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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: 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.