I created a google takeout and in that zip file I found some files containing a ton of data about me. It has logged every single page I visited while using the google search engine and chrome browser. It even logged every single time I opened an app on my old android phone. It even has VOICE RECORDINGS of me and a log of every time I used google assistant. This is just some of the data and I’m very sure there is even more data they have.
Have you been under a rock?
I’m really not a fan of such gatekeeping rhetoric.
Congrats on already knowing stuff, I guess. The vast majority of people don’t have the ability, will or exposure to engage with most technical stuff, especially since the concept of (digital) privacy still is surprisingly controversial.
We all benefit from more people caring about privacy. Comments like yours achieve the exact opposite and don’t provide any value at all to the conversation.
Just imagine what Microsoft and Apple are getting thru telemetry
Fucking whataboutism. Apple and Microsoft aren’t ad companies. They’re hardware and software companies. They don’t have to collect data on you to literally make any money, Google does. If Google doesn’t track everything you do they’re incapable of making money. The same is absolutely not true for ms and Apple.
Whataboutism? Where did I say this makes what Google is doing better? They all work together. God you people are dense.
Microsoft and Apple absolutely are ad companies lmfao.
Feel free to go request the same fucking data from
Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102208
And Microsoft: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/how-to-download-a-copy-of-everything-microsoft-knows-about-me.html
Then go ahead and tell me they’re in the same ballpark as what Google’s collected on you.
Microsoft is a ad company and Apple locks you in so you only buy there proprietary products. I don’t see how they are better
You do realize that Google is far worse than Apple and Microsoft combined right?
As a percentage of population, so did Julius Caesar.
The reality is that Google is entirely dependent on ads and selling your data.
Apple and Microsoft, it’s just a happy side gig they can do.
Apple makes its money selling mediocre hardware and software for a premium markup.
Microsoft makes money selling Windows, Office(+Teams) and Azure to business users then from video games, then ad revenue.
Doesn’t have anything to do with Microsoft and Apple’s market share on PC which is what I was thinking of.
Besides, it wasn’t like I was saying Google’s mobile telemetry is less invasive on Android, where they compete with Apple for being as creepy as possible. IIRC windows phones haven’t taken off
I see it as good reason to distance myself from all of these mega data harvesting corporations to the best of my ability. Same goes for meta and tiktok. Why bicker about which is worst when they all are varying degrees of terrible?
Yup. It’s a slow process for me, but honestly the fediverse is proving a great resource for that.
This is entirely speculation on your part.
Google has been more transparent that it happens. Apple is definitely collecting information on everything you do on their devices as well. It may be just as much info.
With their new pay later feature, you know they are at least collecting enough info to make financial decisions based on your profile.
They also collect health data using the watch.
They collect more than that in order to better understand how to keep people in their ecosystem. I’d wager the latter will about cover what OP was surprised by Google capturing.
Microsoft is another story. They are the most valuable tech company in the world right now due to AI. Which indicates that they are training some powerful AI on data that has been gathered in a number of places.
Google is by far the worst offender. Their business model is based on collecting this data. Microsoft wants this to be their business model too. Apple just wants to sell you devices, and they are promoting themselves as privacy friendly, I’m sure they’re making some effort to avoid collecting data they don’t need.
Apple is only promoting themselves as a privacy company to try to get VPN customers to move to their iCloud plus and shit. It’s like Micro$oft moving into open source. I really don’t think it’s ever wise to take a company’s philosophy seriously it’s just a way to manage customer and employee expectations temporarily.
No, I think Apple is promoting themselves as a privacy company because companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft are abusing your data and you and it’s actually a great position to take and way to distinguish themselves from others in the industry. There are countless privacy features on Apple products that they initiated which show they’re pretty damn serious about it… MAC address hiding, killing 3rd party cookies and forcing Google to too, blocking trackers, encryption of cloud data, granular privacy controls, cracking down on Meta’s app tracking abuse. I trust Apple a million times more than the others and would rather pay extra for a device knowing my info isn’t being vacuumed up in the same way the others do. Tired of neck beard nerds defending the practices of these companies. Google and Meta are privacy nightmares. Google is the original privacy nightmare. It is spyware. You can’t convince me that aPpLe iS wOrSe just because you have an ax to grind with the company. The truth is there is a big difference between them and your whataboutism bullshit is lame and overplayed and also WRONG.
I gave up caring years ago when I realized it was way too late to undo it all. If Google really cares that I’m a gamer then oh well, at least my ad blockers work just fine and I use Firefox so that’s good enough.
It is never too late. Free yourself from this abusive relationship, it feels fantastic.
Free yourself from what exactly? I think you’d be surprised at how much everything else is tracking you still.
All for what, avoiding ads you’ll get anyway?
Legitimate question. Targeted ads feel obvious to many, but it is more about control.
- Google knows more about you than your partner or you yourself know about you. And they know how to use that knowledge. The scariest part: this control over you is for sale.
- Google controls how you use things. By being the defacto standard in so many things, they have the power to control how things look, feel and are beeing used. We are missing a lot of innovation because of that.
- Google can basically decide, which business survives and which doesn’t. It’s not the one with the better product, it is the one which pays more money to Google. By that it helps to promote big companies, small businesses have a hard time to establish themselves. Even in my small citiy: if the new barber doesn’t pay for Google placement and begs for useless 5-star-ratings, he won’t survive.
- It is hard to get out! You are getting lulled in with convenience and you unlearn how to use the internet outside of Google. Google takes prisoners and puts them in a plushy cell.
I think you’d be surprised at how much everything else is tracking you still.
You are absolutely right, I am surprised again and again. But I do my best to avoid it, if I find something that tracks me. And I am surprised that so many people let themselves being exploited, and even defend this exploitation.
Free yourself! It is work. But it is worth it. And it is not too late.
I’ve started using Kagi search. $5/mo for a great search without selling my sh1t.
How do you think they are able to pay the bills of those expensive af services for free?
