Google just lost it | Hacker News Reader

Google just lost it

liblfds.org

46 pointsvilda25 comments

Support alternatives like Firefox OS where you're in control of your experience, where you're the user, not the data product being sold.

An alternative to Google App Store is F-Droid [1]. It hosts open source applications and vets them for privacy issues. It also indicates if apps promote closed services.

I use a few apps from F-Droid including:

AdAway for blocking ads using host files

RedReader for browsing Reddit

MuPDF for reading PDFs

OSMand for offline OpenStreetMap maps and navigation

AFWall for blocking data hungry apps

[1] https://f-droid.org/

I use f-droid as well but I also have Aptoide installed which has a huge offer of apps as well.

I still don't have or care for Google's apps on my phone (it runs on CyanogenMod as well) so it's quite doable as far as I'm concerned.

Rant all you want, when you change phones and it all just syncs, it's fucking wonderful. If you don't like it, don't use a Google phone.

There is always Apple. At least they're not an advertising company.

What's the alternative? iOS seems just as bad.

I use an Android phone, but I've never entered any Google credentials into it. Can't use the Play Store, but I don't really care about apps that much. At least there's F-droid.

Talking about security, you can't forget about BlackBerry 10. I love it,it's nice to use and can't see a reason to come back to android (since bb provides an android app compatibility layer too)

You can actually do this on a cyanogen mod phone using DavDroid and e.g. an owncloud server.

This is why I loved comodo firewall back in the day. You could block all outgoing connections, including some system processes. You would get a nice little dialog detailing what process was trying to reach the internet and what it was trying to connect to, on what port, and you could on-the-spot set up a policy for that app.

Phones need this even more than PCs ever did. CyanogenMod people should look into this kind of functionality. Sure, google will try to make it impossible, but that won't stop a determined reverse engineer from making basic personal privacy available to anyone who wants it + can install a custom ROM.

There are services that will allow you to download .apk files from Google Play without an account. Like this one http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ Although I don't know how trustworthy they are.

If you want to avoid Google, you should install a build without Google services.

EDIT: OP's server went down so here's a copy of the rant:

I've just lost it with Google.

I install the latest Cyanogen Mod. What I've found is basically no android apps let you download the package to install yourself - you HAVE to use the App Store - and that means you HAVE to have a Google account.

So I make a fake account and download the apps I need. I'm not sure if I might want some more, so I've not logged out.

I went down to a museum today, took some photos.

What I've just found is they have all been fucking uploaded without my fucking permission to the fucking Google cloud. Including a set of private photos, one of which was sent to me on the understanding it was for no one else to see. Way to fucking go, Google. I CANNOT TRUST YOU.

So much for privacy. So much for ASKING PERMISSION. So much for MAKING IT CLEAR and so much for keeping my identity private - my IP and my phone are now associated with these photos, which contain my location info and probably shots of me in reflection. (I later found out - also my personal archived photos were uploaded - of my friends, me, personal photos for my eyes only).

Uploading to Google is irrevocable. You can delete all you want - Google will be keeping everything. Delete just means you no longer see it.

Oh, one other thing. If I'm logged into Google and I go to add someone to my address book, I can ONLY do so if I accept it being copied into the Google cloud - which is why my address book is currently still empty.

Fuck you Google, fuck you. Gone too far.

I hate this so much. I'm now wasting my fucking time trying to find out WHAT Google has done so I can try to undo it. I'm now searching on-line to try to find out how the fuck to delete a Google account.

Addendum. Yup. Logging into a Google account SILENTLY activates FULL UPLOAD OF EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE TO GOOGLE. Contacts, photos, emails, everything. EVERYTHING.

I think it's fair to say I cannot express in words how much I hate Google.

So, now, the only way I can see to at least superficially remove my photos from Google is to make copies to my PC, then delete them on my phone, with sync enabled, so they're removed from public visibility by Google.

All this trouble, frustrating, anger, annoyance, from Google, to me.

I am never going to log in to Google again.

> Logging into a Google account SILENTLY activates FULL UPLOAD OF EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE TO GOOGLE.

Is this true?

On SGS4mini I've seen option to back up data to Google servers, but I believe (not certain though - that was quite long time ago) that was opt-in, with some dialog asking me for agreement. Or maybe I'm mistaking anything, but at least I haven't seen any files that I didn't explicitly upload.

I've also seen option to enable automatic photo backup to Google+, which was certainly opt-in, as a feature suggestion. It was quite persistent, suggesting that I enable it, though.

It's not true. I'm pretty sure OP just overlooked the dialogue that pops up and asks you if you want to backup pictures when you add a new account.

Correct. If you start Google+ for the first time, there's a wizard asking you whether you want to enable "Auto Backup" and further asks you whether this should happen only on WiFi or also on data. It's a separate page, so it's really hard to overlook.

In practise that dialog can be overlooked very easily. It's practically impossible to not overlook any dialogs like that.

If you care about privacy, don't use apps that are DESIGNED FOR SHARING.

If you do care about privacy, and you do use apps that are designed for sharing, then read the permissions very very carefully.

Yes. And auto backup can be turned on/off in Settings at any time. If this mor -- guy -- is so concerned about his privacy and technical enough that he knows what to do with an apk when he downloads one, there is absolutely no excuse. Don't blame Google.

Agreed. When you set up an account on the device it asks you to opt into having your photographs auto-uploaded.

It's fairly clear, and having said "no" on one of my devices, I've not had it subsequently ask me again or change that setting without my knowledge.

It's not true to my experience. I did have to be vigilant in my options-checking, but I most assuredly do not upload anything upon using my phone or the apps therein.

Thanks for the paste.

Strikes me that this is like a diabetic going into a cupcake store for lunch. If you're very concerned about permissions, visibility, accounts, anonymity... why on earth would you want to use a Google product? The entire ecosystem is very publicly about interconnectivity, cloud storage, apps talking to each other, invisible backups, and persistent identity. These are the marquee features of Google's apps and services!

So the author seems angry to say the least. But he brings up a great point. What would the best alternative be in this situation? Apple? Firefox OS? Blackberry?

What's wrong with CyanogenMod w/o google services? CM works fine without them. [1]

[1] http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps

This is where I was really confused. Why didn't the author take this approach? It's definitely the route I would try.

didn't work for me. check out http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:htnWfH7...

Web for the win! Everything else is a walled garden.

I think this web server just lost it.

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