6 ms·

This is scary stuff. Thank you norway for taking the fight against Google. How can you turn this off on an android?

by mscasts 8y ago

levesque 8y ago
iOS is becoming more attractive by the day.
- mscasts 8y ago
  Well, I just turn my location services off. I can't stand the Apple ecosystem even if I have to give them a huge props that they take integrity way more seriously than Google. Maybe I should invest in a dumb phone.
  - eckza 8y ago
    If you're really willing to go to a dumbphone... just get an iPhone and don't install any apps. That way, at the very least, you still have a killer camera.
    - mscasts 8y ago
      I have an iPhone 8 actually, but the screen is broken. Recently switched to an Samsung, which I now kind of regret.
- annapurna 8y ago
  That's what it's become for me and my circle. Got my parents the older iPhones (6S) late last year and got the same for myself this month. I miss being able to access the local storage (one small hack I found was using the Firefox app local folder to store my files)
  - bitL 8y ago
    Did the same with my parents (SE + 6S) and alongside iOS I use Jolla Sailfish and ancient Nokia N9 with Meego (both pure hackable Linux).
tirpen 8y ago
You can turn of "Location History" and "Web & App History", for your google account from https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization Before you deactivate them, I suggest looking through the data Google has saved in them for a while so you grok the full scale of how horrible those settings truly are.
- mscasts 8y ago
  Jeez, that is truly terrifying. I hate Google even more now. I can see my history years back. It seems that I cannot delete it just "pause" it? Seriously? EDIT: Found it, it was just hidden several layers down.
  - module0000 8y ago
    Darn you, now I had to go through the same process. The page to delete the data was not obvious to locate - scary and sad.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
snazz 8y ago
Installing LineageOS without any Google apps (including Google Play Services) might be the only way to continue using Android minus the tracking. You lose quite a bit of convenience for this, though. And of course, you’re still being tracked by virtue of it being a cell phone with a baseband processor (see my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18821444 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18821444).
- Tepix 8y ago
  Your carrier will know where you are (and have been). Are you saying this information is also available to apps?
  - snazz 8y ago
    I meant more that it is very hard to completely avoid tracking and that the cell carrier is an often-overlooked part of the equation.
- mscasts 8y ago
  I will lookup LineageOS, thank you.
- remusrm 8y ago
  I do exactly that, and only use waze in town and HERE maps everywhere else. Only problem seems to be GPS signal is really hard to pick up, and always wants google play services, same goes for google maps.

This is scary stuff. Thank you norway for taking the fight against Google. How can you turn this off on an android?

levesque 8y ago

iOS is becoming more attractive by the day.

mscasts 8y ago
Well, I just turn my location services off. I can't stand the Apple ecosystem even if I have to give them a huge props that they take integrity way more seriously than Google. Maybe I should invest in a dumb phone.
- eckza 8y ago
  If you're really willing to go to a dumbphone... just get an iPhone and don't install any apps. That way, at the very least, you still have a killer camera.
  - mscasts 8y ago
    I have an iPhone 8 actually, but the screen is broken. Recently switched to an Samsung, which I now kind of regret.
annapurna 8y ago
That's what it's become for me and my circle. Got my parents the older iPhones (6S) late last year and got the same for myself this month. I miss being able to access the local storage (one small hack I found was using the Firefox app local folder to store my files)
- bitL 8y ago
  Did the same with my parents (SE + 6S) and alongside iOS I use Jolla Sailfish and ancient Nokia N9 with Meego (both pure hackable Linux).

tirpen 8y ago

You can turn of "Location History" and "Web & App History", for your google account from https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization Before you deactivate them, I suggest looking through the data Google has saved in them for a while so you grok the full scale of how horrible those settings truly are.

mscasts 8y ago
Jeez, that is truly terrifying. I hate Google even more now. I can see my history years back. It seems that I cannot delete it just "pause" it? Seriously? EDIT: Found it, it was just hidden several layers down.
- module0000 8y ago
  Darn you, now I had to go through the same process. The page to delete the data was not obvious to locate - scary and sad.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

snazz 8y ago

Installing LineageOS without any Google apps (including Google Play Services) might be the only way to continue using Android minus the tracking. You lose quite a bit of convenience for this, though. And of course, you’re still being tracked by virtue of it being a cell phone with a baseband processor (see my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18821444 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18821444).

Tepix 8y ago
Your carrier will know where you are (and have been). Are you saying this information is also available to apps?
- snazz 8y ago
  I meant more that it is very hard to completely avoid tracking and that the cell carrier is an often-overlooked part of the equation.
mscasts 8y ago
I will lookup LineageOS, thank you.
remusrm 8y ago
I do exactly that, and only use waze in town and HERE maps everywhere else. Only problem seems to be GPS signal is really hard to pick up, and always wants google play services, same goes for google maps.