4 ms·

FWIW having worked at Google, I can tell you they take these issues pretty seriously there. This is largely because of a few self inflicted wounds early in the

FWIW having worked at Google, I can tell you they take these issues pretty seriously there. This is largely because of a few self inflicted wounds early in the company’s life.

jonathanyc 9y ago
Which is why Google collects location data even when location services are disabled, right? Let’s not pretend Google is holier-than-Facebook. https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locations-even-when-location-services-are-disabled/ https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...
- mintplant 9y ago
  And the "Sign Into Chrome" feature slurps up all your history, cookies, etc. in a form Google can read and which their terms allow them to data-mine, unless you know to dig into the settings and configure a separate encryption key.
  - marcell 9y ago
    Isn't that necessary for Sign Into Chrome? The whole point is that you can transfer your history/cookies across browsers.
    - mintplant 9y ago
      Firefox manages to sync just fine while automatically encrypting data end-to-end.
- marcell 9y ago
  I mean..it's a Cell Phone. The "cell" part of it means that you move between different "cells" which correspond to different towers, so that the carrier can best route your call. Even feature phones tracked your location in this way, it's used in criminal cases sometimes.
  - jonathanyc 9y ago
    Ah yes, which explains why my Android phone suddenly stopped working after Google apologized and removed the functionality described in the article. That the phone has to connect to nearby cell towers is obvious. That this information needs to be sent not to the cell company but to the OS company without an option to turn it off is bad programming or something worse.