Google and all your data are belong to us
- Thread starter LiE
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They provide their services, funded by our data. Google servers that power Search, Maps, Gmail, Photos, etc cost to run. Also the money they plough into R&D for software and AI/ML. It's a business model that works, but you don't have to get on board the Google train if you don't want. Apple offer a very privacy centric ecosystem.
Soldato
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I really don't care what data they track/hold. If anything I find the location history interesting!
So many people ITT complaining about all the data companies collect from them yet they freely give this out by the choices they make. If you don't want Google to know everywhere you go, buy a Nokia 3310 or don't carry a phone. If you don't want to be on CCTV or ANPR everywhere move to the country.
So many people ITT complaining about all the data companies collect from them yet they freely give this out by the choices they make. If you don't want Google to know everywhere you go, buy a Nokia 3310 or don't carry a phone. If you don't want to be on CCTV or ANPR everywhere move to the country.
I find the data they collect also useful in some situations. Recommended YouTube videos, auto adding appointments from my emails to calendar, scanning my email to tell me when a bill is due and pop-up on my phone to remind me, news tailored to my interests, when I'm shopping my phone prompts me to say if Android pay is accepted here. There is a long list.
Soldato
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Further info required pls
This explains it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/...how-google-knows-when-your-bills-are-due.html
It's part of the Google app, you can see some other stuff under the "Upcoming" section like trips you have planned.
The app is responsible for quite a few helpful notifications.
The information I post on OCUK is freely published by me into the public domain, and it does not contain my private emails or internet browsing history. So I don't know what point you are trying to make.
Soldato
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Hmm, they are all turned on but I haven't had any. I do get some of the other ones though
I suspect the email needs to have a particular format/structure to work. Mine was for a Halifax bill.
I have been thinking about this subject a bit more recently and the question I'm trying to ask myself is "is it OK for a company to have this much info on me". I am slightly uneasy with all this data that Google has on me. It does no harm right now, but it still doesn't stop me wondering if I'm happy about this long term.
It should be more worrying what might happen if the data got out elsewhere. No company is breach proof. The entire argument of "but they only use it for ads" falls apart when you consider this. I'm extremely concerned about the government mandated storage of all of our browsing history, not primarily because of what the government might do, but what those with malicious intent might do if they were to acquire it.
This is basically why I use a VPN service, the government might not do anything nefarious with the data and hackers might not breach the ISP's system, but why take the chance?
VPN is not safe mate as the will be a specific code that connects you to the internet.
All VPN providers say its safe and secure but its not. Nothing is totally secure these days unfortunately.
Tor is ok-ish as it moves you around the world but even that can be compromised.
How can I phrase it?
Keep peeling an onion and eventually you get to the middle so to say.
Obviously its only if you up to naughty stuff, porn and the odd none PC post on a forum is nothing. But you can be tracked no matter what.
Its called PPTP Point Tunneling Protocol, its the connection port your PC is using and can be traced back.
found a good link.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2547058/networking/10-tips-to-secure-client-vpns.html
Keep peeling an onion and eventually you get to the middle so to say.
Obviously its only if you up to naughty stuff, porn and the odd none PC post on a forum is nothing. But you can be tracked no matter what.
Its called PPTP Point Tunneling Protocol, its the connection port your PC is using and can be traced back.
found a good link.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2547058/networking/10-tips-to-secure-client-vpns.html
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How strange, I was just thinking about this issue.
I've become a bit privacy-conscious as of late, I think it was Apple's approach at WWDC that has spurred on my trying to remove myself from the Google ecosystem. Admittedly it isn't that difficult as I use mainly Apple products. Switching my email to iCloud is pretty easy - except the iOS Mail App seems to be crap with notifications - and things like Photos crossed over fine too. The only thing is search. I've tried DuckDuckGo but it's just a bit pants - I guess that's the amount of data Google has though.
The only thing I can't live without from Google, is Waze. I'm too locked in to how good it is.
Can I trust Apple? No, probably not. But their business model is not making money from you via advertising so I feel I can trust them more than Google. What I find most frustrating about Google is how you can't seem to selectively opt out of anything, it seems to be all or nothing.
I work in Software Engineering so I'm aware data is needed for AI, etc. but I do sometimes feel the amount Google has is unnecessary. Apple seems to have far less and yet most of their services seem to work far better, except Siri of course.
I've become a bit privacy-conscious as of late, I think it was Apple's approach at WWDC that has spurred on my trying to remove myself from the Google ecosystem. Admittedly it isn't that difficult as I use mainly Apple products. Switching my email to iCloud is pretty easy - except the iOS Mail App seems to be crap with notifications - and things like Photos crossed over fine too. The only thing is search. I've tried DuckDuckGo but it's just a bit pants - I guess that's the amount of data Google has though.
The only thing I can't live without from Google, is Waze. I'm too locked in to how good it is.
Can I trust Apple? No, probably not. But their business model is not making money from you via advertising so I feel I can trust them more than Google. What I find most frustrating about Google is how you can't seem to selectively opt out of anything, it seems to be all or nothing.
I work in Software Engineering so I'm aware data is needed for AI, etc. but I do sometimes feel the amount Google has is unnecessary. Apple seems to have far less and yet most of their services seem to work far better, except Siri of course.
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I am less worried about Google than the British Government though, who want everything with no opt-out. This is the real danger and this is what makes me scratch my head when people who use the Internet vote Tory as they are anti what you want. Completely and utterly anti it.