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. [...]
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article source:
https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @02:46PM
combined with the DNI, they know not only control the news but also know who reads it where. nothing to worry about, its the market, the market will fix it, lets get back to porn and gaming.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:05PM
JEWS.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Kunasou on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:09PM
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!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:29PM
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
I just write that down next to the randomly-generated password.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:27PM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
> 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
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
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
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
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
So you have a separate network connection for your google browser? To avoid them correlating the IP addresses.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:12PM
So, they've gone from "do no harm" to "we're dicks".
Wil Wheaton sad.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:24PM
Collecting the data is not evil in itself, but the ability and high temptation to use for evil is pretty much guaranteed.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Saturday October 22 2016, @06:31PM
the inevitable fascist government of the US - whether fully implemented this year if drumpf happens to win, or after the lengthy civil war his supporters start after he loses, or maybe in 2024 after hillary's two terms - is going to put all that information to all kinds of evil use.
(Score: 2) by Aighearach on Saturday October 22 2016, @08:23PM
Uh, any wannabe rebels are going to get a serious reminder what "antidisestablishmentarianism" means. They don't have to "accept" the election, but the results of the election will stand.
Remember, the government not only has most of the people on their side, they also have the military.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:32AM
Our government is elected by a minority of a minority. There are more than 318 million people in the US. The 2008 presidential election had record voter turnout. Fewer than 70 million people, or 22% of people voted for Obama. And that was huge turnout for a US election. 4 million fewer people voted for him in 2012 and 2016 has undoubtedly been one of the most disenfranchising political years ever so we can expect voter turnout to keep plummeting. Anyhow, the point being that our government most certainly does not have most of the people on their side. The only reason they're in office is because it's all but impossible for real change in politics with first past the post. We end up "strategically" working against our own best interest like a mass scale prisoner's dilemma.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @06:25PM
Liberals are "strategically" voting against their own interests in this election to prevent an aspiring despot from throwing out the constitution entirely (at least the status quo, as bad as it is, gives us more time to try to fix things), but there is absolutely nothing strategic about poor people voting to shred social safety nets, to ensure they have no upward mobility or medical care, to give tax cuts to the rich, to ensure that their wages always stagnate and never increase, etcetc. Red states and counties are the poorest [politifact.com] in the country and receive the most in Federal assistance, yet they continue to vote to make things worse and worse for themselves, meanwhile the facts show that [huffingtonpost.com] increasing minimum wage and increasing taxes on the extremely wealthy correlate to healthy, robust economies and low unemployement, while the opposite, stagnating wages and lowering the wealthy's tax burden (pushing that burden onto the middle and lower classes and forcing them to pick up these moochers' tabs) correlates to weak, stagnant economies and high unemployment.
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Sunday October 23 2016, @12:20PM
the inevitable fascist government of the US - whether fully implemented this year if drumpf happens to win
Sorry to break it to you, but the candidate that's 99.999% likely to win is far, far more fascist than the douche. Their enemies get a treatment akin to Jews in '33: thrown out from companies they co-founded (Eich), massive ostracism campaign (Thiel), worldwide manhunt (Snowden), assassination attempts (Assange), sexual misconduct allegations (Trump himself, Assange).
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday October 23 2016, @06:09PM
not quite. she's an authoritarian to be sure, but drumpf is an extreme totalitarian [politicalcompass.org] and is very much a fascist [wikipedia.org]. hillary is evil too, for sure, but there is literally nothing that she can be hated for being/doing that drumpf doesn't also do except many times worse. hillary is for the status quo, which includes the inevitable slide towards fascism, but drumpf represents jumping immediately to it, concentration camps and all.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:51PM
Collecting the data is not evil in itself,
I think violating people's privacy can be evil in and of itself, depending on the circumstances.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday October 23 2016, @05:48PM
It's not really violating your privacy when you volunteer for it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by t-3 on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:32PM
The interesting thing to me when I read this article yesterday was that this is already months past and I at least never heard anything until now...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2016, @06:10PM
These are not the news items you are looking for!
*waves hand awkwardly*
(Score: 2, Interesting) by darkfeline on Saturday October 22 2016, @08:38PM
Google does give you the option to delete any and all data that it has on you.
Many of you will question whether Google actually does delete the data, but from what I can tell, they really do (including from backups, by means of careful management of backup encryption and the encryption keys).
That doesn't account for the possibility of the data being streamed to government agencies, but I'm unsure of the extent that that's actually happening, outside of search warrants.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:37PM
If this is what you can tell, can you tell us how you know this, so we can feel as confident as you do?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by darkfeline on Sunday October 23 2016, @12:02AM
I work for Google and thus have access to all of the source code. I have not audited every line, nor audited our hardware infrastructure, nor can I disprove the existence of a conspiracy within the company.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Common Joe on Sunday October 23 2016, @05:41AM
With all due respect, the google you describe is not the google I've been reading about.
Even when you're not logged in, it's generally understood [digitaltrends.com] that they they vacuum up any piece of information including IP addresses when I search with them. And they will remember your search queries with your IP Address. Tell me, is there any way to delete information at that level?
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday October 23 2016, @08:13PM
I don't think so, and how would that work, since that is not tied to an account? You would have to prove that you owned the data for a given IP and time range to request deletion of it.
To me, the real concern is account-tied data, since I can use a proxy/VPN to hide my IP.
Also, be sure to read the Privacy Policy. Barring government conspiracies, I encourage you to challenge any violations with respect to how your data is used. At least internally, all access to user data is carefully audited, unlike the NSA where employees have a pasttime of perusing user data for personal reason, and as far as I know we do not sell any data to third parties. We do sell ads of course, but we keep the user data for targeting to ourselves, and account-tied data can be deleted or opted out (not by default though, I have heard that users tend to opt IN once we started describing how exactly we use data to provide targeted ads. YMMV).
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:53PM
They have had this setting for a long time. All they did was change the default setting from "not very private" to "even less private". Existing accounts were unchanged. The change to the privacy policy just makes this possible, since it used to specify that it had to be opt-in and now it just allows you to change the setting.
I suspect, but am not sure, that certain customization activities (like setting news preferences) will also turn this setting on, even if your account predates the new policy.
While many people creating new accounts will not change the default, if you actually care, the option is still there.
(Score: 2) by halcyon1234 on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:17PM
Seriously?
Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]