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Comment by kerryjson | Hacker News Reader

How can I opt out? Or do I have to leave Android and buy a Windows Phone to avoid getting my information in that system?

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You don't. You have to opt in.

I'm running it on my phone now and the first thing it did was ask "Hey. Is it OK if I do all these things?". It wont run without your permission.

Unlike Apple, Google is pretty good at asking these things.

Edit: Maybe Apple has gotten better. I just remember iTunes wiping my iPhone, iPod and all ID3 tags from my music collection numerous times when I was just supposed to copy/add some files. And that was before you even booted their OS.

Well yes, glad you asked, I am fed up with Apple.

You're confusing Apple with developers of iOS applications. Apple may not have stopped it in the past, but the developers never asked either.

The first time you run an app that wants your location, the iPhone will ask you to grant permission.

Um, have you ever setup an iPhone for the first time? It walks you through absolutely every thing the device wants to do (Location, Siri, etc) and you can turn them all off and on. Please don't go making wildly incorrect claims.

iOS 6 is going to be introducing very fine grained control of which apps can access what, not just location - which it's already got, but things like contacts, diary etc.

From what I've seen on Android (I'm pretty new to it as a platform, so I could well have missed something), you do get told what the app wants to access but then only get a binary "allow everything that it's asked for/don't run the app at all" option.

What of this kind exactly Apple does without asking?

Yes...you actually have to go and buy a Windows Phone, preferably a Nokia Lumia 900, to get out of Google Now tracking. Maybe even a Surface tablet for good measure.

Drama, much...?

Trolling is so out of fashion nowadays.

Seriously. Features like this, although very cool at a glance, are teaching future generations of users to have no respect for their privacy or personal information.

Could be, but it is an honest question. I fully understand and respect people who loves this, but I would like a little love back too for my desire to stay outside of this social maelstorm.

It's pretty easy to stay out of this, so I don't see the problem. Google is really good about telling you what it does and generally lets you opt out (or gets you to opt in). So what is the problem?

I don't trust facebook and thus I don't use it. It's easy.

At least with Google they will delete all your data and stop tracking you if requested, unless other companies cough facebook

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