4 ms·

Google's Chrome Has My Dead Grandpa's Data, Who Never Used the Internet

22 points by mfrw 7y ago

skybrian 7y ago
Someone using that Google account probably sent him a package or ordered something online for him, and it was saved in autocomplete. Then they forgot they ever did that, so now we have another Google conspiracy theory because that's the first thing people jump to these days.
- fartcannon 7y ago
  Deservedly so.
- ridaj 7y ago
  Yes, or filled out any form on his behalf that required entering an address
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  I'm not sure how that makes it a conspiracy theory. Collecting a giant organized database out of tiny incidental fragments of data that would otherwise disappear is the creepy part, in the very likely case it wasn't saved to that page on purpose.
  - saulrh 7y ago
    Unfortunately, people bitch about unreliability and brokenness when things forget about you. "Stop showing me that, I've searched for <name> thirty times today and I've clicked on the documentation instead of the porn every single time." Organizing all of those tiny incidental fragments of data for you is something that most people want their browser to do.
orionblastar 7y ago
Most likely Google accessed Census data with an AI and found your parent living with them way back when and you living with that parent later on and added them together for scary results.
- yoz-y 7y ago
  No. "Most likely" they have just entered their address while he was logged in on their computer and didn't remember it. (The original article even states this as a possibility and then hand-waves it)
devoply 7y ago
All I can say is imagine the Nazis or some American government hell bent on kicking people out of the country had this level of data on everyone.
- youareostriches 7y ago
  It’s just one national security letter away from them right now.
3xblah 7y ago
To be fair, that old Google mission statement, "... organize the world's information...", said nothing about the internet. As it stands toay, we have to assume whatever "offline" information about people exists, whether Google collected it, or acquired it through some acquisition, Google can afford a license to use it.
Thorrez 7y ago
The original article, instead of a slashdot user's summary of the article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2019/09/03/google-has-my-dead-grandpas-data-and-he-never-used-the-internet/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2019/09/03/google-h...
- hbcondo714 7y ago
  Previous HN discussion on this Forbes article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878525 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878525
Thorrez 7y ago
> He passed away on March 1st, 2019 and they said the only time they’ve used his information anywhere is with the lawyers, estate managers, bankers, etc who were helping in the process of our family dealing with his death. Did any of those lawyers, estate managers, bankers, etc, send a form to be filled out in in the browser?
vezycash 7y ago
>How did his data get associated with my Google account...? Your phone - gps, cell triangulation, contact, call logs, similar names...
yoz-y 7y ago
Huh? The never saved password list does not contain passwords, just the list of sites when he clicked on "never save this password". Any browser obviously needs to store this list somewhere, if there wasn't then how would you ever be able to go back on a decision if you misclicked?
mirimir 7y ago
As for others here and on Slashdot, I'm not surprised. I mean, Google's thing is collecting and cross-referencing data. These are his grandparents. He's been in touch with them. His parents have been in touch with them. They're listed in phone books and other public directories etc. So it's not at all surprising that Google has linked them to him. And hey, they even linked him to a page with the information. Now, if this was some secret and forbidden love that they'd linked him to, that would be disturbing.
tylerl 7y ago
His article says if you know the answer to his questions, then comment below.. but there isn't a below to comment in. Well, I know the answers, and none of them are particularly interesting. The "never saved passwords" aren't passwords, they're sites where you've clicked "never on this site" in response to a "save this password?" prompt. It has to remember which site you said that on, so that's the list of sites. Woopitty doo. The addresses are populated from a combination of: (a) addresses you intentionally added, (b) addresses automatically saved from form-fills, and potentially (c) addresses you've saved to your Google account if you're logged in to Chrome with one. These live in the google payments app; if you have credit card on file (e.g. if you buy things from google) or if Google pays you (e.g. adsense), then the "billing address" is attached to your account. Chrome will auto-fill those addresses. All the other speculative nonsense in his article is just that. If you give information to Google in a way that it looks like you want them to save it, then they will save it and regurgitate those details back to you when it looks like you want them to. They don't share this information with anyone else because (and I know this sounds revolutionary, but bear with me) because you probably don't want them to.

22 points by mfrw 7y ago

Someone using that Google account probably sent him a package or ordered something online for him, and it was saved in autocomplete. Then they forgot they ever did that, so now we have another Google conspiracy theory because that's the first thing people jump to these days.

fartcannon 7y ago
Deservedly so.
ridaj 7y ago
Yes, or filled out any form on his behalf that required entering an address
Dylan16807 7y ago
I'm not sure how that makes it a conspiracy theory. Collecting a giant organized database out of tiny incidental fragments of data that would otherwise disappear is the creepy part, in the very likely case it wasn't saved to that page on purpose.
- saulrh 7y ago
  Unfortunately, people bitch about unreliability and brokenness when things forget about you. "Stop showing me that, I've searched for <name> thirty times today and I've clicked on the documentation instead of the porn every single time." Organizing all of those tiny incidental fragments of data for you is something that most people want their browser to do.

orionblastar 7y ago

Most likely Google accessed Census data with an AI and found your parent living with them way back when and you living with that parent later on and added them together for scary results.

yoz-y 7y ago
No. "Most likely" they have just entered their address while he was logged in on their computer and didn't remember it. (The original article even states this as a possibility and then hand-waves it)

devoply 7y ago

All I can say is imagine the Nazis or some American government hell bent on kicking people out of the country had this level of data on everyone.

youareostriches 7y ago
It’s just one national security letter away from them right now.

3xblah 7y ago

To be fair, that old Google mission statement, "... organize the world's information...", said nothing about the internet. As it stands toay, we have to assume whatever "offline" information about people exists, whether Google collected it, or acquired it through some acquisition, Google can afford a license to use it.

Thorrez 7y ago

The original article, instead of a slashdot user's summary of the article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2019/09/03/google-has-my-dead-grandpas-data-and-he-never-used-the-internet/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2019/09/03/google-h...

hbcondo714 7y ago
Previous HN discussion on this Forbes article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878525 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878525

Thorrez 7y ago

> He passed away on March 1st, 2019 and they said the only time they’ve used his information anywhere is with the lawyers, estate managers, bankers, etc who were helping in the process of our family dealing with his death. Did any of those lawyers, estate managers, bankers, etc, send a form to be filled out in in the browser?

vezycash 7y ago

>How did his data get associated with my Google account...? Your phone - gps, cell triangulation, contact, call logs, similar names...

yoz-y 7y ago

Huh? The never saved password list does not contain passwords, just the list of sites when he clicked on "never save this password". Any browser obviously needs to store this list somewhere, if there wasn't then how would you ever be able to go back on a decision if you misclicked?

mirimir 7y ago

As for others here and on Slashdot, I'm not surprised. I mean, Google's thing is collecting and cross-referencing data. These are his grandparents. He's been in touch with them. His parents have been in touch with them. They're listed in phone books and other public directories etc. So it's not at all surprising that Google has linked them to him. And hey, they even linked him to a page with the information. Now, if this was some secret and forbidden love that they'd linked him to, that would be disturbing.

tylerl 7y ago

His article says if you know the answer to his questions, then comment below.. but there isn't a below to comment in. Well, I know the answers, and none of them are particularly interesting. The "never saved passwords" aren't passwords, they're sites where you've clicked "never on this site" in response to a "save this password?" prompt. It has to remember which site you said that on, so that's the list of sites. Woopitty doo. The addresses are populated from a combination of: (a) addresses you intentionally added, (b) addresses automatically saved from form-fills, and potentially (c) addresses you've saved to your Google account if you're logged in to Chrome with one. These live in the google payments app; if you have credit card on file (e.g. if you buy things from google) or if Google pays you (e.g. adsense), then the "billing address" is attached to your account. Chrome will auto-fill those addresses. All the other speculative nonsense in his article is just that. If you give information to Google in a way that it looks like you want them to save it, then they will save it and regurgitate those details back to you when it looks like you want them to. They don't share this information with anyone else because (and I know this sounds revolutionary, but bear with me) because you probably don't want them to.