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Welcome! To set up your OnHub, you’ll also need:
Google account
Android or iOS device
Broadband connection
I think you need an account for cloud-based configuration, credential sharing, etc. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I think it makes sense as a product. I highly doubt they added a Google account requirement to improve ad targeting.
I highly doubt they added a Google account requirement
to improve ad targeting.
Asking for an explanation or complaining or criticizing a product is good and should be encouraged. Companies should expect negative feedback if they release products that consumers do not like. In fact this helps the Companies too in making products that people want.
I don't quite see why you're telling people to "take it or leave it". That applies to every single product in existence, and I would hazard a guess that most people here are aware of it.
I'm saying that if you're unwilling to use a Google account for this, then (in all likelihood) it probably isn't the best product for you.
The same way that if you're unwilling to use an Amazon (or Apple) account, the Kindle (or iPhone) isn't going to be the best product for you.
Some cloud services for the device are actually optional. But AFAIK you still need a Google Account.
Here is the help page on the topic of data collection and privacy:
https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6246642?hl=en&ref_to...
And see also, how to set a whole bunch of privacy settings:
https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6279845?vid=1-635755...
Disclaimer: I work on the project. I am not a spokesperson or legal or marketing, or anything like that.
There's no reason for this to be sent over the Internet, when you're both in the same room.
This is just for setup right? So the energy cost is insanely trivial, hardly worth mentioning.
There's absolutely no reason your private home router should be a slave to whatever remote configuration, monitoring, or intercept that some third party may be under legal orders to implement.
IMO these devices are nothing but parasites. On the positive side, Google has no track record with selling this kind of device and hopefully they will fail badly at it.
Maybe I'm over-stating the similarities, or the actual success.
There is something to be said for tying the device into an existing strong authentication infrastructure.
How do I configure a router if I need an internet connection to configure it? Sounds like a circular dependency issue.
Also, these days a good % of customers are walking around with an Internet connection in their hands, separate from their home connection.
That's how it's "made to" work (needing a google account).
So is the Chromecast and you don't need an account for that, unless you want to customize it with your own photos etc
It gives some protection against an attacker using a default password (as with every other router in the world). Also the hardware could be locked to a particular account in case the firmware is reset and you return to a welcome page.
Also it seems preferable that Google should use it's existing infrastructure instead of creating something new just for this.
Sure! What else doesn't it do "for now"? You should make a list. Subliminal messaging out of the speaker, ad hoc mesh for coordinating kill-bots...
More seriously, one nice feature of that page:
If changes are made to this article (which should be rare), a revision history will be available on this page to let you know what has changed and why.
All privacy policies should have this.
Terms of Service [1] is the real deal. For e.g. - (I've removed examples given in brackets)
-- When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.
The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services.
Our automated systems analyze your content to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored. --
So yeah, the Terms of Service is filled with so many legal loopholes that only a lawyer would love.
Ad delivery networks, and google is one of the biggest, have one core business: delivering ads. Everything is setup to make that as big and as solid as possible. Whatever it takes (and we all know how far ad delivery networks will go: almost infinitely far).
Now they ship a piece of hardware, require signing up with an account, and it's not for prolonging / helping their core business? If you believe that, I have a piece of land I want to sell to you, special price.
It's made by an alphabet subsidiary, not google. Google are the bad ad-selling guys, they're the good guys. 100% true!
- Typed on Google Chrome on my Android Phone, connected to my Google Fiber network via my onHub router.
On top of which, the privacy policy (linked elsewhere in the comments)_ makes it clear that your actual web browsing data isn't tracked.
At a strategic level, if we make wifi better and people use the internet more, sure, we can show them more ads. Maybe that and/or other strategic concerns are part of why the project got funded in the first place. But the people actually designing the features are probably a disjoint set of people from the ones thinking about that kind of strategy.
I find that a highly optimistic statement given advertising is pretty much Google's only significantly profitable product and is supporting the entire conglomerate.
Plus, unless Google can snoop into HTTPS connections, how would this help them with ad targeting? (since HTTP will be phased out within the next few years)
Hostname from TLS SNI is also useful for AD targeting.
That indirectly does increase ad revenue and targeting, and you can be sure that over time different people in the company will keep having the "bright idea" that if they correlate OnHub data with data from Analytics, DNS, and location services, they can improve ad-targeting by 0.x%, leading to $Y million in additional revenue, and within a few years it will be.
I suspect 95% of people do not change the default credentials, which are stickered or engraved on their routers.
Which having a seemingly random admin and wifi password with WPA pre-configured is better than no password.
I remember a story where an individual connected to an open AP, scanned the network, found a windows network share with everyone read access, that had NES roms and their tax returns. The sad part, and still is true today, you couldn't help them without admitting that you committed a crime (a felony I believe).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking#Unite...
This is too funny - why would you admit, to a cop, what you are doing??? You just say you are sitting in your car enjoying a nice day - and it wouldn't be a lie because technically you are. It just so happens you are doing other things as well.
> He had been accessing the Internet through a nonprofit agency's network from a car parked nearby and chatted with the police officer about it.
If you are thinking "but surely the legal system should understand this concept, right?"
> "I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn't know exactly what"
Or how about the library who didn't mind a patron was using their wireless system - but the police still wanted to press charges:
> The library director said that Tanner had not broken any rules, and local citizens criticized police for their actions.
From one of the news articles:
> The police officer confiscated Tanner's laptop in order to inspect what he may have been downloading,
That is a big NO. If a police officer ripped my laptop from my hands - I guarantee it would be a decision we would both regret.
I used to work there, and one eternal subject of lunch-table conversation was how interesting it would be to make consumer routers with the same ease of management... but how the consumer market is such a hellhole to work in because margins are so low and consumers are more sensitive to price than to management complexity in their purchasing decisions.
A good brand like Google's can get around that, though.
Could be worse - a G+ account.
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-collecting-wi-fi-passw...
When I tried it after hearing it would shut down soon, it seemed neat.
Wave was a cool idea, though. But refusing to integrate it with e-mail under the assumption everybody will stop using it was a tad optimistic.