Google's thirst for your info.

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Doukeyakusha

Doukeyakusha

Senior Member
Jul 25, 2012
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All this bashing coming from the same people who whine and complain when companies have their cell phones or tablets on lockdown. Saying "Its my device, I bought it. I should be able to do whatever I want with it and install custom roms." Well, heck, same rights apply. It's MY phone, I bought it, I should be able to use it as I see fit, without having to have my personal info and data being collected, sold, used, or spied on. Also the same people who threw a fit when a user discovered a hidden app or something that would pretty much record everything you do on your device, keystrokes and all. Never just follow blindly and without question, whether you have anything to hide or not. Our business, is our business, why should someone have to resort to "sending a letter?" Installing custom roms is MUCH less important than one's privacy.
 
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scouser_75

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2007
133
0
rayiskon said:
i guess some people didn't get my point, maybe since English is not my native language.

Anyways, as i mentioned in my previous post i do use Google services, and i'm grateful that most of them are free. But it's getting harder and harder to control your privacy. Look at the new location concept in kitkat, you can't switch location OFF completely from the power widget, you have to take additional steps and go into settings. Furthermore, on previous versions, you could use GPS, let's say for sport tracking apps, but deny location from all Google apps. Now you can't do it anymore, even if you use "device only" Google's apps (and facebook and others) are able to ask for your location.

Same goes to the Photos app, if you log in your G+ account, and choose photos from the slide menu, you'll see all your photos, even if they are still only on your device (autobackup OFF), something like the GMusic concept with on-device/cloud music. Honestly, i don't want my photos on G+, and i have a feeling i'll be forced soon to upload them whether i like it or not, just like the location thing.

Also i want to be able to choose what G services i want to use. AOSP still gives that freedom, but no one can deny that Google progressively is stopping to develop AOSP apps, and it's forcing it's own. I think some around here take stuff that Cyanogenmod or the Paranoid team (and others) do for granted. I think people should be thankful for things like 8Sms , Focal and so on, and recognize the effort put in them, and help (test/report bugs) and donate to those devs to encourage them to polish these apps and make them even better. Honestly, i think we were lucky to get to choose what sms client we want as default, if it was up to Google, we wouldn't have that option available.

And lastly, look at what happened to App Ops, it would've been a nice tool to give back control to the end users, but it was killed in the last update with a statement that it was never meant to go public. If they are afraid some people will misuse it and break app-functionality (then whine about it) , well they could've put it in Developer Options right beside ART and the rest of the stuff that can potentially break things on your device.

So as a conclusion, i do like and use Google services, but i also don't want to be forced to share my private data, i just want to be able to do it in the range that i'm comfortable with, and putting everything on Google's servers does not make me feel comfortable :good:
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As a total Android noob… and as someone who knows nothing about Cyanogen Mod (or any other ROM), could you please explain how Cyanogen is advantageous in these examples?

Google has been p1ssing me off recently, but not because of all the stuff mentioned so far on here. More to do with the fact that they have atrocious and contradictory customer service!
 
rayiskon

rayiskon

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Jan 9, 2011
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scouser_75 said:
As a total Android noob… and as someone who knows nothing about Cyanogen Mod (or any other ROM), could you please explain how Cyanogen is advantageous in these examples?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Cyanogenmod is only one of many. A lot of developer teams and individual devs have based their work on AOSP (Android Open Source Project), and they contributed with a lot of new features and ideas, some of those were even adopted from these communities and are now present in "stock android".
My point was that Google is replacing (in nexus devices) a lot of AOSP apps and services with their own, it's moving away from AOSP. So the work of those communities/devs/dev groups should be even more appreciated if we want a truly open source based OS, but yet, some people tend to take everything for granted.

P.S. (among other stuff) there are privacy and security options introduced in cyanogenmod and other ROMs that Google or any other company would never give control of to the end user. Add to all that Ad blockers, Google's first enemy.
 
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scouser_75

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2007
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rayiskon said:
Cyanogenmod is only one of many. A lot of developer teams and individual devs have based their work on AOSP (Android Open Source Project), and they contributed with a lot of new features and ideas, some of those were even adopted from these communities and are now present in "stock android".
My point was that Google is replacing (in nexus devices) a lot of AOSP apps and services with their own, it's moving away from AOSP. So the work of those communities/devs/dev groups should be even more appreciated if we want a truly open source based OS, but yet, some people tend to take everything for granted.

P.S. (among other stuff) there are privacy and security options introduced in cyanogenmod and other ROMs that Google or any other company would never give control of to the end user. Add to all that Ad blockers, Google's first enemy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks mate for your reply.

So even Nexus devices aren't as Vanilla as they used to be, right? But due to the developers and their ROMs these AOSP Apps are being added back in, right?

Sorry if these are stupid qs. I really am still learning - albeit minus my Nexus 5 (had to return it due to defects!)
 
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jgreemo

Member
May 25, 2011
31
1
Informed consent...

With enough digging, one can figure out what Google is up to with your data, since it's the basis of their business model. Having a nexus, with the available Google services and the integration they provide me as a user offsets the knowledge that they use my information as a profit making engine. But I know this, since they've provided a degree of transparency concerning their use of this information. I honestly find that Google and their services make my life easier, so I'm not complaining one bit.

The NSA and other government agencies that would do the same is going too far since the legality and justification has been hidden. Privacy, once lost will not be easily recovered and I do not want to rely on the goodwill of a faceless government employee or politician to not abuse information gathered about me. The recent judgement concerning the likely unconstitutional activities regarding phone call metadata and the NSA methodologies (3 hop being one of them) concerns me since we are so reliant upon them to not abuse their own power with this information. The judge used the Domino Pizza example, wherein a person of interest had 100 contacted numbers (1st hop), these numbers had 100 (2nd hop) and they in turn another 100 (3rd hop) and now NSA has vacuumed up a million citizens. Now add Dominos Pizza as one of the numbers and the number vacuumed becomes ginormous. I just hope this person of interest and I don't have a common love of pizza.
 
danarama

danarama

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2010
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Oxenhope, West Yorkshire, UK
scouser_75 said:
Thanks mate for your reply.

So even Nexus devices aren't as Vanilla as they used to be, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Nexus is Google's vision for android. AOSP is what Google give everyone else as a base. Google compete in sales with oems, so they must act like oems. They take aosp and make it their own by adding in proprietary apps, services and functions (Google launcher, photosphere etc) just like samsung, htc and Sony do.


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BoneXDA

BoneXDA

Senior Member
Oct 9, 2012
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I'm noticing that after KitKat, Google Location Reporting is set ON, dunno if that was off before.

What kind of data does that share, will turning off improve battery life but decrease GPS speed and accuracy?
 
rayiskon

rayiskon

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2011
2,124
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scouser_75 said:
Thanks mate for your reply.

So even Nexus devices aren't as Vanilla as they used to be, right? But due to the developers and their ROMs these AOSP Apps are being added back in, right?

Sorry if these are stupid qs. I really am still learning - albeit minus my Nexus 5 (had to return it due to defects!)
Click to expand...
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Once nexus devices were considered mainly as developer phones, a piece of hardware where you could test and debug your apps on the latest version of android.
It's different now, judging from the camera ads, low pricing and "google experience android" it's obvious that they want to get it into as much hands as possible.

As for AOSP, as rootSU already mentioned, it is the base. The AOSP-based ROMs you see around here are (mostly) tweaked and modified. But still, instead of the google experience launcher, you get the AOSP one, same goes for dialer, sms client etc.. To get Google apps you have to flash a separate zip (called gapps).
Don't worry, your questions are not stupid, i'm just not sure if it's the right thread :)

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 
L

ljesh

Senior Member
Jan 31, 2008
695
25
Skopje
Google is forcing us to much to give them our data and it's pissing me off. They just want more and more, and the really bad thing is they leave you no option (almost). I knew it's bad having 80% of the market, no matter who has it.
 
PunchTheLion

PunchTheLion

Senior Member
Feb 6, 2011
92
9
Honestly, your bank knows more about you than Google.

When you go into a Bank and apply for something, the people behind the counter can see what you last buy, how much is in your account, credit limit, address, there's also records of spouses, credit card purchases, dependents, assets etc... WAY more than Google.

Google doesn't really matter to me anyway since its all in giant data centres in a foreign country to myself that no human will come across among hundreds and hundreds of millions of other accounts.

Hidden amongst it all against the vast horde of Google users!

The Taxman and accountant also knows way too much about me and they are people in my area. Even creditors. Lawyers, I find that worse.

Personally, I'd trust G the most of all out of my profile.
 
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scouser_75

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2007
133
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rootSU said:
Nexus is Google's vision for android. AOSP is what Google give everyone else as a base. Google compete in sales with oems, so they must act like oems. They take aosp and make it their own by adding in proprietary apps, services and functions (Google launcher, photosphere etc) just like samsung, htc and Sony do.


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I do NOT reply to support queries over PM. Please keep support queries to the Q&A section, so that others may benefit
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So, does this mean that the Nexus decices [possibly] via programming can have functions like Samsung S4's where if you get a text and lift the phone to your ear the phone automatically dials the contacts number?

Or is that purely hardware based?
 
rayiskon

rayiskon

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2011
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scouser_75 said:
So, does this mean that the Nexus decices [possibly] via programming can have functions like Samsung S4's where if you get a text and lift the phone to your ear the phone automatically dials the contacts number?

Or is that purely hardware based?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That feature uses the accelerometer and proximity sensors (which are found on all smartphones), but i'm not sure if you'll ever see it baked into a ROM. More likely you'd find it in an app from the playstore.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 
danarama

danarama

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2010
31,277
18,811
Oxenhope, West Yorkshire, UK
scouser_75 said:
So, does this mean that the Nexus decices [possibly] via programming can have functions like Samsung S4's where if you get a text and lift the phone to your ear the phone automatically dials the contacts number?

Or is that purely hardware based?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


Its software - based on information passed from hardware (motion sensor + Proximity perhaps?) - Yes it is totally possible. But the source code is closed so it would need coding from the ground up.
 
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TiltedAz

Senior Member
Oct 19, 2007
522
76
I'm with the OP. If you aren't concerned about privacy then you haven't been paying attention. Now some (i.e. Yahoo) require a cellphone number to open online accounts. There's no valid reason other than tightening the snare on our personal information.
 
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scouser_75

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2007
133
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rootSU said:
Its software - based on information passed from hardware (motion sensor + Proximity perhaps?) - Yes it is totally possible. But the source code is closed so it would need coding from the ground up.
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So it'll be a right PITA to implement into another device.

Not that I want this, of course. Was just curious.
 
danarama

danarama

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2010
31,277
18,811
Oxenhope, West Yorkshire, UK
TiltedAz said:
I'm with the OP. If you aren't concerned about privacy then you haven't been paying attention. Now some (i.e. Yahoo) require a cellphone number to open online accounts. There's no valid reason other than tightening the snare on our personal information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

There is being concerned and there is being paranoid. There is a happy medium in there somewhere.

scouser_75 said:
So it'll be a right PITA to implement into another device.

Not that I want this, of course. Was just curious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Just needs a good dev and enough who want it implemented really. This particular feature probably isn't the hardest to implement.
 
S

scouser_75

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2007
133
0
rootSU said:
There is being concerned and there is being paranoid. There is a happy medium in there somewhere.



Just needs a good dev and enough who want it implemented really. This particular feature probably isn't the hardest to implement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have an idea for a great app/widget… thing is I know squat all about programming :rolleyes:

May need to source an "idiots guide to app programming"
 
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    Visa Declined
    Google uses your data to build out great services. They also get a lot of money for advertising, and that's just the way it is. Do you think they should give Maps and Gmail away for free to people without getting something in return? Everyone who buys a Nexus device or uses Google's services understands this. You said in your post that Google forces their services on us, but you aren't being forced to use a Nexus device, or use Maps and Gmail. You made that decision yourself, so I don't understand why you're complaining.
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    rayiskon
    rayiskon
    i guess this is a general subject, but fits in this forum because we're (nexus users) probably more affected than the rest of the android world. In short, i'm not liking Google's thirst for collecting info in order to sell us ads, tailor and filter information that gets to us, or even sell our info to other companies (android police had an article a while back about a company who was doing this). But let's go back in time a bit first...

    My first android device was back in 2010, and i've been through a few htc and samsung devices, galaxy nexus, nexus 4 and of course nexus 5. Now, whoever had a galaxy nexus might remember how android was back then, ICS just came out, it was the first version that could actually compete with it's rival OS's, and the official builds on the galaxy nexus were very close to AOSP.
    On the nexus 4 we started to see some changes, Chrome replaced AOSP's browser (Browser) even though it was still not ready for that role yet and despite it coming a long way to where it is now, IMO it's still not as good as the stock browser was. Google Play Music also replaced Music as the default music player and so on..
    On the nexus 5 Hangouts replaced stock Messaging (in my opinion it also is not ready for that role yet) and last but not least we're witnessing how G+'s Photos is going to replace Gallery (which is simple and fast, works great, and has a mighty lil photo editor).
    Let's add to that Photosphere, a feature exclusive to nexus devices, and the Google Experience launcher (exclusive to nexus 5). So we've reached quite a big divergence from AOSP.

    Another thing is how Google is forcing it's social network, either through binding playstore/youtube comments with it, photos, G+ sign in, Game hub (Play Games) etc.. Basically, you have to have G+ to be able to do simple stuff.
    Also, we all know that one of the reasons they killed microSD support was to get people to use their cloud services, Keep, Drive, GMusic, G+ autobackup photos...

    Other than forcing it's services, Google likes to tailor things for us. A simple example is the Youtube app, it's default opening screen is "What to watch" instead of subscriptions.
    Also, Google Now is a cool concept, and it can be very helpful, but it kind of adopts the concept of offering you the info (it thinks) you need, according to certain algorithms. And that's the way Google's search engine has been functioning for years. And it's not only a Google thing, everybody does it, facebook, yahoo etc..
    If you've read this far, and this subject interests you, watch this TED talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s

    I've been thinking about this subject for a while, and honestly, i have mixed thoughts about it. I use Google's services and i actually like Google as a company -despite the lil rant above- but i try my best to control what info i share with them, and i'm definitely not liking the route Google is taking with android, causing fragmentation even between nexus devices, closing down a lot of open source services and forcing it's own, and tailoring stuff for me. I don't need someone to think or make decisions on behalf of me, i want to be able to decide what i want to see/read/know about/use. I also want android to stay as open sourced and available to everyone as it can be.

    So what's your take on this subject? do you have any concerns about your privacy and the info you share with Google's servers? and how about the android -or should i say Google- experience on the N5 compared to AOSP or past experiences you had with previous nexus devices, do you see any difference?
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    L
    Lokitez
    Here's my theory on the issue...

    The way I see it is that a person has three choices:
    1. Go completely off-the-grid, paying (limited) bills in cash, never engaging with the internet, and forgoing many modern technological conveniences.
    2. Allow some personal information here and there, trying to maintain control by engaging with services that can be discontinued when they "cross the line".
    3. Allowing access to all personal information online, engaging with anything and everything.

    The third is simply not an option for me. I have no desire to have for-profit corporations spamming me with offers for crap I don't want and selling my private, personally identifiable information to anyone and everyone.

    The first is really not an option, either. I don't want to be completely cut off from friends or have contacting them be excessively difficult. It is convenient to pay my rent, utilities, and other bills online. Frankly, I'm not good enough with any type of work that allows one to go off the grid to make a living.

    So, that leaves me with the second option. I monitor changes to privacy and terms of service policies for the services that I use. I try to limit the services that I use. Obviously, I have a bank account and that comes with the need to provide some information to the bank, but also the ability to monitor my money and immediately flag appropriate people if anything suspicious happens. I have a Google account and a Nexus 5, ergo I use Google's services. And here's what's important to me: I can delete my Google account any time I want. With something like Facebook, it was a lot more difficult to do that once I became uncomfortable with my of the changes Facebook was making. Also, with Google, I can opt-out of many of the services that make me uncomfortable, such as targeted advertising or using my +1's as endorsements. If that ever goes away, I will absolutely reconsider my position. I maintain multiple Google accounts, actually, as a means of limiting who can see what information about me. I have a personal account, which has the most information about me and which is as locked down vis-a-vis Google as I can make it, but which allows my friends and family the best means of interacting with me. I have a professional account, which has only information relevant to my work. I have an "partial-incognito" account, which does not have explicitly identifiable information about me. I have a few completely incognito accounts, which I only ever access through very restricted circumstances, like a proxy server, and have absolutely no information that could be tied back to me. Frankly, that's about the best I can do.

    I have chosen to make a tradeoff, information for convenience. The line where I am willing / unwilling to make that tradeoff is a massive grey area and I constantly reevaluate it. Sure, it's annoying to have to stay on top of it, but it's a fact of modern life. As long as Google gives me the option to delete my account whenever I want, I give them the benefit of the doubt and continue providing (limited) information about myself in exchange for some extremely useful services (unfortunately, this isn't the same deal I can make with the NSA).
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    Albert62
    Albert62
    markdapimp said:
    Long as i dont get junk in my email or mailing address, besides what do you got to hide huh? unless you're al qaeda right? or some terrorist..
    Google doesn't sell your info to other people, and nor does it "read" your inbox or someone is "reading" it, it looks for certain keywords then deliver ads based on that... test it your self on your phone email your self with any subject and just make a random sentence containing the word viagra, you will now receive ads that have to do with "Male enhancement pills".. google does this to provide cheap devices such as the chromecast and nexus line they want you to buy it in return for your interests then deliver ads based on that then google gets paid by the advertiser or the marketing campain, so lets just call this instead of google stalking you or like mining your information like gold think of it as google trying to see what you're interested into and deliver that to you!

    oh also inb4 someone says punctuation is your friend
    Click to expand...
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    This.


    mb3030 said:
    Personally i don't care what Google knows about me (i'm not that interesting and i got nothing to hide - heck let the NSA spy on me too. don't care). I love their services and don't see anything wrong with them using my info to make $$. They are providing me with a service that makes my life a lot easier/better. I also really like the consolidation of Google aps and services and the synergy it creates. Google may force you to use one service to access part of another, but they do not force you to use anything you choose not to. If you don't like G+ integration, don't use Google's suite. I'm not trying to flame the OP, but i just don't get the point of this post. If you don't like something the best way is the speak with your wallet. If enough people do that maybe Google will pay attention.

    ---------- Post added at 12:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 PM ----------



    this is why you started the thread? to hear opinions that validate your own? i thought it was to spark discussion?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    This.


    t3xboar said:
    Man, is it me or are people overly paranoid about anything and everything? Not to rain in on anyone's parade here, but what exactly are you doing "online" to be scared someone will find out about??

    Wasn't it Eric Schmidt that said " If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. "

    Really now. leaving your location gps base option on doesn't affect you in any way. you really think someone is sitting at a computer in the google office going "oh snap! Bob is at the cupcake shop! quick!" why freak out about it? you do know that regardless of if you turn it on or off - your cell provider has the same ability and they never told you about it? cell broadcasts know where you are too - and deliver death warnings in emergencies. I hope you turned those off too right? no? why not? its the same thing. its tracking you 24/7. and if you happen to walk into a radiation zone for instance it will alert you with bells and whistles. you cant complain about 1 company doing this when the cell providers have been doing the same thing since the birth of cell phones themselves!

    And to the person who mentioned the pedophile comment... about making an account, stalking on facebook, downloading images, extracting the gps loc out of the xif info of the image, then finding your family.. ermm... I'm not saying it cant happen - but do you really think they would waste a huge amount of time on this planning when a rented van and a playground could be found in under 15 minutes?? Don't get me wrong, I'm really not advocating this kind of sick behavior at all but you have to apply a little common sense here.

    You are the one posting pictures, regardless of who or what they are. you are the one using your phone. regardless if its an iphone or an android. everyone under the sun knows by now to turn off location tagging inside the camera app. Your own fault if nude pics (as an example) show up inside your facebook feed with your address... cant blame google, apple or anyone else.

    I leave my phone on, with all the options activated, doing anything and everything it wants, at any time. That was the entire point of buying a phone. to use everything on it. I honestly don't understand why people buy something then cripple the usage by turning things off. Do you buy a big V8 muscle car for the looks then in your garage disable 4 cylinders to get better gas mileage? its silly... buy a different phone instead. (in this case one that just makes phone calls with no internet)

    What's that you say? you need internet? aww.. well. thats the trade off. everything you do is tracked by your ISP, regardless of google or not. I should know. I worked in that department for one of the canadian ISPs years back. everything is logged. everything is tracked. does anyone give a **** internally? nope. unless we had a judge serve papers it just sat there and eventually got overwritten by new data. you know how much data was saved on a day to day basis? the numbers would boggle the mind. If you honestly think someone would dig through 500+ Terabytes of data to find your 650kb facebook picture.. man...lol..... This isnt new or news in any way. you think knowing every little thing you searched for on the internet started with google? pfff common.. common sense again please. do you type out all your bank account numbers and passwords into a text file and save it to your desktop? Then why in the world would you type it all into a cloud service???? would you write it on a piece of paper and leave it on your table for anyone to see? no you wouldn't! common sense again! so why are you blaming a company or service if you are doing things there that you wouldn't dream of doing pen-and-paper style?

    It comes down to this. ask yourself why you are really scared someone might find out what you are doing. really dig deep and figure out why you would be scared to let anyone sit at your computer or look through your phone randomly, before you had a chance to clear out your history and browsing habits, and take a look at where you are going and what you are looking at daily.

    Then repeat Schmidt's sentence - If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

    There is nothing wrong with google, apple, or any of the million ISP's or cell companies for putting out products and services that use/need data to function. Nobody is going to look in on your shoe shopping or spy on you buying a new lawnmower, because in the grand scheme of things nobody actually gives a **** about what you or I are doing in your minuscule tiny bubble of normal everyday lives. - quit being paranoid for nothing. Thinking that the world revolves around you, that you're above everyone else or someone has chosen you to be special and "spied" upon is insane on the face of it, and goes against the very reality that you honestly are just a drop in the bucket where data is concerned.

    If you are buying yellow cake uranium - serves you right for being stupid and you deserve to be flagged for trying to kill us all. :rolleyes:
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    And this.
    They don't give a rats ass about you.
    Are you hiding something or from someone? Don't freaking use a phone. Send letters or whatever.
    About the guy who said that AOSP is better.. Are you kidding me? The browser was replaced for a better one, Google Play Music is better than Music, G+ Photos is way better than Gallery and about Hangouts they are trying to put 2 apps in 1! You don't want it get the messaging app back!
    For God's sakes.. This is Android you're free to customize it at your own taste.
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    T
    t3xboar
    Man, is it me or are people overly paranoid about anything and everything? Not to rain in on anyone's parade here, but what exactly are you doing "online" to be scared someone will find out about??


    Wasn't it Eric Schmidt that said " If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. "


    Really now. leaving your location gps base option on doesn't affect you in any way. you really think someone is sitting at a computer in the google office going "oh snap! Bob is at the cupcake shop! quick!" why freak out about it? you do know that regardless of if you turn it on or off - your cell provider has the same ability and they never told you about it? cell broadcasts know where you are too - and deliver death warnings in emergencies. I hope you turned those off too right? no? why not? its the same thing. its tracking you 24/7. and if you happen to walk into a radiation zone for instance it will alert you with bells and whistles. you cant complain about 1 company doing this when the cell providers have been doing the same thing since the birth of cell phones themselves!

    And to the person who mentioned the pedophile comment... about making an account, stalking on facebook, downloading images, extracting the gps loc out of the xif info of the image, then finding your family.. ermm... I'm not saying it cant happen - but do you really think they would waste a huge amount of time on this planning when a rented van and a playground could be found in under 15 minutes?? Don't get me wrong, I'm really not advocating this kind of sick behavior at all but you have to apply a little common sense here.

    You are the one posting pictures, regardless of who or what they are. you are the one using your phone. regardless if its an iphone or an android. everyone under the sun knows by now to turn off location tagging inside the camera app. Your own fault if nude pics (as an example) show up inside your facebook feed with your address... cant blame google, apple or anyone else.


    I leave my phone on, with all the options activated, doing anything and everything it wants, at any time. That was the entire point of buying a phone. to use everything on it. I honestly don't understand why people buy something then cripple the usage by turning things off. Do you buy a big V8 muscle car for the looks then in your garage disable 4 cylinders to get better gas mileage? its silly... buy a different phone instead. (in this case one that just makes phone calls with no internet)

    What's that you say? you need internet? aww.. well. thats the trade off. everything you do is tracked by your ISP, regardless of google or not. I should know. I worked in that department for one of the canadian ISPs years back. everything is logged. everything is tracked. does anyone give a **** internally? nope. unless we had a judge serve papers it just sat there and eventually got overwritten by new data. you know how much data was saved on a day to day basis? the numbers would boggle the mind. If you honestly think someone would dig through 500+ Terabytes of data to find your 650kb facebook picture.. man...lol..... This isnt new or news in any way. you think knowing every little thing you searched for on the internet started with google? pfff common.. common sense again please. do you type out all your bank account numbers and passwords into a text file and save it to your desktop? Then why in the world would you type it all into a cloud service???? would you write it on a piece of paper and leave it on your table for anyone to see? no you wouldn't! common sense again! so why are you blaming a company or service if you are doing things there that you wouldn't dream of doing pen-and-paper style?


    It comes down to this. ask yourself why you are really scared someone might find out what you are doing. really dig deep and figure out why you would be scared to let anyone sit at your computer or look through your phone randomly, before you had a chance to clear out your history and browsing habits, and take a look at where you are going and what you are looking at daily.

    Then repeat Schmidt's sentence - If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

    There is nothing wrong with google, apple, or any of the million ISP's or cell companies for putting out products and services that use/need data to function. Nobody is going to look in on your shoe shopping or spy on you buying a new lawnmower, because in the grand scheme of things nobody actually gives a **** about what you or I are doing in your minuscule tiny bubble of normal everyday lives. - quit being paranoid for nothing. Thinking that the world revolves around you, that you're above everyone else or someone has chosen you to be special and "spied" upon is insane on the face of it, and goes against the very reality that you honestly are just a drop in the bucket where data is concerned.

    If you are buying yellow cake uranium - serves you right for being stupid and you deserve to be flagged for trying to kill us all. :rolleyes:
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