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Fun fact: Google collects much more data from Android devices than from iOS devices. This might be unsurprising, and even obvious, but I was surprised how preci

Fun fact: Google collects much more data from Android devices than from iOS devices. This might be unsurprising, and even obvious, but I was surprised how precise and intrusive that data is. The whole time I was using an Android phone with my google account logged in on the device, google recorded and retained basically everything. My location, without even me using the maps app. My old contacts which I deleted from my contacts lists were still in the records. Any IPv4 or IPv6 address my phone was assigned to. This was even more creepy than facebook's data trove. I deleted my data on facebook as far as I could and also the account (not just deactivated) and I deleted most of the data google had on me. The problem is that I only can assume that all the data is now gone, but how can I be sure? Google might constantly assure that they handle everything with care, but the extent of their intrusion into my private life is really scary.

mtgx 9y ago
It also annoys the hell out of me how often companies get away with something if they just say "Whoops, it was a mistake/bug." Google was recently found to track Android users' location even when they didn't have their GPS on. And they said it was a "bug". Like I'm just going to believe that from a company whose main objective is to track as much about us as possible. But my point is the FTC should have slapped them with a major (at least tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars, depending how long they've been doing it and to how many people) even if this was a bug. If you tracked or collected data without users' consent, you get fined - bigly. No ifs or buts about it. Enough with the BS excuses and apology tours while they pocket billions from the "error" or "mistake."
- jacquesm 9y ago
  As long as money and politics are strongly intertwined it is unlikely this will happen within the country of origin of the company. Lobbyists are just too powerful. And that's before we get into the kind of tricks and entity like Google or Facebook could pull if they decided to become an active participant rather than just a channel for advertising. If that hasn't already happened.
  - dschuetz 9y ago
    Money and politics is basically the way people run things, as sad as it sounds. You can substitute money with something different, it doesn't matter as people need some system of exchange. Money seems effective and easy enough. So, it's not the money that is the problem. It might have something to do with people, but I haven't figured it out yet.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      In most countries companies directly paying politicians is seen as corruption.
      - squarefoot 9y ago
        Unfortunately politicians can be lobbied/bribed in many subtler ways. A corporation can invest in city infrastructure, donate medical equipment, libraries, etc. then invite their friendly politician for a public speech to the inauguration so that the public associates something good (that didn't cost taxpayers a single dime) to his face. That politician gets a lot more votes and the corporation gets a foot in the government door: a win-win scenario for both and completely legal.
    - squarefoot 9y ago
      "It might have something to do with people, but I haven't figured it out yet." Wanting more (which can be positive) paired with lack of empathy (which is not). People having both those traits should never ever put in a powerful position because they will eventually abuse their power for personal gain harming others in the process.
- kop316 9y ago
  Can you link the article about Google tracking you even when location wasn't on? I am curious because I more or less came to that same hypothesis, but had no hard evidence. I noted before that when I turned on and off location services, the GPS lock was near instantaneous (i.e. when I turned on location, Google Maps located me with GPS precision immediately. There could be other ways of how this happens, it was noted in another post of mine, but that had still had me a bit suspicious. I replaced Google Play Services with microG recently (https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/). I then saw that it was MicroG, NOT the OS, that had control over my location, and MicroG still tracks my location when Location is off(https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki/Implementation-Status https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki...). While none of this conclusively points to Google Play Services tracking me when it is off, the way that Android is set up makes me very strongly suspect that's what they did.
wepple 9y ago
I’m all-in with google services and acknowledge they have an insane amount of data on me, but very happy to be an iPhone user. At least it gives some basic form of separation between my phone and the services I use - under the assumption that google services will have to request access to things. Under google+android, I have no confidence that there won’t be accidental or intentional data harvesting. My wife’s Pixel 2 came with everything enabled by default and that data it Hoover’s up automatically is crazy.

mtgx 9y ago

It also annoys the hell out of me how often companies get away with something if they just say "Whoops, it was a mistake/bug." Google was recently found to track Android users' location even when they didn't have their GPS on. And they said it was a "bug". Like I'm just going to believe that from a company whose main objective is to track as much about us as possible. But my point is the FTC should have slapped them with a major (at least tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars, depending how long they've been doing it and to how many people) even if this was a bug. If you tracked or collected data without users' consent, you get fined - bigly. No ifs or buts about it. Enough with the BS excuses and apology tours while they pocket billions from the "error" or "mistake."

jacquesm 9y ago
As long as money and politics are strongly intertwined it is unlikely this will happen within the country of origin of the company. Lobbyists are just too powerful. And that's before we get into the kind of tricks and entity like Google or Facebook could pull if they decided to become an active participant rather than just a channel for advertising. If that hasn't already happened.
- dschuetz 9y ago
  Money and politics is basically the way people run things, as sad as it sounds. You can substitute money with something different, it doesn't matter as people need some system of exchange. Money seems effective and easy enough. So, it's not the money that is the problem. It might have something to do with people, but I haven't figured it out yet.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    In most countries companies directly paying politicians is seen as corruption.
    - squarefoot 9y ago
      Unfortunately politicians can be lobbied/bribed in many subtler ways. A corporation can invest in city infrastructure, donate medical equipment, libraries, etc. then invite their friendly politician for a public speech to the inauguration so that the public associates something good (that didn't cost taxpayers a single dime) to his face. That politician gets a lot more votes and the corporation gets a foot in the government door: a win-win scenario for both and completely legal.
  - squarefoot 9y ago
    "It might have something to do with people, but I haven't figured it out yet." Wanting more (which can be positive) paired with lack of empathy (which is not). People having both those traits should never ever put in a powerful position because they will eventually abuse their power for personal gain harming others in the process.
kop316 9y ago
Can you link the article about Google tracking you even when location wasn't on? I am curious because I more or less came to that same hypothesis, but had no hard evidence. I noted before that when I turned on and off location services, the GPS lock was near instantaneous (i.e. when I turned on location, Google Maps located me with GPS precision immediately. There could be other ways of how this happens, it was noted in another post of mine, but that had still had me a bit suspicious. I replaced Google Play Services with microG recently (https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/). I then saw that it was MicroG, NOT the OS, that had control over my location, and MicroG still tracks my location when Location is off(https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki/Implementation-Status https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki...). While none of this conclusively points to Google Play Services tracking me when it is off, the way that Android is set up makes me very strongly suspect that's what they did.

wepple 9y ago

I’m all-in with google services and acknowledge they have an insane amount of data on me, but very happy to be an iPhone user. At least it gives some basic form of separation between my phone and the services I use - under the assumption that google services will have to request access to things. Under google+android, I have no confidence that there won’t be accidental or intentional data harvesting. My wife’s Pixel 2 came with everything enabled by default and that data it Hoover’s up automatically is crazy.