Insane ways Google has been invading our privacy – Salon.com (2014) | Hacker News Reader

Insane ways Google has been invading our privacy – Salon.com (2014)

salon.com

51 pointsjohndfsgdgdfg21 comments

My concern about Google is 100x less than data brokers that sell individual identifiable location data to anyone who pays.

So google doesn't do that? I find that a little hard to believe to be honest

Since this was published in 2014 it gives us some space to compare the article's predictions to reality. While Google has certainly been found liable for having violated some privacy laws there is no evidence of widespread and intentional misuse of personal data at Google. The bigger concern for me personally is the Amazon/Walmart dominance of purchasing data.

> While Google has certainly been found liable for having violated some privacy laws there is no evidence of widespread and intentional misuse of personal data at Google.

"no evidence" means you did not see evidence?

Responding here means you have evidence to provide?

The fact is that google knows you better than your mom and is using this fact to make ad decisions, is there are way you can prevent that from happening?

Even if someone took the picture of your private life but have not leaked them yet, does it mean that is not a violation?

Saying "no evidence" is just being blind (or pretend to be) at this point.

So, you don't have evidence then? Having information about people is not evidence that it is being misused, which in it self requires context of what is "misuse".

The evidence is in google’s term of service, if you spent nearly as much time to actually read it than on Internet defending google.

Is there such a thing as invisible evidence?

Keep in mind anything a company like Google knows about you, a government official (including law enforcement) also can know about you just by asking.

You don't own the information they have on you, and you have no constitutional protections against unreasonable search/seizure.

Consider what would happen if your state just decided to issue traffic tickets based on info Google collects from your phone as you're driving along. They probably wouldn't do a blanket "fine every infraction everyone has committed this year" - instead, they could go after people they want to supress.

Or maybe they would fine everyone. Some politician wants to fund something, and they get some geofenced data and fine everyone who exceeded the speed limit this year.

I wish Apple would come out with a search engine for no other reason than to neuter Google.

(2014)

Meh, so Google knows your wifi password. So what? You think US intelligence will be calling up Google for that? Those protocols were backdoored before the first design went on a whiteboard. And they know your location? So what? You’ve been able to triangulate any cell phone within meters from day 1. It’s just how the cell towers function, no getting around that. Terrorists, smart drug dealers and murderers already know to leave the phone behind. Google wants to sell you stuff you don’t need. It’s a business, that’s their goal.

Here's my Google story. I was planning a trip to a remote mountain town, to completely separate from all the big tech giants. So I went online to review the map to the cabin we'd rented...

And Google added a pushpin to the cabin where I was staying, along with the dates for the entirety of my stay.

They'd scanned my Gmail inbox, found the reservation, extracted the dates and location, and then waited until I went to Google Maps for driving directions.

There's a way to turn off some of this -- which I immediately hunted down and activated. But it still bothers me that I didn't know it was on by default.

I think it's creepy as well, but as a counterpoint my wife is delighted by stuff like this. She finds it convenient and helpful, and I can't say she's wrong.

If that data is already in the Google ecosystem, what does it matter?

Why turn it off? Google are still going to parse your emails and pull out details about bookings to build a better profile of you, no matter what settings you disable. So why not have them do something useful for you while they are doing it?

What does it buy you or protect you from? You are totally irrelevant to Google as a datapoint as you are just another ID lost in the noise. It only matters when who you are suddenly becomes important. If you stay unimportant then who really cares?

Well for one, often you don’t get a choice whether you’re deemed important or not. People go viral unwillingly every day.

Many people, myself included, commit small crimes like jaywalking and smoking weed often, and would prefer an all-seeing eye not watch my every move.

Last but not least, I’m not interested in helping a trillion dollar corporation profit off of my private data.

That's why Amazon minimizes the information it sends by email for order confirmation. Amazon is locked in a deadly fight with Google over which is going to be the first port of call when someone is looking to buy something (Amazon is winning, by the way, their ad business is already generating 50% as much revenue as AWS), and they certainly don't want to give Google any data uf they can help it.

Huh? My order emails contain the product name, price, expected delivery date, my name and city, doesn't feel like anything is minimised.

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