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Google Gemini is about to control your messages and calls, even if you say no
- lpcvoid 1y agoThis is why you don't have Google services on your phone, kids. Brought to you by a GrapheneOS fanboy.
- Iolaum 1y agoAs a GraphenOS user as well - I think you can say No even with Google Apps installed in GrapheneOS.
- Stiffly6471 1y agoIf my banking/payment app and my id app worked on grapheneOS i would also be using it. That the biggest issue right now. Dependency of apps on gsf
- sebtron 1y agoThat is IMO a huge problem with these "apps". Every service that claims to be a bank should be accessible without forcing you into the Apple / Google duopoly.
- aprilnya 1y agoIf they have some way to leave feedback, I would link them to this page - maybe they’ll listen: https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu... https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide#apps-banning-grapheneos https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu...
- attendant3446 1y agoOn Graphene, create another user and install sandboxed Google Play Services there. Don't login into Google account, use something like Aurora Store to get the apps. Most of the apps I have to use (mostly banks) work this way (I have a separate user with 5-6 apps that don't work without Google Play Services). I would prefer these apps had a standalone web version, but sometimes it's not up to you what apps you have to use :(
- the_third_wave 1y agoYou don't need GrapheneOS or any other specific AOSP derivative for that, any of them will do. Just don't install any Google-specific bits on the device - use microG if you need to have something resembling Google services - and you're there. Even on stock devices with Google services you can get partly there by disabling anything you don't need, only enabling it when you happen upon some app which absolutely won't run without them but first check if you can replace that app with another or - better still - a web app which can replace it. How to disable Google services you asked? Why, using a script of course, launched from a Termux widget. Here's one way to do this, using a disable/enable script (one script, two hardlinked names) on a rooted device running some stock distribution. If you try this and your phone breaks you get to keep both pieces without extra cost - in other words this works for me but might not work for you: ~ $ cat .shortcuts/Google_Services\:enable #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash PACKAGE="com.google.android.gms com.google.android.gms.policy_sidecar_aps com.google.android.gsf com.android.vending" PATH="/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin:$PATH" command=$(echo "$0"|cut -d: -f2) pman () { action=$1 shift for package in $@; do sudo pm $action $package done } case $command in disable|enable) pman $command $PACKAGE ;; *) echo "command '$command' not supported" ;; esac exit 0
- tjpnz 1y agoEspecially if you have kids. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-cs...
- ttctciyf 1y agoCan we say "enshAItification"?
- mdhb 1y agoHow the fuck is this going to fly in Europe with the data privacy laws?
- nolok 1y agoSome sort of "stay on device" thing, the way Samsung already does with the (terrible) bixby and (sorta better) galaxy ai ? They're fine with the few opt out and degraded service to them, their goal is the vast majority who will say yes.
- BiteCode_dev 1y agoYou can't use gemini if you are not logged in into a google account. This is one more good reason to never sign in on your android phone. It's not as good as using graphene, but it's easier, less work, and you can't brick your phone. The drawback, of course, is that you can't use your map, youtube or gmail account since signing in in any of those logs in the entire device. But with microg, fdroid and aurora, it's very practical.
- frabcus 1y agoPresumably you can use them all in a browser?
- BiteCode_dev 1y agoIf you attempt to gmail sign in from chrome, it will sign in your chrome account (https://www.mattcrampton.com/blog/sign-into-gmail-without-signing-into-google-chrome/ https://www.mattcrampton.com/blog/sign-into-gmail-without-si...), which will, if you have no account on your phone, sign in your phone. Tricky little buggar that one. Still easier to avoid than rooting, but easy to get wrong by mistake.
- askl 1y agoHow about just not having the Gemini app installed? That seems even easier to do and also lets you continue using the actually useful google products.
- surgical_fire 1y agoThat's how I solved it so far. That will only work until Google makes it impossible to uninstall.
- sebtron 1y agoWeird that you can even say "no". Usually the options are "yes" and "keep asking this until I click yes by accident".
- underdeserver 1y agoSounds sus. Did anyone here get this notification?
- seydor 1y agowhy WhatsApp?
- p1anecrazy 1y agoClickbait. > Gemini now has a second set of toggles buried in its settings menu. You can go to Profile → Apps inside the Gemini app and manually disable access to Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, or Utilities. But these are turned on by default, even if you’ve disabled tracking in the past.
- genman 1y agoPerhaps exaggerated, but the point remains - saying No has been made considerably harder for a regular user.
- ffsm8 1y agoi strongly disagree with p1anecrazy original claim that this was clickbait. I wouldn't even call that exaggerated whatsoever given these circumstances. If you say no, it still has access to them. the headline in no way claims that there is no way to disable access (likely temporarily) - it just says that if you disabled access before, gemini will still get access now. > But these are turned on by default, even if you’ve disabled tracking in the past.
- Jensson 1y agoSaying no to tracking doesn't mean you say no to access to other info. It is absolutely clickbait unless you can prove gemini stores that data to track you. Maybe it should have defaulted off on these new settings if you disabled tracking, but this isn't tracking.
- spacemadness 1y agoThey really get you with those headlines don’t they? “Google arguably makes Gemini scraping and control confusing to turn off” isn’t quite the same.
- account-5 1y agoIsn't this inevitable across all companies now? Apple will be doing this on their phones and devices. Facebook want to do this in your camera roll for media you've not shared with them. Microsoft are doing this in their OSs. This is the future. 99% of the user's won't care and will actually find benefit in this sort of thing. Personally I hate it, the struggle for any sort of privacy just got a lot harder on phones for me. PC/laptop is easy, I use Linux. But for phone I need to either pay for expensive hardware and risk bricking it to install something like grapheneOS or buy cheap and disable all the Google stuff I can.
- malka1986 1y agoThanks to my banks, i cannot use stuff like grapheneOS. Their app wont work on it. Changing bank ? Well all other banks have the exact same issue in my country.
- account-5 1y agoMy solution is to not do banking on my phone at all. My banking is done via a desktop browser. But how long will this last? They're constantly pushing for me to download their app.
- malka1986 1y agoSome operations, most notably confirming cc purchases online, can only be done using a mobile terminal for 'safety' reasons.
- thaumasiotes 1y agoThat is not true for my bank. Also, "terminal"?
- sebtron 1y agoIt can be a special purpose device, it does not have to be a smartphone.
- genman 1y agoIt looks like people need a new legislation to protect against such abuses.
- JimDabell 1y agoThis is a ridiculous article. There is a setting that lets Gemini learn from your data. This is not a setting to control whether Gemini can access your messages at all. Switching that setting off is not saying no to letting it control your messages and calls. It’s saying no to letting it learn from them. There is another setting you can use to disable access entirely.
- justoreply 1y agoI have "App activity" off, so everything is already off by default
- readthenotes1 1y agoSo paragraph 2 means what? " If you thought turning off Gemini Apps Activity meant turning off Gemini’s reach into your personal life, think again. Gemini is going live in your apps whether you like it or not."
- greatgib 1y agoI got the notification from Google about that and that made me think that they really are now a bunch of assholes with a top big joint monopoly with Apple. The notification indeed says that even if you turned everything off, they will allow themselves in your messages, especially WhatsApp messages that are not normally part of Google or Android. And even if it looks like that the option to disable that exist, they don't tell you about that in the notification. It looks like that you have no choice. To be clear, what I mean by that is that they only say: If you don’t want to use these features, you can turn them off in the Apps settings page. But what it means "in the Apps" settings page? Does it means a settings in each individual app that my prostitute itself to Gemini?and if yes, which exact apps should I go to, to do this manual process that I don't asked for?
- resoluteteeth 1y agoRight now if activity tracking is off I think you can't even use Gemini to do stuff like set alarms so it's worse than Google Assistant with activity tracking off. Since Google Assistant is going away I think this is an improvement for people who want to keep activity tracking off. It would also be better if you could create calendar events from the web version of Gemini with activity tracking off so you aren't punished for not letting Google train Gemini on your data imo.
- kebokyo 1y agoI’m surprised by how much this article reads like an opinion piece even though it isn’t. As generative AI becomes harder to ignore, broader in scope, and even more dominant as a business trend… the people whose jobs are to write about how generative AI affects our lives have just had enough. They’re smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and now they’re trying desperately to transfer that writing onto their pages.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tasuki 1y agoCan they just make my Android (Google) keyboard work? I use three languages, and the dictionaries for the languages other than English are missing basic conjugations. Can Gemini perhaps help me type the next word? I been waiting for years!
- zx8080 1y agoSorry it doesn't driving their ads revenue up.
- LouDNL 1y agoWhat I didnt read is what Android version this applies to? I have no Gemini app on my Samsung Galaxy S10+