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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday October 22 2016, @02:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-no-one-was-surprised dept.

Google has decided that your privacy is no longer their "number one priority" and reversed their long-standing policy towards anonymous online ad tracking and user names; the Google DoubleClick advertising database will now be combined with all other information Google has on users, such as from Gmail and all other accounts and logins.

excerpt of the new policy:

We may combine personal information from one service with information, including personal information, from other Google services -- for example to make it easier to share things with people you know. [...] Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google's services and the ads delivered by Google. [...]

---
article source:
https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Kunasou on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:09PM

    by Kunasou (4148) on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:09PM (#417586)

    Avoiding google services in 2016 (year is relevant somehow) is not an easy task, on the phone there's iOS or Android AOSP (Windows Phone is dead in my country)...
    At home just don't use a google account, avoid using any google browser or browsers using its source (Vivaldi, Opera, etc), use Firefox (or Pale Moon, etc ) uBlock with very strict list, and fully clean your browser frequently. Avoid using specific user agents or exposing browser apis.
    Until you get to work and almost everything uses Google Services, damn it!

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:29PM (#417591)

    Even easier now. Their new security protocol demands you enter the month and year you created your google account. Who the heck can remember that?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:06PM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:06PM (#417605)

      I just write that down next to the randomly-generated password.

      • (Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:27PM

        by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:27PM (#417660)

        Ooops, I mis-read GP ask asking for your DOB.

        Isn't the account creation date public information, at least for Youtube accounts?

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @03:26AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @03:26AM (#417731)

          NFI
          I tried to create a new Google account. Tried. It wants a phone number! For an email account! W.T.F.

          • (Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:38AM

            by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:38AM (#417748)

            So far I have been able to ignore it.

            Except it does not let me use an alias for my Youtube channel apparently. (It worked 2 months ago, so maybe I messed something up)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:44AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:44AM (#417751)

      Found an easy way to grab the date a Gmail account was set up -- look in "Settings" "Forwarding and POP/IMAP"

      Presto, a line near the top (on my Gmail) reads:
        1. Status: POP is enabled for all mail that has arrived since MM/DD/YY

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by tonyPick on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:07PM

    by tonyPick (1237) on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:07PM (#417606) Homepage Journal

    on the phone there's iOS or Android

    You don't have to sign into to Google to use an Android phone (unlike, say, an iPhone, which practically won't do more than boot until you tie it to an Apple account) - everything on an Android device will function normally, and you can side load apps easily.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:17PM (#417608)

      Exactly.

      I haven't associated any Google accounts with my Android phones and I've just used f-droid or another third party application source instead of the Android Market/Play Store.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:23PM (#417609)

        Although I have wondered how long until google tied all that stuff down. It sounds like Android 7 is the beginning of the slide for them.

        Might be time to spin a NEW community fork of Android (now that Cyanogen is flailing, Replicant is even deader, and Google is going further Orwellian and Authoritarian on our asses.)

        The problem now being finding a cell phone manufacturer willing to play ball, even if it was a limited production run of an existing phone at 1.5-2x the price (Ideally a phone around the 100 dollar pricepoint with uSD, existing open source drivers with minimal firmware, and an auditable baseband package that does not allow remote updating without under intervention.)

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:47PM

          by pTamok (3042) on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:47PM (#417618)

          It may not survive, but Sailfish OS may be a possibility. It is no longer possible to buy a Jolla 1 phone, but it is possible to get the Intex Aqua Fish phone in India, and there are various sellers who will send one overseas. The Aqua fish uses Sailfish OS.

          I am hoping for European availability of reasonably-priced Sailfish OS phone, especially as my Jolla 1 has a cracked screen. People have had varying luck in importing the non CE-marked Aqua Fish into Europe.

          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @07:05PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @07:05PM (#417633)

            Let it go.

            Jolla is dead. It exists only as an investment for Putin so he can claim technological independence from the West.

            The competent developers all quit two years ago leaving behind the finance and marketing departments who ditched their loyal followers for Russian cash.

            It's dead. Let it go.

            Best to back Ubuntu phone or Tizen or Neo900 if you rally care about an alternative.

            • (Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:18AM

              by pTamok (3042) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:18AM (#418909)

              Do you have any links/evidence to support your statements?

              At the moment Sailfish OS looks to be used, if not insanely popular. The most downloaded app in the Jolla App store has been downloaded more then 50,000 times - which is minuscule beer compared to iOS and Android, but it is significantly non-zero, and does not include the apps downloaded from the Intex Store as the Intex Aquafish is set up to use Intex's store by default rather than the Jolla one.

              A new revision of Sailfish OS 2 came out yesterday, so even if the best developers have gone, some development work and/or bugfixing is going on, so the platform is not dead yet. If you can support your statements that imply that it is breathing its last, please do, but at the moment, I cannot find corroboration.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @10:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @10:24PM (#417686)

      > You don't have to sign into to Google to use an Android phone

      I can believe there are people here who believe that. But with all the conspiracy theory loving "cynics" I can't believe you got modded up to +5 for that naive bullshit.

      Yeah you don't have to "log in" but that doesn't stop google from tracking the ever-living shit out of you anyway. If you have google play services (and tons of apps, even side-loaded apps, require play services) then you might as well have logged in. Play services is a giant binary blob that phones home to the mothership on a frequent basis. It reports your location, not just GPS coordinates but the SSID's and MAC addresses of nearby wifi hotspots. Its open season on your contact list, calling history and browser history.

      If you have an android phone and you haven't deliberately replaced the OS with a stripped down de-googled version like AOSP then your privacy is just marginally better than someone who uses all the services that google uses as bait. If you think otherwise, then you are a sucker.

  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:27PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:27PM (#417612)

    Using Blink based browsers is fine, the source is there with no ties to Google. Avoiding Chrome should be fine.

    Me, I like the value If get from using a free Google Apps account (although I do block ads and tracking). I consider it a fair trade for access to my non-encrypted email some of my browsing habits. The trick is to not tie yourself to a specific provider so you can leave when the value is no longer there. Get your own domains, stick with open products where possible.

    • (Score: 2) by Kunasou on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:54PM

      by Kunasou (4148) on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:54PM (#417619)

      I've found weird stuff on Vivaldi (backup browser), for example, randomly the newtab page will load the same one from chromium (the one with google stuff) instead of the speed dial one...
      I have different providers for the services I use and I'm not really tied to anyone so I think I've been doing a nice job.

  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday October 22 2016, @06:10PM

    by butthurt (6141) on Saturday October 22 2016, @06:10PM (#417622) Journal

    Google Safe Browsing is now a part of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
    -- https://www.google.com/tools/firefox/safebrowsing/ [google.com]

  • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday October 22 2016, @07:41PM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Saturday October 22 2016, @07:41PM (#417643) Journal

    I'm just glad I recently got my wife a Lumia while they are on sale, between Google rigging search results [macdailynews.com] for the party they have bought [wsj.com] and now this bullshit? I may just have to buy myself a Lumia as well. I gotta say its a damned nice phone and unlike Android I can uninstall pretty much any app on the phone, even being able to replace core apps with third party apps if you want.

    It really feels more like a desktop than a phone when it comes to how it handles apps (which isn't surprising since its Win 10 Mobile) and IDK about everyone else but I like being able to decide what the default apps are and what is and isn't on my phone. I USED to be able to do that with my Android phones but more and more phones don't get a modded ROM anymore (and with Cyanogen all but toast I doubt it'll get better) and its getting harder and harder to get rid of Google crap you do not want.

    As far as avoiding Google BS on the desktop? Grab a browser and use it ONLY for the Google services. I personally like the Comodo browsers, I use Comodo Dragon as my main browser while using Ice Dragon STRICTLY for Gmail and YouTube with it set to delete history on exit. This way I don't have to worry about clearing on my Dragon and Pale Moon, privacy badger keeps out any page trackers and adblock plus takes care of the rest, so if Google looks at my history? AFATK all I do is go to Gmail once a day and watch a couple of YouTube War Thunder vids...that is all they can learn because that is all that browser does.

    --
    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @11:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @11:11PM (#417688)

      So you have a separate network connection for your google browser? To avoid them correlating the IP addresses.