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This sounds like someone who doesn’t have an understanding of how the services they’re using are designed to interact with each other. This is a problem, but it

This sounds like someone who doesn’t have an understanding of how the services they’re using are designed to interact with each other. This is a problem, but it’s not specific to Google: it’s difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that your average user actually understands how these services are meant to work. As the user starts to realize how integrated these services really are, it causes a level of confusion and paranoia; humans fear what they don’t understand. This, in turn, causes them to misunderstand how the services truly integrate; they feel helpless and don’t understand just how much control they have over their own data. Many of these claims are outright false because they’re technologically infeasible and would require the exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Companies like Google are constantly having their apps inspected by hobbyists and professionals alike; there’s no way that’d go unnoticed for any length of time, plus it’s nearly impossible to begin with. In short: a parent has just discovered the internet. They’re scared, paranoid, and confused. This is, unfortunately, quite normal. There are legitimate privacy concerns regarding Google’s collection of data, but none of them are raised in this article. It’s a misunderstanding at best and outright propaganda at worst.

kerng 8y ago
Parents complain about auto-sync of passwords, and browser history, past searches and things like that. They would like more control of what's stored/synced by default. It's not as benign as you describe it, especially when it comes to children.
- zenexer 8y ago
  It doesn't auto-sync without your permission; you have to request that the browser save your password. If you want to save passwords locally without syncing, it's trivial to disable. You can additionally encrypt the passwords with a master password so that Google doesn't have access to them. Auto-syncing of passwords is a core feature of every modern browser. Safari does it, Firefox does it, Vivaldi does it, Edge does it, Opera does it, and, of course, Chrome does it. Want control over your child's account? Google has something for that: https://families.google.com/familylink/ https://families.google.com/familylink/ Want the school to manage it for you? That's exactly what G Suite is. Edit: The problem here is ignorance. It's easy to demonstrate that it's possible to control all the data about which this parent is concerned. Sure, there's data they can't easily control, but they make no mention of that. Your interests, demographics, everything else Google infers about you... you can't fully control that, and that's what parents should be worried about--not password syncing.

kerng 8y ago

Parents complain about auto-sync of passwords, and browser history, past searches and things like that. They would like more control of what's stored/synced by default. It's not as benign as you describe it, especially when it comes to children.

zenexer 8y ago
It doesn't auto-sync without your permission; you have to request that the browser save your password. If you want to save passwords locally without syncing, it's trivial to disable. You can additionally encrypt the passwords with a master password so that Google doesn't have access to them. Auto-syncing of passwords is a core feature of every modern browser. Safari does it, Firefox does it, Vivaldi does it, Edge does it, Opera does it, and, of course, Chrome does it. Want control over your child's account? Google has something for that: https://families.google.com/familylink/ https://families.google.com/familylink/ Want the school to manage it for you? That's exactly what G Suite is. Edit: The problem here is ignorance. It's easy to demonstrate that it's possible to control all the data about which this parent is concerned. Sure, there's data they can't easily control, but they make no mention of that. Your interests, demographics, everything else Google infers about you... you can't fully control that, and that's what parents should be worried about--not password syncing.