Google settles account settings lawsuit less than one week after being filed [pdf]

For example, if one reads the Privacy clause regarding collection of financial/transactional information they might assume that this is due to Google Pay, what they'd be missing is that even services such as Gmail, Maps and Photos are also collecting financial data. As mentioned, where examples exist in the policy, they always paint a more obvious, narrower collection of data.

According to Google's own admissions on the App Store, their services such as Maps, Photos and Gmail each individually collect location, financial history, purchases, contacts, user content such as photos, videos, audio (and any others), search history, amongst other personal data. The majority of this data has no bearing on the apps functionality whatsoever and comparable services don't collect -any- of this information.

Because I've seen that presented as a hypothesis but never any actual evidence. I recall another hypothesis had something to do with better Maps integration on Search pages.

I'm sure there are lots of potential internal technical reasons for such a switch. Location permissions is just one possibility.

Firefox should do this

This is not true, as there is... just disable the Google app.

You will need to replace the launcher with the Nova launcher in the process, and will likely replace the search box with Firefox search. But the Google app and Assistant will be totally disabled and unavailable anywhere in the Android experience. If you find a link to it, it will ask to enable which you can decline.

I found this out by Google having placed me in some experiment earlier this year where my Pixel 6 Pro went from 24h battery life down to about 3h battery life. The battery was being drained by the Google app exclusively, and so without any fix or published workaround I set about disabling the Google app.

Overall this has been a huge improvement, my battery under near identical usage is now closer to 36h... and the Assistant not being present I have since viewed as a bonus (at the time I thought it a negative). I believe the issue is probably now fixed, but why would I go back when this is a better experience with more battery, disabling the Google app was like upgrading my phone.

It is so frustrating. I hate that app with passion, yet I can't disable it in android.

Here’s another dark pattern for you in a totally different context.

So Google use to have all of it various services on a separate subdomain (eg maps.google.com).

But they moved to having everything under www.google.com.

You know why, it’s because when you allow Google Maps to geolocate you (which is totally appropriate for a Maps use case) … now ALL of Google services get geolocation data about you from Search, Gmail, etc since they are all hosted in the same www root.

Chess.com is annoying me by changing my settings every 1 to 2 months to put them back to what they want.

This sort of thing is really common

This is why I switched to LineageOS. Google, the biggest ad company on the planet, is not to be trusted with something so personal as a cell phone.

Side effect: you can kiss access to the monopoly on apk files goodbye unless you want to use third party hacky methods that use a pool of random people's accounts to talk to the google apk servers...

Using one monopoly to gain market share in another :) The pattern is everywhere with google. I keep wondering why the competitors like TomTom haven't gotten them banned from the country with antitrust suits. Instead, TomTom just cut their losses, threw in the towel for their own map (which has surprisingly good worldwide road coverage for a Dutch company from the noughties), and is starting to use OpenStreetMap as a base layer. I'm not complaining about OSM use, but they were in the prime position to force Google to open the data they funneled from their original monopoly

Sadly the settlement seems pretty weak. Minor extra disclosures and a tiny settlement.

Disclosure: I worked for Google more than 8 years ago, but not in any role related to this news story. I have no relevant inside information and I am certainly not speaking for Google here.

Also the Google app is required for many other apps, like to use Google Podcasts.

Why would the Google app have more spyware than the Translate app?

That doesn't make any sense. If Google wants to spy on you they'll put it in all their apps...

Regardless of what you think of Google, the reason a feature lives in one app and not another is not to increase spying...

The same functionality spread across two apps doesn't spy more than one.

Not really necessary when service providers have such massive ability to dictate the contract you sign to use the service.

I work for a small local business. We've been struggling to get rid of the "lead generation" spam from the Google Maps listings. This is costing us on the order of thousands to tens-of-thousands a month in work. (That's significant for our business, on the ~10-15% of monthly revenue.)

I dug into these listings. I discovered the company behind them, a marketing firm in Hawaii. I uncovered a network of 80+ listings across the US they operate. I even discovered their recruiting websites where they pay people to create the listings for them and go on to pay people for 5-star reviews.

I provided all of this information to Google via their "business redressal form." Nothing. It's been months. I keep reporting the listings. Nothing.

We're losing work. Other local contractors are losing work. And Google twiddles its thumbs.

What good is it for Google to have a policy if they're not going to uphold it when their inaction is harming others?

How we square this circle without removing the 1st amendment right of free association isn't clear though. Maybe a cutoff of "if you have more than 50 employees" or something.