Why YSK: Because you deserve to have peace of mind. Your privacy can mean your safety. I found out about this today, and in this comment I mentioned it and said I would make something more detailed.
I bet you heard that Google tracks you, as have I. But it’s insanely daunting to see every movement, app and thing you have interacted with on your device for the last 8 years just laid out in front of you neatly. When you add your google account on your phone(or any device), it tracks this, with a timestamp, including:
-any app you used(including Contacts, Calendar, Phone, and when you pressed your home screen button-it is regarded as Samsung UI Home etc.)
-apps you viewed on google play
-map area on maps(you don’t even have to search a specific place in order for it to get logged)
-if you called a place from maps(if you press the call button from maps to call a place and make a reservation, for example)
-images you saw and searched for on your browser
-location, video and voice notes and more
It is mentioned that if you log in on another device, it can keep track of this on that device as well.
#What can you do?
The first thing you can do is turn it off. Log on your google account, press the icon on the top right, then press on “Manage your Google Account”. On the left side you will see a panel, choose “Data and privacy”, and scroll on the center of the screen to see History settings, and press on My activity. You can choose to turn it off if you want. Make sure to stroll around to manage your advertisement settings, location settings, subscriptions and so on.
I also recommend switch to Proton Mail if you can.
#How I found out?
Recently, as you probably know, Youtube decided to be foolish(yes, more than usual) and force its users to either consume ads or buy Premium, blocking you after three viewed videos if you use any form of ad block. I said ew, no. Let’s use yt clients that don’t scrape your data and allow you to have privacy and no ads, it’s about time I jump ship.
I didn’t want to have to manage every subscription and videos in playlists manually(it would take days). I wanted something for my desktop, and I stumbled upon FreeTube. They have a guide that tells you how to export subscriptions and videos, the whole thing.
Following the instructions, I inevitably stumbled upon my managed data. It’s a weird feeling seeing all that was. I vaguely remember how I felt in those years, but I never thought I would see what I was doing or what app I was using then. Inevitably we forget some trivial things in our lives, but this is what gets to be remembered, and this is the proof that we existed. It’s strange.
Ending note: I assume most people here probably already know this, but I just wanted to pass this along for awareness purposes. I knew that I wanted to have random stats at the end of my life to like, review and read, but not like this.
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While this helps… If you have any Google software, it tends to call home anyway by using hardcoded IPs into their apps. Samsung does likewise. The solution being, not only a DNS server, but also a serious firewall in the router. And, even better, a ROM you can trust, such as LineageOS.
I downloaded duckduckgo which blocks all the app tracking and it did shock me just how much data was being collected.
I have been very happy with my new email provider, with all the info being sent to my inbox now I didn’t want Google seeing it all before me. (mailbox.org is who I went with for the curious )
Mailbox is great! You get so much with teh account (cloud drive, calendar, notes, online docs, spreadsheet etc)
How cN I get a copy to see ally data? While it certainly is creepy, I want to just see everything I have forgotten. So many things I’ve looked up and can’t remember when I went to find it again I couldn’t remember but I couldn’t just ask my computer. I consigned myself to knowing they were probably doing this when I bought a Pixel 2 so long ago.
I honestly don’t care. It’s all resold analytical metadata and they just serve ads. The rest just makes the products and apps better. For the vast majority of users privacy has nothing to do with safety.
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Youre what’s for sale. When they log your biometric data, like images of your face, voice, or fingerprints, then sell that to a 3rd party, it’s literally the things that make you an individual that are up for sale. Neat huh
👌👍
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Cambridge analytica manipulating facebook users via ads, influencing elections
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By saying you don’t care about your privacy, you’re willingly ignoring any downsides. You’re saying that you, or a close one, will never do anything your government might disagree with, even in the future. Governments change, people can be in charge you never thought should be, and some people might not like what you do, whatever that could be. (I’m having a hard time explaining this one, words don’t come easily rn, see edward snowden “Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide, is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”)
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By contributing your data, you’re helping other, less “fun” countries discriminate against people. It’s really easy to guess using algorithms if someone is gay, had premarital sex, etc. And some people don’t like some others based on that, and would rather they were dead.
