[Q] [Discussion] How do they know?

[tbvnz]

First off, I have never purchased any music, books or movies from the Google Play Store. Nor have I used the store to search for any of these media types. All the media I have on my phone has been taken from "back ups" I have on my computer and placed on phone through USB or Skydrive. I have some very obscure and varied musical, reading and movie tastes. I also don't use Google+ or any Google affiliated messaging, chat or blog services. So I found it very disturbing on my last visit to the Google Play Store, when I decided to check öut the "recommended for you section" and found quite a bit of recommendations that matched the content of my phone. It was uncany. I did some research and found that Google says it's recommendations were based on searches, geographic location and what my"friends" listened to. I am on vacation outside of my geographic location and I purchased my phone while on vacation. My previous phone was a Windows phone so they can't have gotten data from that source, could they? Is my private content being scanned or accessed? Google is hitting too close too the mark on this one. I go out of my way to keep my privacy. Something seems fishy. Anyone else notice this or am I being paranoid?

 

[dutchtrumpet]

You're being paranoid.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

 

[divinituss]

App packages

When you enter the Google Play Store on your device, the application packages that exist in your phone (regardless where you got them from) are being used for search results.
Thus by matching the app packages that exist in your device against those that also have the same package name installed in their devices, Google can tell what kind of apps these generalized group of people will download, and make suggestions from there.

But yes, you are being paranoid

 

[jsneider23]

The play store takes stock of what's on your phone so it knows what updates you need and to recommend things to you. It does collect other info, all of which you will find in the TOS you obviously didn't read before you created your Google account. I didn't read it either, but I also understand some info is collected for these reasons and to be able to target ads to your usage habits. It's the nature of the beast - connecting to the Internet in any way means you have given up some measure of privacy, whether you like it or not.

You're being paranoid.

My advice: If you want to live off the grid, owning a smartphone is not the best approach....

Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

---------- Post added at 08:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

When you enter the Google Play Store on your device, the application packages that exist in your phone (regardless where you got them from) are being used for search results.
Thus by matching the app packages that exist in your device against those that also have the same package name installed in their devices, Google can tell what kind of apps these generalized group of people will download, and make suggestions from there.

But yes, you are being paranoid

Beat me to it! Hehe

Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

 

[lenieto3]

First off, I have never purchased any music, books or movies from the Google Play Store. Nor have I used the store to search for any of these media types. All the media I have on my phone has been taken from "back ups" I have on my computer and placed on phone through USB or Skydrive. I have some very obscure and varied musical, reading and movie tastes. I also don't use Google+ or any Google affiliated messaging, chat or blog services. So I found it very disturbing on my last visit to the Google Play Store, when I decided to check öut the "recommended for you section" and found quite a bit of recommendations that matched the content of my phone. It was uncany. I did some research and found that Google says it's recommendations were based on searches, geographic location and what my"friends" listened to. I am on vacation outside of my geographic location and I purchased my phone while on vacation. My previous phone was a Windows phone so they can't have gotten data from that source, could they? Is my private content being scanned or accessed? Google is hitting too close too the mark on this one. I go out of my way to keep my privacy. Something seems fishy. Anyone else notice this or am I being paranoid?

If you have an android smartphone and you are using Google Play, you need a gmail account for this, so, Google already has your "identity" and knows who is the owner of that smartphone. When you use google chrome and start a session on it, you are telling Google everything you do on the web, and even if you are not logged in on chrome, or use a different browser, but log into gmail account and use youtube or google for searching on internet Google knows what you look for on internet and what you like to watch. And if you use your phone during vacation outside of your geographic location, Google already knows where you like to go on vacations and you like to on free time, that probably is very related with all the targeted adds that you see on the internet while browsing.

In other words, no one is scanning your private content or accessing on it, YOU are giving all this kind of info to Google and they just use it, maybe for suggest Hotels on vacations or for anything they want because they own it.

My recommendation is take care of your privacy and don't be paranoid if they know what you tell them... :cyclops:

---------- Post added at 10:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 PM ----------

... connecting to the Internet in any way means you have given up some measure of privacy, whether you like it or not. ...

It doesn't have to be like this... there are ways for protecting your privacy on the web and everyone should use them instead of just get used to be snooped

My advice: If you want to live off the grid, owning a smartphone is not the best approach....

You are right