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Google's Data Collection is Hard To Escape, Study Claims (cnn.com)
Citing a report [PDF] published on Tuesday by Digital Content Next and Vanderbilt University, CNN writes that "short of chucking your phone into the river, shunning the internet, and learning to read paper maps again, there's not much you can do to keep Google from collecting data about you." From the report: So says a Vanderbilt University computer scientist who led an analysis of Google's data collection practices. His report, released Tuesday, outlines a myriad ways the company amasses information about the billions of people who use the world's leading search engine, web browser, and mobile operating system, not to mention products like Gmail, platforms like YouTube, and products like Nest. Although the report doesn't contain any bombshells, it presents an overview of Google's efforts to learn as much as possible about people.
[...] Google collects far more data than Facebook, according to the report, and it is the world's largest digital advertising company. Its vast portfolio of services, from Android to Google Search to Chrome to Google Pay, create a firehose of data. Professor Douglas Schmidt and his team intercepted data as it was transmitted from Android smartphones to Google servers. They also examined the information Google provides users in its My Activity and Google Takeout tools, as well as the company's privacy polices and previous research on the topic. The researchers claims that almost every move you make online is collected and collated, from your morning routine (such as music tastes, route to work, and news preferences) to errands (including calendar appointments, webpages visited, and purchases made). "At the end of the day, Google identified user interests with remarkable accuracy," the report states. In a statement, Google said, "This report is commissioned by a professional DC lobbyist group, and written by a witness for Oracle in their ongoing copyright litigation with Google. So, it's no surprise that it contains wildly misleading information."
[...] Google collects far more data than Facebook, according to the report, and it is the world's largest digital advertising company. Its vast portfolio of services, from Android to Google Search to Chrome to Google Pay, create a firehose of data. Professor Douglas Schmidt and his team intercepted data as it was transmitted from Android smartphones to Google servers. They also examined the information Google provides users in its My Activity and Google Takeout tools, as well as the company's privacy polices and previous research on the topic. The researchers claims that almost every move you make online is collected and collated, from your morning routine (such as music tastes, route to work, and news preferences) to errands (including calendar appointments, webpages visited, and purchases made). "At the end of the day, Google identified user interests with remarkable accuracy," the report states. In a statement, Google said, "This report is commissioned by a professional DC lobbyist group, and written by a witness for Oracle in their ongoing copyright litigation with Google. So, it's no surprise that it contains wildly misleading information."
Google: No it's not!
Everyone: Well how did you know about the article then?
Google: No comment.
So, how is it not a violation of GDPR to not give me all the location data they supposedly have? Either they are lying about having the data to make themselves seem more all powerful, or they are violating GDPR.
Can't you just use an iPhone, and anonymize your searches with something like DuckDuckGo?
By widely misleading, Google is referring to a missing Oxford comma on page 78 of the report. Everything else is spot-on.
From their own mouth (Alphabet Inc 2016 SEC 10-K filing)
Our innovations in areas like search and advertising have made our services widely used, and our brand one of the most recognized in the world. We generate revenues primarily by delivering online advertising that consumers find relevant and that advertisers find cost-effective.
Just look at page 24 and you will see that in 2016 Google had $90B in revenue... $79B of which was advertising revenue.
Google find his tax returns while we get the gallows ready, this traitor is going to hang.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
there's not much you can do to keep Google from collecting data about you."
But that doesn't mean you can't block most of it. It does not mean you should not try.
You can go a long, long ways to avoid data collection by Google.
Do not use Android.
Do not use GMail, or the google search engine.
Do not use Google Maps.
Block their web scripts from loading, and use DecentralEyes instead.
Given Google's reach and breadth it is almost certain they will still gather some data about you, but you absolutely can minimize it.
Let surveillance capitalism die the death it should die. There are alternatives out there. Support them.
The researchers claims that almost every move you make online is collected and collated, from your morning routine (such as music tastes, route to work, and news preferences) to errands (including calendar appointments, webpages visited, and purchases made)
Google does not know my morning routine, my route to work, my news preferences, my calendar appointments, or my errands. They would only know that if I let them harvest that data.
Stop giving them a window into your life to peek through.
Americans screw over the world as a matter of their intelligence services' practice. It's time they ate some of their own shit.
The world functioned just fine before the advent of the smartphone and I would proffer that it was a better place.
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote: 'the world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." - Detective William Somerset, Se7en
Sheesh! Nanny-need much! Be a damn man so BE A TRUMP and full torpedo between spread legs ahead! Oh, and #METHREE paedo bitch!
You can't opt out of modern surveillance capitalism unless you opt out of society, go full Kazcynisky and live in a hut.
But you can take advantage of the pervasive surveillance in order to feed them bad information. Create alternate personas and use them for certain things in your life. Don't just reserve them for the weird stuff, give them regular things too. You can start with a pre-paid phone and use that phone# to sign up for shit like web mail, grocery loyalty cards, etc. For example, If you do all your grocery shopping as Joe Blow, but never do anything else with Joe Blow then these digital stalkers will have a hard time connecting your food consumption with your real identity.
If you do screw up and accidentally give them the info to link a fake persona with your real identity, just stop using it and get a new persona. At least you firewall the damage.
Its imperfect and it is kinda fragile. But you can't look at this stuff as black and white, you evaluate the risks and the costs and you take precautions that match your requirements. Its better than just giving up all your privacy or living out the boonies and never getting laid.
The conclusion of the report was: Google's Data Collection is Hard to Escape.
If this conclusion is wildly misleading, then it must NOT be hard to escape.
If this is the case (as Google asserts) perhaps they care to explain how to fully escape it?
Oh for pete's sake, just buy a flip phone/feature phone and call it a day.
That's not enough - google has an enormous footprint when it comes to webpage tracking, not to mention maps and ajax libraries. Lots of webpages won't work at all if you block google.
Plus, there is all of your friends & colleagues who entered info about you into their phones and then they share all their contacts info with google.
> I would proffer that it was a better place.
Positive props for proper 'proffer' parlance in your prose. Pure poetry. Provokes punters pausing, too.
"short of chucking your phone into the river, shunning the internet, and learning to read paper maps again, there's not much you can do to keep Google from collecting data about you."
Don't own a smartphone, use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, use tracking protection, delete unnecessary cookies, use NoScript and a good adblocker like Ubox, and use OpenStreetMaps instead of Google maps. There, was that so hard?
Lazy and cowards will now say: "Oh they probably can still track you and collect data on you so why bother trying it's useless"
You're a bad example, no one should listen to you. Take back your privacy, even SOME of it, and take back at least SOME of your life.
1. If they disabled a lot of these features, then people would complain all their fancy apps no longer work, or were less useful.
2. You agree to all these things when you buy the phone AND DON'T BOTHER TO READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE.
3. YOU OF COURSE READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE RIGHT?
4. Don't blame Google for your own laziness.
5. Buy an old school phone. Their are plenty available.
> Se7en
How is that pronounced? Seten? Sesevenen?
Google can track you on the intarwebs!
Water is wet!
Pope catholic!
News brought to you by CORI - Captain Obvious Research Institute
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Google needs to allow people to opt out of more stuff. Period.
APK Hosts File Engine 2.0++ 64-bit for Linux & BSD h t t p : / / a p k . i t - m a t e . c o . u k / A P K H o s t s F i l e E n g i n e F o r L i n u x . z i p
Yields more security/speed/reliability/anonymity vs. any 1 solution (99% of threats use hostnames vs. IP address most firewalls use) more efficiently/FASTER + NATIVELY 4 less!
Vs. "Bolt on 'MoAr' illogic-logic" slowing you hosts speed u up 2 ways: Adblocks + Hardcode fav. sites u spend most time @ vs. competition loaded w/ security bugs (DNS/AntiVir) + overheads slowing u (messagepass 'souled-out' to advertisers easily detected & blocked addons + firewall filtering drivers) & their complexity leads to exploitation!
* ONLY 1 of its kind in GUI 4 Linux/BSD!
(Better vs. Windows model in speed/efficiency/merge)
APK
P.S.=> Protects vs. script trackers/ads/DNS request tracking + redirect poisoned or downed DNS/botnets/malware downloads/malcript/email malicious payloads... apk
How do people feel about addons like trackmenot which attempt to drown the telemetrics in noise?
See subject & their thoughts on the quality & efficacy of the Windows version of my program https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57130680/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137806/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137868/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137916/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137944/
* Linux/BSD model's even BETTER in speed/efficiency + features!
APK
P.S.=> APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-1 32/64-bit for Windows https://www.google.com/search?...
I don't feel particularly threatened by what my Windows Phone might be doing behind my back, and frankly it provides the same useful items an Android-based phone would do while out on the road.
I resent this statement, because as an American, I myself have never participated of my own free will in the coup of a foreign state, the assassination a politically important person, or the funding and operation of drug/gun/human trafficking.
And, as an American, I don't condone or support the actions taken by the intelligence agencies.
using a Raspberry Pi ad Pi-hole. I block them at the DNS level, so their dreck never even hits my network. Each machine also has uBlock Origin, Token Tracking Stripper, Neat URL, Decentraleyes, Privacy Badger... all tunes to remove tracking, but especially Google and Microsoft as well as miners, etc.
From experience: You can block everything Google (and Facebook, and ...) almost everywhere without losing much. You won't see embedded maps, but you can look up the addresses on osm.org or a proprietary maps service. There's also no need to buy a feature phone. Just make sure the phone is supported by Lineage, don't install the Google app package and use F-Droid for apps. You can't change that other people will put info about you into Google's apps and services, but you don't have to give Google a constant activity stream.
Nothing is certain except death and taxes -- and Google data collection.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
>"Oh for pete's sake, just buy a flip phone/feature phone and call it a day."
And the phone companies will still:
* Track your every move using very accurate cellular triangulation methods
* Store all that location data from above
* Filter/track/store all your text messages
* Track/store all your meta data (who you called, when, where)
So yeah, it will at least cut Google out of the picture, but tracking is still there. If you are using an Android phone, the best you can do is register under a pseudonym, turn off all the tracking features, don't use their client software (use a third party, traditional SMS, use an alternative search engine, use an alternative browser, etc) and never attach ANYTHING on it to a real address, phone number, credit card number, bank account, or Email address. You can get a maximally "private" smart device (as much as can be expected) although at the cost of it being a degraded "experience".
You can have more privacy or more convenience.... but probably not both.
Hear, hear.
* Turn your phone off or put it in Airplane Mode when you're not actively using it
* The above makes 'storage' irrelevant
* Don't use SMS messages for anything important or personal, save that for in-person conversations
* Phone companies have been doing that since there were phone companies so what's the point, how else do they bill you?
There was that so hard?
Honestly you can dump wireless entirely and get a landline instead if you want your privacy back. What everyone is doing, as usual, is trading their privacy for 'convenience'. You don't have to, it's all a matter of how important your privacy is to you.
Let me guess, the guy who wrote this is somehow affiliated with google and/or profits from their data collection
Listen, piece of shit: If the U.S. goes down, the rest of the Free World goes down with it. You want to live in PutinLand instead? Or have the world turn into a shithole like Libya or Syria? That's what awaits you if the U.S. falls apart. Say goodbye to civilization and hello to an extinction-level event of humanitys making. You poor dumb shit.
Somebody that understands!
I finally had to give up my flip phone for a small smartphone. It was over 10 years old. The only flip phones on the market (in the US) are relatively huge, apparently designed for really old people. Seriously, I could not find a single provider with a flip phone that wasn't significantly larger and more cheaply built than what I was replacing. I'm hoping I'll get some use out of the features the smartphone offers, but so far, about the only positive thing I can say is, well, nothing, really.
Google may be well informed, but its reactions are not that smart. Advertising keeps focusing on goods I already purchased and I am not interested to buy for a while. Youtube even keeps recommending the videos I saw an hour ago.
If that happens, that will be because the US will actively try to take us down with them. If they fail then good riddance. It's the US that caused Libya and Syria, so it's silly to threaten us with that fate when the US/UK/FR elites masturbate above the dead bodies and emaciated children and eject their cum load when another $10 billion of weapon contracts are signed or they're cashing their $250,000 public speaking fee.
I can't wait for the US ships to get sunk in the Gulf this November.
I have a phone running Lineage, no Google/Apple/MS crap.
What I would love is a phone running only GNU/Linux but nothing seems to be doing that natively.
The article says there is nothing you can do to stop Google tracking you short of throwing your phone in a river. Then it goes on to say using an IOS device and not using Google products/visiting sites with Google trackers pretty much stops them tracking you. CNN delivers another shit "news" article.
How is Tasker called on f-droid?
Back to showing people our penises in person, are we?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Lineage OS with minimal Gapps
...
FDroid app store
DuckDuckGo for searches
OsmAnd for navigation with OpenStreetMap
K9-Mail
Unless the Android system itself leaks data to Google (which the XDA dev crowd would probably have noticed), I don't see a problem. The setup is less comfortable than standard Android, but if that's not acceptable, there are apparently ways to install apps from the play store on it.
It's not enough. Every e-mail you send to a person using GMail gets scanned by Google. Every SMS and phone call you make to an Android user gets sent to them (the metadata, at least --- I hope they don't actually record your calls). The only way to avoid them is stopping communicating with people completely.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
The fact that they could not collect data from you does not mean it is not happening and it is not wrong. Basically you are blaming the rape victim for asking for it by dressing sexy.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Tasker is not available through F-Droid, but you can get it directly from the author's web site. There's Easer on F-Droid, if you want to try a free open source alternative.
Oh for pete's sake, just buy a flip phone/feature phone and call it a day.
Not everyone needs a "smart" phone. I can't wait to get rid of my corporately owned/operated device, which I am required to have.
The world functioned just fine before the advent of the smartphone and I would proffer that it was a better place.
Agreed... and most smartphones are just iPhoneX copies now anyway.. utterly useless ugly fashion bling... nothing more
> From experience: You can block everything Google (and Facebook, and ...) almost everywhere without losing much.
Not my experience. Especially ajax.googleapis.com are used by more sites than it should be. Also captchas mostly come from Google.
Run UBO in medium mode or even hard mode and you'll find out pretty quickly, just how reliant most websites are on third-party resources and at least 2/3rd's are using something from Google.
I guess it depends on the sites you visit. I block all scripts and all third party content by default. Third party script libraries are on the decline. Googletagmanager.com is everywhere, but blocking it almost never breaks a site. I am used to reloading after whitelisting a CDN domain, but many sites still work mostly right without Javascript. I don't need filler pictures and I don't frequent sites that require me to solve captchas.
If you conduct your entire life online using a smartphone whose primary function is to collect data about you, this shit will happen.
Google has no way of knowing my morning routine, my favourite music, or my purchases ... because none of this involves digital technology Google has any access to.
Yes, I use gmail, read Google news,and use Google Calendar ... so I know they get to see a fair bit about me.
I don't tether myself to a smartphone (I have one for work, it gets used for minimal things like checking my email). My online presence is down to about zero except for LinkedIn, and that I use minimally (though I bet most people don't realise there is a web-bug on every Slashdot page from them, which means Microsoft is tracking you on Slashdot). I also ruthlessly block ad and analytics sites, and pretty much don't have accounts ... well, on any website really. I don't use any form of social media at all (because, really, it's all little different from ICQ and the other stuff we all played with 20+ years ago).
Stop living your life on-line, and sharing all of this information with these companies. Every one of these services has a primary function to scrape your information, collate it, and then either directly sell you ads, or sell it to someone else to track you and sell you ads.
It really is time to either stop using much of the internet, or to start building in better privacy tools to block this shit.
So you don't like the amount of "snooping" Google is doing on "your data", here are some alternatives:
Replace your Android phone with another brand, perhaps a flip phone.
Use Duck-Duck-Go for all your internet searches - https://duckduckgo.com/
Change your email provider, or encrypt all your emails - Heres my PGP Key ID - DCFB8830
Use another map provider, like Maps for iOS or your in-vehicle navigation system. People use Google because it works! Plain and simple. If you don't want a company to have your data, don't give that company your data. Lastly, I quoted "snooping" and "your data" for a reason. If you use a companies infrastructure for email, searching, etc, the data you post or receive does not belong to you any longer because you do not own the infrastructure. So Google is not snooping when they collect certain metrics from the data you willingly give them, and since you like the service they provide, usually free of course, you are going to continue to hand over your data.
You are using GMail? Why FFS?
Oh right because Libya and Syria were bastions of freedom and goodness before obama and Hillary super fucked them both.
I'm not. But each mail I send to a recipient who uses Gmail gets in the hands of Big G.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Listen, piece of shit: If the U.S. goes down, the rest of the Free World goes down with it. You want to live in PutinLand instead? Or have the world turn into a shithole like Libya or Syria? That's what awaits you if the U.S. falls apart. Say goodbye to civilization and hello to an extinction-level event of humanitys making. You poor dumb shit.
Somebody that understands!
I second that!
Sig. Another third unrelated AC
* Turn your phone off or put it in Airplane Mode when you're not actively using it
Location still recorded in background and phoned home on turn-on.
APK always lies and never backs up his statements, never trust what he says.
Like how he claims the Chinese copied him but can't produce any evidence to support that claim and even admits that there isn't any.
How about when he states that hosts does port filtering but again can't backup his statement which was shown to be false.
There is also his list of "experts" who support him but it turns out they don't say what he is claiming.
This also ignores his out of context quotes he uses to lie by omission that are frequently spammed.
The problem with APK is that his entire reputation is built upon the lie he told years ago that hosts is an effective security solution. It has been exposed numerous times as being a lie and when exposed APK fails to argue logically and instead will try to deflect criticism, change the subject, move the goal posts, return to a previously disproven statement, demand you prove you did better than his file concatenator, or just call people names. He will continue to lie by stating that he won or "dusted" you while failing to refute anything you said, will never provide real evidence, and generally try to dodge the issue.
Face it APK is one of the most detested individuals here for good reason. When ever his poor behavior, awful logic, over statements, and horrendous writing are called out he has a fit and has done so for years across the internet. He is a spammer, and is an abusive insecure little man who is washed up and never amounted to anything. Until he produces actual verifiable facts supporting his case nothing he says should be taken seriously.
Who did it 1st: China or me? I did - dates are my proof http://theregister.co.uk/2017/... w/ the FACT China rampantly STEALS U.S. Intellectual properties & military secrets!
* See subject: NOBODY TRUSTS YOU as you STALK ME by UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous - real "trustworthy" you are, lol (not)!
When you've done BETTER than I have in a ware that protects & speeds folks up online?
THEN, they might (you never will though & you KNOW it JEALOUS "Lil' Jowie").
(BOTH Arstechnica + Thor SCHMUCK got BLOWN away by me years ago & I laugh about it to this very day (they did what you do & got burnt for it)).
APK
P.S.=> TONS of security experts KNOW blacklists work (no questions asked) & 3 things show I do it right:
1st = User praise my hosts engine https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... (so much for ME being "detested" but I'm not here to win a popularity contest - just here to WIN so everyone does).
2nd "ATTACKS" I GET (from UNIDENTIFIABLE ac as Elon Musk got https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... )
3rd BEING IMITATED = "Imitation = sincerest form of flattery" https://linux.slashdot.org/com... JUST LIKE CHINA DID ME TOO... apk