4 ms·

Google finally reveals the terrifying amount of data Gmail collects on iPhone

76 points by mgh2 6y ago

lupire 6y ago
Article admits the author doesn't believe editorialized headline.
ibraheemdev 6y ago
All of this information has been available on android for years.
MarkusWandel 6y ago
Terrifying? Practically every Android app wants all that stuff. What for? No idea. Alternative? Don't use the app. Sigh, click "permit". Thanks to the GDPR, a ton of web sites now have "agree to our intrusive policy" and "go away" options. I just want to get to the web site, so "agree". 100 page EULA? Agree without reading. After the initial noise, it'll be the same here.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  GPDR’s intent is to (at least) inform you of what’s going on. Sure, you can’t do anything about it but click “accept”, but GDPR also goes one step further and makes certain “forced ‘consent’” things illegal.
- fsflover 6y ago
  Try F-Droid app store instead.
easton 6y ago
I wonder how this changes (if it changes at all) if you are logged in with a GSuite account, which they claim to not collect nearly as much data from (which is why things like Assistant are neutered if they work at all). My pet theory was the reason they waited so long to push the labels was because they were trying to remove telemetry stuff that would kill enterprise contracts if discovered, but I guess that wasn’t the case.
bsaul 6y ago
recently uninstalled my iphone youtube app after it showed me an ad for a personnalized hoddie with my family name written on it. No idea where they got the info from, but i can't imagine anything more personnal to leak to an advertizer... Congrats google, you're ruining the internet Next step is to move away from gmail.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- tailspin2019 6y ago
  > No idea where they got the info from. > Next step is to move away from gmail. I think you answered your own question?
  - bsaul 6y ago
    so that would mean gmail sends my family name to ad partners ? (which means my email adress because i didn't fill my last name in gmail) Another option would be exchanging information with my facebook account. In both case that's a clear violation of their tos and "not sharing private information". I don't feel like suing them, and to me the writing is on the wall anyway for those companies : The world is looking for alternatives in all directiins, and soon they'll be over anyway.
    - shaftway 6y ago
      Could it have been the opposite direction? The advertiser targeted an ad to everyone using $YOUR_FAMILY_NAME as a keyword? I haven't seen one of these (despite my email address being firstname@lastname.com), but my family name isn't very common. According to https://forebears.io https://forebears.io my surname is >275,000 in commonality, so maybe I'm too far down the list. How common is your surname?
      - bsaul 6y ago
        not that common. But even that scenario is weird : how did youtube know last name in the first place ? Either they split my email ( but that would be really random especially considering spelling), or they got it from facebook because that's the only place. A third option is if they parsed my emails to find it... but that would be completely out of the line.

76 points by mgh2 6y ago

lupire 6y ago

Article admits the author doesn't believe editorialized headline.

ibraheemdev 6y ago

All of this information has been available on android for years.

MarkusWandel 6y ago

Terrifying? Practically every Android app wants all that stuff. What for? No idea. Alternative? Don't use the app. Sigh, click "permit". Thanks to the GDPR, a ton of web sites now have "agree to our intrusive policy" and "go away" options. I just want to get to the web site, so "agree". 100 page EULA? Agree without reading. After the initial noise, it'll be the same here.

colejohnson66 6y ago
GPDR’s intent is to (at least) inform you of what’s going on. Sure, you can’t do anything about it but click “accept”, but GDPR also goes one step further and makes certain “forced ‘consent’” things illegal.
fsflover 6y ago
Try F-Droid app store instead.

easton 6y ago

I wonder how this changes (if it changes at all) if you are logged in with a GSuite account, which they claim to not collect nearly as much data from (which is why things like Assistant are neutered if they work at all). My pet theory was the reason they waited so long to push the labels was because they were trying to remove telemetry stuff that would kill enterprise contracts if discovered, but I guess that wasn’t the case.

bsaul 6y ago

recently uninstalled my iphone youtube app after it showed me an ad for a personnalized hoddie with my family name written on it. No idea where they got the info from, but i can't imagine anything more personnal to leak to an advertizer... Congrats google, you're ruining the internet Next step is to move away from gmail.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tailspin2019 6y ago
> No idea where they got the info from. > Next step is to move away from gmail. I think you answered your own question?
- bsaul 6y ago
  so that would mean gmail sends my family name to ad partners ? (which means my email adress because i didn't fill my last name in gmail) Another option would be exchanging information with my facebook account. In both case that's a clear violation of their tos and "not sharing private information". I don't feel like suing them, and to me the writing is on the wall anyway for those companies : The world is looking for alternatives in all directiins, and soon they'll be over anyway.
  - shaftway 6y ago
    Could it have been the opposite direction? The advertiser targeted an ad to everyone using $YOUR_FAMILY_NAME as a keyword? I haven't seen one of these (despite my email address being firstname@lastname.com), but my family name isn't very common. According to https://forebears.io https://forebears.io my surname is >275,000 in commonality, so maybe I'm too far down the list. How common is your surname?
    - bsaul 6y ago
      not that common. But even that scenario is weird : how did youtube know last name in the first place ? Either they split my email ( but that would be really random especially considering spelling), or they got it from facebook because that's the only place. A third option is if they parsed my emails to find it... but that would be completely out of the line.