5 ms·

The numbers don't make sense: >Do you expect Google to collect data about a person’s activities on Google platforms? >Do you expect Google to collect and merg

by treis 8y ago

The numbers don't make sense: >Do you expect Google to collect data about a person’s activities on Google platforms? >Do you expect Google to collect and merge data about a person’s search activities with activities on its other applications? The second got 10% more "yes" responses than the first, but answering "yes" to the second question logically requires a "yes" to the first one.

hopler 8y ago
The numbers make sense. People don't make sense. Humans are notoriously bad at conditional probability
scott_s 8y ago
People don't make sense. It's entirely possible for people to having logically conflicting assumptions without realizing those assumptions conflict. How people respond to questions is also influenced by how the question is asked, and even the order the questions are asked. Making good surveys are hard for that reason, as once you recognize logically inconsistent trends, you have to figure out if the result is due to the survey itself, or you truly revealed a quirk about how people think about the topic.
- teej 8y ago
  In this case it’s just poor survey question design.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mlthoughts2018 8y ago
I don’t understand your comment. Why do you think the two questions are related? As I read them, the first is just about collecting data on Google platforms (said data might be kept separated per each platform). The second question is about attempting to tie search data with other collected data. Someone might for example expect Google to try to tie your search history to other places, but at the same time expect Google to simply not collect much data in a variety of other services / business products / whatever. The second question getting more “yes” responses seems perfectly consistent to me, and answering yes to the second does not at all require answering yes to the first to maintain logical consistency.
gpm 8y ago
The second question is readily interpreted as "Assuming Google is collecting data about a person's search activities and activities on its other applications do you expect ...". In regular english it doesn't make sense without that assumption, so the assumption becomes somewhat implicit.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
cc439 8y ago
There's a difference between "activities" and "search activities". People expect Google to track search data, but "activities" is so broad that many people may not understand Google is tracking nearly as much as they actually are.
rjf72 8y ago
Whether right or wrong, when I see "platform" the primary thing I think of is Android. Whereas "application" is more well defined. Personally of course I am aware that Google is engaged in extremely aggressive tracking and data harvesting on both. But if I was an otherwise uninformed consumer I would not expect my operating system to be harvesting and exfiltrating private information about myself and my behaviors for Google's commercial gain. By contrast, that behavior is more expected of applications/apps. It's even indirectly demonstrated in app permissions, which users are in many cases required to allow.

by treis 8y ago

hopler 8y ago

The numbers make sense. People don't make sense. Humans are notoriously bad at conditional probability

scott_s 8y ago

People don't make sense. It's entirely possible for people to having logically conflicting assumptions without realizing those assumptions conflict. How people respond to questions is also influenced by how the question is asked, and even the order the questions are asked. Making good surveys are hard for that reason, as once you recognize logically inconsistent trends, you have to figure out if the result is due to the survey itself, or you truly revealed a quirk about how people think about the topic.

teej 8y ago
In this case it’s just poor survey question design.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mlthoughts2018 8y ago

I don’t understand your comment. Why do you think the two questions are related? As I read them, the first is just about collecting data on Google platforms (said data might be kept separated per each platform). The second question is about attempting to tie search data with other collected data. Someone might for example expect Google to try to tie your search history to other places, but at the same time expect Google to simply not collect much data in a variety of other services / business products / whatever. The second question getting more “yes” responses seems perfectly consistent to me, and answering yes to the second does not at all require answering yes to the first to maintain logical consistency.

gpm 8y ago

The second question is readily interpreted as "Assuming Google is collecting data about a person's search activities and activities on its other applications do you expect ...". In regular english it doesn't make sense without that assumption, so the assumption becomes somewhat implicit.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

cc439 8y ago

There's a difference between "activities" and "search activities". People expect Google to track search data, but "activities" is so broad that many people may not understand Google is tracking nearly as much as they actually are.

rjf72 8y ago

Whether right or wrong, when I see "platform" the primary thing I think of is Android. Whereas "application" is more well defined. Personally of course I am aware that Google is engaged in extremely aggressive tracking and data harvesting on both. But if I was an otherwise uninformed consumer I would not expect my operating system to be harvesting and exfiltrating private information about myself and my behaviors for Google's commercial gain. By contrast, that behavior is more expected of applications/apps. It's even indirectly demonstrated in app permissions, which users are in many cases required to allow.