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> but honestly you have no idea how good you have it right now. Do me a favor: Grab an Android phone with all the Google crap still on it, factory reset it, an

> but honestly you have no idea how good you have it right now. Do me a favor: Grab an Android phone with all the Google crap still on it, factory reset it, and actually read the obnoxious ways in which Google asks you to give it permission to track you. "We want to improve your search results!!! Click yes!" The small print: and thereby enable us to log EVERYWHERE you walk, drive, commute ALL DAY LONG. And that example is rather poor, I can't even properly reiterate how brazenly they lie into your face when they make up reasons for those confirmation dialogs. The last time I did this, I actually had to laugh at how shameless the text was worded. Everything is phrased as if it were 100% to your benefit even though it is 1% to yours and 99% to theirs. It's straight up manipulation.

Google234 6y ago
You do get better search results with location tracking though...
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
  If I want (which I don't in general!) Google to serve me location specific results I will just enter the desired location into Google Maps along with the keywords. No need to be tracked for that all day and possibly get implicated into random crimes because I happened to be near them. That's an insanely disproportionate cost compared to the effort it spares of having to enter a location into Maps once every few weeks.
johnisgood 6y ago
And do not forget the fact that you cannot delete any of these apps, and IIRC Gboard (Google's keyboard) requires Internet access, does it not? In any case, I disabled all Google apps and replaced it with alternatives. I should just root my phone and delete all of it, but sadly I need "Courier Services" and whatnot. Google is everywhere, you cannot even get rid of it.
- freebuju 6y ago
  Though there's little you can do to escape Google if you are using Android, what gives me some sort of peace is blocking internet access to apps like gboard. (AFAIK it's the only keyboard with support to inline autofill; this is literally the only reason keeping me from torching the app) https://github.com/ukanth/afwall https://github.com/ukanth/afwall
  - johnisgood 6y ago
    Yeah, you can block Internet access, although still... I try to avoid such apps. I am using "OpenBoard". It has the same functionality from what I gathered, and it is open source IIRC. You can get it from F-Droid.
freebuju 6y ago
On their Messages app, they only have a comic aid to help explain how smart reply works. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh about it. It is default opt-in btw. Link for the related comic: https://web.archive.org/web/20210129192508/https://federated.withgoogle.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210129192508/https://federated...

Google234 6y ago

You do get better search results with location tracking though...

eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
If I want (which I don't in general!) Google to serve me location specific results I will just enter the desired location into Google Maps along with the keywords. No need to be tracked for that all day and possibly get implicated into random crimes because I happened to be near them. That's an insanely disproportionate cost compared to the effort it spares of having to enter a location into Maps once every few weeks.

johnisgood 6y ago

And do not forget the fact that you cannot delete any of these apps, and IIRC Gboard (Google's keyboard) requires Internet access, does it not? In any case, I disabled all Google apps and replaced it with alternatives. I should just root my phone and delete all of it, but sadly I need "Courier Services" and whatnot. Google is everywhere, you cannot even get rid of it.

freebuju 6y ago
Though there's little you can do to escape Google if you are using Android, what gives me some sort of peace is blocking internet access to apps like gboard. (AFAIK it's the only keyboard with support to inline autofill; this is literally the only reason keeping me from torching the app) https://github.com/ukanth/afwall https://github.com/ukanth/afwall
- johnisgood 6y ago
  Yeah, you can block Internet access, although still... I try to avoid such apps. I am using "OpenBoard". It has the same functionality from what I gathered, and it is open source IIRC. You can get it from F-Droid.

freebuju 6y ago

On their Messages app, they only have a comic aid to help explain how smart reply works. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh about it. It is default opt-in btw. Link for the related comic: https://web.archive.org/web/20210129192508/https://federated.withgoogle.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210129192508/https://federated...