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> Digital well-being dashboard and limits Whenever a for-profit company introduces a new feature, one must ask himself, what is the business case for it. Pers
by krn 8y ago
> Digital well-being dashboard and limits
Whenever a for-profit company introduces a new feature, one must ask himself, what is the business case for it.
Personally, I see this feature as a way for Google to legally track which apps people use, and how often. Essentially, it does for Google what Onavo VPN did for Facebook.
From the data collection point of view, whoever came up with this idea at Google must have been worth a promotion. Especially, after GDPR came into force.
- joshuamorton 8y agoThey can and do already track your app usage (you can see this if you check your usage history on the Google data dashboards). This specific change is pretty much just a good thing, unless you want to get meta-cynical.
- krn 8y ago> They can and do already track your app usage (you can see this if you check your usage history on the Google data dashboards). Is my Android data usage by app stored somewhere online by default? I thought the stats are only kept locally at the OS level, and are not connected to my Google Account. In any case, "Digital well-being" seems to be about tracking screen time, not data usage. And as far as I understand, it sends that data back to Google.
- throwaway2048 8y agoSign into your google store account on another device with a web browser, it gives you full information about what apps you have installed, how long you have used them, and even the ability to install apps remotely (!).
- krn 8y agoThis is a normal functionality of every app store: keeping track of what and when was installed. But as far as I am aware, Google Play doesn't collect data about the actual usage of each app in terms of screen time. That's where "Digital well-being" fills the gap for Google.