4 ms·
These stories have turned into click baits. The data in question here is nothing compared to what your credit card company, bank, Amazon or TurboTax has. Unli
by gerash 7y ago
These stories have turned into click baits.
The data in question here is nothing compared to what your credit card company, bank, Amazon or TurboTax has.
Unlike many folks here I find value in this and can't see it harming my privacy. In fact I think Gmail is still dumb compared to what Google or maybe a startup could potentially provide.
I'd love to be able to ask a query such as "show me the receipt for that red flower pot I bought last year" or "show me all my dentist appointments this year".
- bassman9000 7y agoYou're missing the point, and I would downvote you if I could. Google is accumulating data coming from purchases on 3rd party services, without having asked you to do so. You may be fine with that, some people are not, and on top of that, disabling that behavior and deleting the already accumulated data is difficult, or impossible. That's what the article is about.
- gerash 7y agoThe ones I mentioned (cc card, bank, TurboTax, etc.) are all data on third party services too.
- luckylion 7y agoI don't know how banks in the US work. Do they give you "helpful messages" about what you can do with the stuff you bought at $shop? Also, banks and credit card companies are highly regulated. Google is not. I guess it should be.
- human20190310 7y agoThe difference is that I know that the credit card company or Amazon is collecting my information because I'm directly involving them in the transaction. I thought I had all my Google privacy settings at "paranoid", but I did not know this was even occurring.
- Zopieux 7y agoExactly how are you not involving Gmail when you set your transaction receipt email address to be your @gmail.com? While I do understand the point that /purchases looks creepy, your comparison is dishonest.
- human20190310 7y agoI'm not involving gmail in the transaction because I didn't ask them to read the mail. If gmail (and email in general) is going to make use of the "mail" analogy, that comes with the expectation that they do not open your mail.
- human20190310 7y agoAlso how does an expectation of privacy from a communications platform amount to a "dishonest" comparison?
- sbr464 7y agoI think google has more context than Amex. They get the receipts, order summary emails, username/profile at the e-commerce site. Amex only gets a merchant, total and purchase date, and geo coordinates for physical swipes.
- ankit219 7y agoAmex might be still dumb compared to google, but they have very rich user profiles obtained via DMPS. Infact credit rating companies have vast amounts of data which they provide to these companies for free. The data includes your credit card payment, rating, payment history, credit score, loan/debt history, current debt, pending EMIs, defaulting list and so on. Google is still trying to figure out exactly how much you earn. DMPs like Adobe's and Oracle's know the exact number and can help companies target people basis salary.
- lukevdp 7y agoI agree. Unfortunately we are heading in the other direction with less and less useful stuff being possible because “data”