
- dwightgunning 10y agoTotally this. I was having to type my full street name (15 chars) just to get directions home. No local / device only search history is a joke.
- nix0n 10y agoYou're correct that disabling location tracking disables place suggestion. But place suggestion is just ads, and unless they've improved it, not even for places that are open. Who needs that?