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.
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How do you know all this? Did you request your data from Google?
Thank you. I will trawl through 18 years of my Google account.
don’t forget if you have location enabled in your phone it tracks every single place you’ve been to
And it can be very wrong about those locations, too. For better or worse, idk. My old phone showed me going to completely different cities on the other side of my state when I went to the corner store.
It does that even if you turn it off. The setting just controls location access by third party apps.
Lineage os and F-droid is the better solution. It has the advantage of being bloat free as well
You can also use GPS location without any google services running, it just takes a bit longer to find your position when you first connect. OsmAnd or Organic maps from f-droid, which are actually superior apps to google maps in a lot of ways, particularly OsmAnd.
I had to use Satstat to reset the AGPS data as Lineage os just won’t refresh agps on its own.
These apps cannot find addresses in the US. Just a heads up so anyone that sees this doesn’t pull their hair out trying to figure it out. No, it isn’t you, it’s the app.
It’s not the app, it’s the lack of volunteers mapping addresses in the US.
Don’t pull your hair out, install StreetComplete and take a walk around your neighborhood.And if you find that fun, editing Openstreetmap in the browser isn’t all that hard, either.
If you add addresses you are missing, you can increase the apps utility for you directly. Something you can’t do with missing info in Google Maps.This is very cool. Bookmarked.
THIS! OsmAnd and Organic Maps are not worse apps because you cannot find some addresses. The data comes from OpenStreetMap, and if it’s missing there it won’t be available in these apps. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature. How? OpenStreetMap data is open and free for everyone to use and edit, it’s like the Wikipedia of maps. No, you don’t have Google mapping everything for you, you should probably chip in and help add addresses if you want a map that doesn’t depend on a huge corporation, a map where you can correct mistakes, and a map that’s free for anyone to use in their apps or websites. Otherwise we depend on what Google wants to map, how they want to map it, and the app that they offer us to access that data.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It’s the same with all the big data companies. Everything you type, say or do gets logged and never deleted.
That’s why I’m still in doubt wether to use my fingerprint to unlock my phone. Would be convenient, but where is it stored, who can access it?
Anybody with access to your finger, which means they don’t need you to be conscious or even alive to access your phone.
If they have me dead or unconscious my phone is the least of my concerns.
Depends if you wanna be remembered as John Smith instead of “Ah Yeah, John Smith the furry midget lover”
Needing a password/pattern instead makes them want to keep you alive tho. Good opsec.
Totally. I’m not saying it’s better security just that in a situation like that I’m not really worried about what’s going on with my phone.
Thats kinda fucked up. So you dont mind if all the conversations with your friends get published publicly?
You’re not a good friend.
The suspect was later arrested in possession of a severed finger and a dank porn stash on the victims mobile phone
Smart for many reasons as people listed here. Your fourth amendment rights to your phone also go out the window when you use biometrics like fingerprint. PIN/password is protected, fingerprint/face scan is not. Backwards world we’re in, huh?
Stored locally
are you sure about that?
Its not everything. Thats hyperbolic. Metadata is usually more profitable then the data itself.
It could be they are collecting and hiding the data, but what they publicly disclose they have certainly varies. My de-google-fication really started when I used google takeout (like the OP here). Excluding things I wanted backed up (e.g. photos), Google still had more than a GB of textual data (this was 7 years ago or so—my memory may be wrong). I use Apple a lot so I went to their “takeout” page. They had a few MB of data pretty much all of which I considered innocuous. I don’t think they are equivalent.
I do agree Facebook probably collects as much data as Google, but I gave that up long ago.
Friends don’t let friends use Google and meta. show those you care about what you have discovered. don’t lecture them just make them aware, share your findings.
Also for a good read on Google and Meta, check out Jedi Blue. It’s a plan that FB and Google got sued for, for manipulating ad auction timings in favor of FB on Google in exchange for FB to promise to not open a competing ad service plans. They also gave FB access to every google device with Facebook (preinstalled esp) on it. The name Jedi Blue is a reference to the Jedi mind trick, assholes.
How do you do this?
I have a few dozen google accounts, buy most of them I’m locked out of. Even if I enter the correct username and password on the first try, google says I can’t login because I never associated a phone number to the account.
How can I get this data?
That only works if you can log in. Otherwise, it would be a massive privacy problem since anyone could takeout anyone’s data.
Probably a GDPR data request
Hmm, wouldn’t that make it worse? Because then you have to give your real name, no?
As if Google doesn’t already know.
No, most sites have a button stashed in some submenu of the account page that allows you to request your data. It’s either a legal requirement of the GDPR or they just don’t want to deals with individual email requests, I’m not exactly sure.
It usually does take a lot of time for the request to be “processed”, you usually get an email with a zip archive after about a week. I’m not sure if that’s malicious compliance.
You can also send a GDPR request to have them delete all your data, but they do have 1 month to comply and in my experience most services do take that long to “process” your request.
Keep in mind that many services hide these options for non-EU citizens.
Have the same issue on one of my accounts. I can login but when I try to do anything, I need to verify by getting a code over SMS. The thing is, the phone number on that account is an old one I don’t have access to anymore. There is no other verification option, I can’t delete it from my account without verification and I’m definitely not adding my actual number.
I really don’t understand why you find this surprising. We’re you expecting like…42% of all that to be saved?
To be fair, it wasn’t something most of us were thinking about in the early 2000’s
Then Google became ubiquitous, to the point where we didn’t question it. Like cell service
That’s very true. But not really by the time Android started.
Don’t be so harsh we all gotta learn eventually. His moment is now brethren!
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.
Today you learned a valuable lesson:
When an online service is free it generally means you’re the product.
Today companies will snoop your info even if you pay 1000s for a device.
Why wouldn’t they, obviously no one cares
It’s [current year], nobody is learning that lesson today. We’ve all known it for well over a decade now.
What’s a Google takeout?
Everything they have on you.
Everything they’re willing to tell you they have on you.
It’s Google’s name for a service that lets you download all the data Google has on your account. If you google google takeout it should get you to the page.
Omg I shoul do that too
One thing people seem to forget is that even though Google is a real enemy of privacy, it’s far from the worst company. Companies like Google collect and use your data. While there are many companies that collect data only to sell them to any customer they might have.
What’s even scarier is that takeout is probably only the data they want you to see, or are legally obliged to share.
I would be willing to wager they have lots more on you that you’re not even aware of.
including everything they see through our front camera and rear cameras 😱
They may even save every Google meet meeting for all we know. They may train their AI on how our faces look in meetings.
Nothing is too creepy for Google.
Why would they need that? There is plenty of your face on Google photos.
For you, maybe. Mine is filled with black screen pocket photos, furry porn, and 714 copies of a video of a horrifying mecha furby that’s stepping on its own removed face.
Another copy shows up every time I have a nightmare about it, which is pretty odd, now that I think about it.
I just deleted my google account. Bye YouTube comments.
I wish I could just delete it. I’m still figuring out things with nextcloud and I run a youtube channel so I can’t do that yet.
If the only reason you’re keeping it is to make and post YouTube videos, it doesn’t sound like you wish you could delete it.
You could create an Odysee channel perhaps, and try to migrate there. Then you’re supporting competition.
@sidgames5 @trippingonthewire Is there a more privacy-friendly option (non-data siphoning) for video hosting?
You’re really not missing out. I swear 90% of the youtube comments I end up getting are from hardcore nazis.
Wish I could do that too but my email is still tied to some accounts where I can’t change it
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.
