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Yeah. Tying setting the home address to search history is pretty sleazy and there is no good explanation for this other than bullying people into turning on tra
by maxxxxx 8y ago
Yeah. Tying setting the home address to search history is pretty sleazy and there is no good explanation for this other than bullying people into turning on tracking. I am really getting tired of companies that want to suck up every piece of data.
- dzader 8y agoCurious why you feel so entitled that you think Google should provide you with their free mapping service and features with nothing in exchange?
- maxxxxx 8y agoI don't feel entitled and I rarely use them but it's still sleazy behavior. There are a lot of people who don't understand what consequences using Google or Facebook has to their privacy and these companies happily prey on them.
- dzader 8y agoWhat are the consequences? I guess I don't understand them either
- maxxxxx 8y agoOne consequence is that your personal data gets sold to whoever wants to pay for it. In the long run a serious consequence will be that all the data they collect could be used by a dictatorship to suppress opposition. I am sure Hitler and Stalin would have been very happy with the data Google and Facebook have. Once you have full-scale surveillance and the means to analyze the data in a country any kind of political opposition will be very hard.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- WD-42 8y agoSnowden put it pretty eloquently: Saying you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say. I think people understand at some level that there is something wrong with companies collecting enormous amounts of data on them even if the immediate consequences are hard to describe.
- _underfl0w_ 8y agoEither that or you weren't here for early versions of Google Maps, haven't heard of OsmAnd, Mapbox, OpenStreetMaps, etc. or you just really like calling people 'entitled'.
- maxxxxx 8y agoVery true. the first versions were very straightforward and only later on they did stuff like connecting saving a location with location tracking. From casual observation I even think they turned this on and off several times. They still show me some locations I saved years ago but I can't modify them or add new ones. The annoying part is that google maps is really good at searching locations. None of the open source alternatives can do stuff like "Indian buffet Venice" so I often have to use Google maps to find something. Once I have the location saved I would say OpenStreetMaps apps are totally competitive.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- FabHK 8y agoI don't feel entitled in that way, and therefore avoid using Google products, but use alternatives, some of which I have to pay for (explicitly, like more storage in the Apple iCloud, or implicitly, in more expensive devices). Having said that, yeah, I do "feel so entitled" that I think sleazy companies should not sneakily manipulate me (and my parents, and other less technically savvy people) into divulging much more than they are aware of. Yes, imagine that, I feel entitled that companies should not manipulate me and lie to me (the carefully worded EULAs etc. do not fundamentally change that, as you very well know). And guess what, there's the GDPR in Europe that recognises that entitlement and makes it just a bit harder for companies to do that, and I think that's a good thing.
- larkeith 8y agoBy providing these services and features for free previously, they killed the majority of the competition, and only then removed the ability to use them without tracking. It's an interesting mixture of anticompetitive behavior and extortion.
- HeWhoLurksLate 8y agoMapquest still exists, should we hold a community rally?