4 ms·

> Somehow Chrome autopopulating credit card fields got transformed into me having a Google Pay account. If you give a company your information in one departmen

> Somehow Chrome autopopulating credit card fields got transformed into me having a Google Pay account. If you give a company your information in one department, another department will invariably use it. See also: Facebook using the phone number you put in for 2FA for targeted marketing [1]. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/27/yes-facebook-is-using-your-2fa-phone-number-to-target-you-with-ads/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/27/yes-facebook-is-using-your... > The old "don't be evil" Google wouldn't have done this. What's the "old" Google? You mean like Google Latitude, circa 2009? [2] [3] [2] https://www.computerworld.com/article/2530951/privacy-group-calls-google-latitude-a--danger--to-security.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2530951/privacy-group-... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/technology/22privacy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/technology/22privacy.html

paul7986 5y ago
lol the old Google and it's mission statement i wonder if it ever followed that vs. it was all PR that many fell under it's spell. I surely did then I was invited to demo my invention/tech to Google ATAP and whoa it was a huge spit in my face type experience and similar to this MIT student's experience https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929. Hers was worse as they blatantly patented her work after her interview without her knowledge and consent. Yet they got caught. I am avid DDG user and advocate ever since realizing wow Google stomps on all the dreamers it inspired.
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  Goodness gracious, "I demo'd my work to $BIGCO and they stole it". Imagine my surprise. This has been going on since the start of the PC era. I don't condone it in any way, but trusting $BIGCO is like trusting the mafia; don't do it, or have a private army (lawyers, gunmen, doesn't matter).
  - paul7986 5y ago
    lol i went out there with a provisional patent filed which is a waste of money you later learn cause you need a similar warchest to your opponent. My point is Google's motto/PR was "Don't Be Evil," and that was just a ruse and her experience helps prove that as well prompts users to be disenchanted by them who also were sold and bought that same crap. Further I am more then happy to tell my story and more importantly her story with evidence to warn those who have Google's stars in their eyes to demand millions before taking a meeting!
Traster 5y ago
It's worth noting that this is exactly what GDPR is meant to stop. Specifically, if they take your data they need consent and they need to be upfront about what they're going to use that data for. So if they say "Hey, would you like us to store this data for auto-complete" and then take it and use it to create a google pay account, then they don't have consent and can be fined.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  Corporations treat fines as cost of doing business. In order to actually be effective, there need to be mandatory minimum prison terms for C-level staff who greenlit a particular program.
  - Traster 5y ago
    The maximum GDPR fine is 4% of previous years revenue, or in the case of google $3Bn.
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      This has never been applied and will never be - GDPR enforcement is a joke. The combined amount of fines across all companies over the GDPR's entire 4-year lifespan is just 1Bn.
      - simpss 5y ago
        there's a transition period. We can't start enforcement with the maximum available penalties. If the lower don't suffice, we will get closer & closer to the maximum.
        Nextgrid 5y ago
        The transition period is getting a bit long now and companies are still making billions on violating the GDPR.
    - danuker 5y ago
lern_too_spel 5y ago
Google Latitude was an opt-in service.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  > Google Latitude was an opt-in service. Ostensibly, so is Google Pay. And yet here we are. See also, from the third link in my previous post: > And the privacy watchdog said users of Latitude were not informed that Google tracked their movements to enhance its database of Wi-Fi information.
  - lern_too_spel 5y ago
    Except Google never automatically opted users into Google Latitude, so it is not at all comparable to what pg says happened with Google Pay. > And the privacy watchdog said users of Latitude were not informed that Google tracked their movements to enhance its database of Wi-Fi information This looks like they are confusing two different things (Latitude and Location Services, though maybe Latitude required Location Services to be enabled). Are iOS users warned that getting their location on iOS at all is used to enhance Apple's database of Wi-Fi information? The difference is that on Android, this is opt out with an explicit prompt at device setup, and on iOS, you can't even opt out. Which is more evil? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21708157 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21708157
    - Ansil849 5y ago
      > This looks like they are confusing two different things (Latitude and Location Services, though maybe Latitude required Location Services to be enabled). The Google Latitude case also resulted in an actual fine levied. Your stance is that this fine was all because the regulatory body "was confused"?
      - lern_too_spel 5y ago
        No, you're confused about that because your article mixed up Street View and Latitude claims. The fine for Latitude was for processing location data collected from French users in France, which requires filing with the French government, not for any nonconsensual data collection. https://larevue.squirepattonboggs.com/google-street-view-and-google-latitude-100000-fine-ordered-by-the-french-data-protection-authority-cnil_a1439.html https://larevue.squirepattonboggs.com/google-street-view-and...
judge2020 5y ago
Chrome card autofill was always stored via a separate Google API, which is why you need to input the CVV to autofill the card number and can't just pull it from your local sync database file. You've always had a ""Google Pay"" profile, it's just now in a dedicated screen.

paul7986 5y ago

lol the old Google and it's mission statement i wonder if it ever followed that vs. it was all PR that many fell under it's spell. I surely did then I was invited to demo my invention/tech to Google ATAP and whoa it was a huge spit in my face type experience and similar to this MIT student's experience https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929. Hers was worse as they blatantly patented her work after her interview without her knowledge and consent. Yet they got caught. I am avid DDG user and advocate ever since realizing wow Google stomps on all the dreamers it inspired.

denton-scratch 5y ago
Goodness gracious, "I demo'd my work to $BIGCO and they stole it". Imagine my surprise. This has been going on since the start of the PC era. I don't condone it in any way, but trusting $BIGCO is like trusting the mafia; don't do it, or have a private army (lawyers, gunmen, doesn't matter).
- paul7986 5y ago
  lol i went out there with a provisional patent filed which is a waste of money you later learn cause you need a similar warchest to your opponent. My point is Google's motto/PR was "Don't Be Evil," and that was just a ruse and her experience helps prove that as well prompts users to be disenchanted by them who also were sold and bought that same crap. Further I am more then happy to tell my story and more importantly her story with evidence to warn those who have Google's stars in their eyes to demand millions before taking a meeting!

Traster 5y ago

It's worth noting that this is exactly what GDPR is meant to stop. Specifically, if they take your data they need consent and they need to be upfront about what they're going to use that data for. So if they say "Hey, would you like us to store this data for auto-complete" and then take it and use it to create a google pay account, then they don't have consent and can be fined.

Ansil849 5y ago
Corporations treat fines as cost of doing business. In order to actually be effective, there need to be mandatory minimum prison terms for C-level staff who greenlit a particular program.
- Traster 5y ago
  The maximum GDPR fine is 4% of previous years revenue, or in the case of google $3Bn.
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    This has never been applied and will never be - GDPR enforcement is a joke. The combined amount of fines across all companies over the GDPR's entire 4-year lifespan is just 1Bn.
    - simpss 5y ago
      there's a transition period. We can't start enforcement with the maximum available penalties. If the lower don't suffice, we will get closer & closer to the maximum.
      - Nextgrid 5y ago
        The transition period is getting a bit long now and companies are still making billions on violating the GDPR.
  - danuker 5y ago

lern_too_spel 5y ago

Google Latitude was an opt-in service.

Ansil849 5y ago
> Google Latitude was an opt-in service. Ostensibly, so is Google Pay. And yet here we are. See also, from the third link in my previous post: > And the privacy watchdog said users of Latitude were not informed that Google tracked their movements to enhance its database of Wi-Fi information.
- lern_too_spel 5y ago
  Except Google never automatically opted users into Google Latitude, so it is not at all comparable to what pg says happened with Google Pay. > And the privacy watchdog said users of Latitude were not informed that Google tracked their movements to enhance its database of Wi-Fi information This looks like they are confusing two different things (Latitude and Location Services, though maybe Latitude required Location Services to be enabled). Are iOS users warned that getting their location on iOS at all is used to enhance Apple's database of Wi-Fi information? The difference is that on Android, this is opt out with an explicit prompt at device setup, and on iOS, you can't even opt out. Which is more evil? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21708157 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21708157
  - Ansil849 5y ago
    > This looks like they are confusing two different things (Latitude and Location Services, though maybe Latitude required Location Services to be enabled). The Google Latitude case also resulted in an actual fine levied. Your stance is that this fine was all because the regulatory body "was confused"?
    - lern_too_spel 5y ago
      No, you're confused about that because your article mixed up Street View and Latitude claims. The fine for Latitude was for processing location data collected from French users in France, which requires filing with the French government, not for any nonconsensual data collection. https://larevue.squirepattonboggs.com/google-street-view-and-google-latitude-100000-fine-ordered-by-the-french-data-protection-authority-cnil_a1439.html https://larevue.squirepattonboggs.com/google-street-view-and...

judge2020 5y ago

Chrome card autofill was always stored via a separate Google API, which is why you need to input the CVV to autofill the card number and can't just pull it from your local sync database file. You've always had a ""Google Pay"" profile, it's just now in a dedicated screen.