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Google's My Activity Reveals How Much It Knows About You (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google has released a new section to Google's account settings, called My Activity, which lets users review everything that Google has tracked about their online behavior -- search, YouTube, Chrome, Android, and every other Google service. Best of all, users can edit or delete their tracked behaviors. In addition, the My Activity tools come with new ad preferences. Google is now offering to use its behavioral information to tailer ads shown across the wider non-Google internet and Google's search pages, which until now was purely done through the use of cookies. The difference between Google and other companies that offer ads like Facebook is that Google is making this interest-based advertising extension optional, or opt-in, not opt-out. There are two separate behavioral advertising settings for users to switch on or off: signed in ads and signed out ads. Signed in ads are those on Google services, and signed out ads are those served by Google on third-party sites. However, if you're conscious about your privacy, you'll probably want to stay opted out.
Are we being followed?
The joke actually seemed to acquire new meaning as I thought about it more...
I use Adblock most of the time. But, for some reason, by brain is convinced that interest-based ads will be less likely to serve up malware. I'm not interested in downloading malware, so it won't show me ads that host it. Right?
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Google tracks everyone, whether or not you have "made a google account", which is another way to say "given them even better quality data".
I went to that page. I do not see any way to delete the profile they build of me via google analytics and other things, because I have never made an account. So the only way I can accomplish this is to tell them even more about who I am?
How about making profiling opt IN instead of opt OUT?
If you believe that Google would willingly stop collecting any data about you on your request, well, you're more naive than I thought. My bet is that they just stop revealing those data to you that they say they'll stop collecting and then use the additional data, i.e. that you opted out, to further profile you, e.g. the user is sensitive about A, B, & C and has preferences for X, Y, & Z.
???
Went to the new ad preferences link in the article, was told:
Your browser is not supported any more. Please update to a more recent one.
This is latest chromium w/ubuntu. That's unfortunate.
First reaction: Wow, I sure watch a lot of old Bob Ross and Carol Burnett Show videos on Youtube.
Second reaction: Wow, is there anything but old Bob Ross and Carol Burnett Show videos in here?
Third reaction: Wow, I'm really boring....
The Google links in the summary are bad. Just go to https://myactivity.google.com/
users can edit or delete their tracked behaviors
You mean users can mark the behavior that's most embarrassing to them, don't you.
The link to the ad controls in the summary is broken. The correct target is https://www.google.com/setting...
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
You do realize there isn't an 'opt out' unless your browser stops sending them so much information, right?
Regardless of what you click on their web page, they get the data about your activities.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Nothing but bbw midget hentai porn 20 hours a day, i had no idea I was away from the computer for 4 hours a day!
I may be naive and eventually end up with egg on my face but here goes. In today's world we all know the horse has left the gate wrt privacy. It seems the issue now isn't who's collecting the data, it's what happens to your data after it's been scooped up. And what keeps the data from escaping comes down to the question of how that data is being exploited for generating revenue.
Google gets a lot of flack around here but if you follow the money, they have a pretty good incentive to do whatever it takes to keep the tracking data high-quality and most definitely in-house. Mainly because they own the search market and the better the ad targeting, the more protected Alphabet's revenue stream is.
Apple is obviously dependent on hardware sales so not much needs to be said about that. Plus they really don't want bad PR from data escaping.
So let's compare that to the other 800lb gorilla(s). I don't see any reason why Facebook, Pinterest, etc. wouldn't incorporate outright sale of their tracking data to third parties (if they don't ship it out the back door already). Sure, they're dependent on ad/affiliate revenue too but with one other important difference. Google has an (effective) search monopoly where data exposure would stir up a hornet's nest of legal issues directly or indirectly.
Facebook has little to lose since their product (users) don't seem to care what happens to their data as long as they can post their cat pictures. And they've built a Terms of Use that guarantees they own every aspect of the data (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Terms_of_Use_controversy). Not to mention there's not been much talk of anyone caring about a company holding a monopoly in the social network sphere. It's a 'meh' issue when compared to search market share.
So what's keeping Facebook from transforming more of their revenue stream from ad sales to data sales down the road? Especially with the ad controversies that were swirling around (https://youtu.be/oVfHeWTKjag)? Following the money...not much?
P.S. - s/tailer/tailor
So, what if I don't mind being tracked by Google, but I just don't want this webpage available for anyone out there to access (ie if my password gets compromised)? I can't see a way to opt out of the availability of the data without deleting the data.
I have a robot that allows me to select my "identity du jour" before going to bed.
While I sleep, it wanders the web engaging in activities that enforce my new persona.
Tomorrow, perhaps I'll be a ballerina with an STD, or maybe a butcher who loves animals, or . . .
. . . decisions, decisions, decisions
Since I use Google Navigate to warn me about traffic problems every time I drive anywhere, this information would be very useful to any assassin wanted to track my movement patterns. Or any wives/mistresses/girlfriends, for that matter. And yes, my ex-wife used to go through my phone while I was sleeping to see what I had been doing.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Can I fucking sue Google for telling unscrupulous people that I love puppies? (or simply break the neck of disposable motherfuckers, just for fun) -- Without my authorization? If I can, well... Then I want a fucking thermonuclear fusion power station IN my house.
You'd think by now Google would know what kind of porn I liked, and could recommend the good stuff for me, wouldn't you? Unless... they are actually taking this "incognito window" stuff seriously.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Isn't this how google makes their money? They can't eliminate both of them from their subscribers. I don't know the size of the 'signed-in' pool of adverts, but I'm guessing it's much smaller than the one for the other type of adverts. So that's the one they can afford to opt-out, which would probably kill their 'signed-in' advertising revenue stream.
I uses it to reduce my activity to Desert With Tumbleweed!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I mean I went forward and checked it out. It has most of my searches. I use NoScript, I use Disconnect, I use firefox. Not that I thought this makes me invincible, but how is Google able to link my searches to my Google account? I am logged into YouTube all the time though, that's one thing from Google that I need. But is it able to link everything to it for that reason? Is Firefox willing to give it all the info just because I wanted it to remember my Youtube login?
Not sure if I should be happy or worried there's nothing there but my YouTube history considering how much I use Google+, Voice, Calendar, Search, Nexus tablet, and other services I don't even remember they've become so ubiquitous to my life.
..and deleting my search history. I don't see what is new here except maybe a fancy new interface.,,,,
Looking at my activity, I see a handful of Youtube vids I've watched - and that's all.
No search terms. Not even the Blogspot post I just posted. I find it hard to imagine that they don't know what I posted on my Google blog.
C'mon Google, where's the rest?
Looked it over, but I can't figure out what it means. Both the google's version of "My Activity" and the slashdot side consisting of an article and visible comments. Now I expect such obfuscation from the google since their motto became "All your attention are belong to us", but I confabulate that slashdot used to be more revealing.
Short summary: The level of information that the "My Activity" page reveals is without form or meaning. Too much data and no way to understand how it is used, though I'm still sure it is mostly used to manipulate and twist us to the google's will. What we really need to know is HOW the google analyzes the data and WHEN it is being used and in WHICH ways. Probably an impossible problem since all of us are too stupid to understand the google. The google will tell me so, even though the search "how to outsmart google" came up with a couple of interesting books (that are not available locally, at least not in English).
Long answer: Naw, I can't be bothered to write more, and would be "penalized" for the long comment if I did. Today's slashdot doesn't motivate the effort to write so thoughtfully. It doesn't even have a fraction of the funny comments it used to. However, I might be confabulating myself again.
(Now if slashdot supported such a financial model, I might be motivated to help support a project to detect abusive long comments, such as long cut-and-paste blurbs from the Web. Whoa, dead horse, whoa.)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Hey Thanks! Logged in, looked for 15 seconds, deleted everything.
Try clicking on "other google activity", and then location history. It's incredibly accurate. I can see where I walked around 2 years ago and made wrong turns and walked back.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
And where are all the pages I visited that contained Google.ads, Google.fonts, Google.maps,... ?
I think these guys assume there would be a lot of backlash if people saw all this stuff at once from some other source. Or maybe they can see users pulling back and going to DuckDuckGo or other services. So they're trying to prevent that by showing you a bit more of tracking creepiness, so you get used to it and don't complain later.
Now all we need is an "NSA My Activity" and we're good to go.
Yeah. The history on that page only goes up till 2014 for some reason. That's unbelievable. I'm sure Google knows far more than that about me. Especially now that I've got a "normal android phone with Android Device Manager".
The summary seems very misleading.
I have search history, location history.... all turned off so I get a 'nothing to see here' level of output.
Does this mean that Google is genuinely not collecting my history? or is it more likely that they are and my opting out merely sets a flag used by the presentation layer to send back an empty set?
I'd be surprised if it were not the latter.
I looked through it. It's really nothing more than a pretty listing of my browser search history. Meh.
review everything that Google has tracked about their online behavior
That is not a Freudian slip. Much bullshit on Slashdot's front page today.
They do admit here they track SOMETHING, but what they track is far more vast. It is a US Government spy operation.
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/03/06/1834211/eric-schmidt-gets-a-job-at-the-pentagon
Even if you lied to your own family like this they would hate you and/or beat your ass.
Subterfuge.
Google tracks, Facebook profiles, Microsoft tracks and profiles. Cross-referenced everything including your screen size, installed fonts, name it.
(Google also profiles, Facebook also tracks, Microsoft Windows is pure US Government malware)
It showed "no activity" for me.
I use Google as my e-mail provider, and I access all my e-mail using Thunderbird that connects via POP3. Therefore, I very rarely enter my e-mail-address/password into a web page.
Even when I do use web e-mail, I have my browser set to "never remember history", so it clears cookies each time I close it. It seems that prevents them from obtaining any general web activity data from me.
The quick, right-to-the-point URL to delete everything:
http://myactivity.google.com/delete-activity/
(Sign in if needed.)
Select "All Time" from the top pull-down, then hit "DELETE".
There are a lot of youtube videos in there that I didn't watch (country music videos from VEVO stations). I wonder if someone isn't embedding silent invisible players in web pages somewhere to drive ad revenue...