Is Google turning into a Goolag?

[Samarth 619]

I own a Redmi 2 Prime... and I've tried to disconnect everything except the very basic. Yes, Google is still logged in. I still have Play store.
Since its an old firmware I've uninstalled all Google Apps except Play st0re. (In Redmi 2 Prime we can)

And its actually working for me, I no longer get ads based on my talks, and even when the recent auto contact addition was done by Google, somehow no contact was added to my phone.
Location is turned off, and I don't use Google maps, yet, I don't get specific location alerts when I travel.

Although, at the same time, Mi's own account seems to be working in BG and that does steal data and I can't uninstall it.


Now, I can't change my phone... Google will start its lookout in full power if I get a Galaxy S9+ or so.

 

[rockfella]

I personally feel that we must stop feeding Google's dominance and start looking for alternatives to their services. I have started using duckduckgo on all my browsers and replacing google logins on sites with my email/password login.

Bold approach I was thinking of using duckduckgo too but I know what a mammoth force we are up against (Google). They are big.
We really need to tweet Gabriel Weinberg to change the name man, I can't take duckduckgo seriously

 

[billubakra]

I own a Redmi 2 Prime... and I've tried to disconnect everything except the very basic. Yes, Google is still logged in. I still have Play store.
Since its an old firmware I've uninstalled all Google Apps except Play st0re. (In Redmi 2 Prime we can)

And its actually working for me, I no longer get ads based on my talks, and even when the recent auto contact addition was done by Google, somehow no contact was added to my phone.
Location is turned off, and I don't use Google maps, yet, I don't get specific location alerts when I travel.

Although, at the same time, Mi's own account seems to be working in BG and that does steal data and I can't uninstall it.


Now, I can't change my phone... Google will start its lookout in full power if I get a Galaxy S9+ or so.

About your last line, this way you will never be able to change your phone. If you want then you can install some privacy based custom roms in your new phone.

 

[Desmond]

Also non-removable apps can be removed after rooting.

Bold approach I was thinking of using duckduckgo too but I know what a mammoth force we are up against (Google). They are big.
We really need to tweet Gabriel Weinberg to change the name man, I can't take duckduckgo seriously

What's in a name
-William Shakespeare

 

[Desmond]

Why was this thread locked? Reopening.

*www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/05/1020376/resist-big-tech-surveillance-data/

Algorithms are meaningless without good data. The public can exploit that to demand change.

Every day, your life leaves a trail of digital breadcrumbs that tech giants use to track you. You send an email, order some food, stream a show. They get back valuable packets of data to build up their understanding of your preferences. That data is fed into machine-learning algorithms to target you with ads and recommendations. Google cashes your data in for over $120 billion a year of ad revenue.

Increasingly, we can no longer opt out of this arrangement. In 2019 Kashmir Hill, then a reporter for Gizmodo, famously tried to cut five major tech giants out of her life. She spent six weeks being miserable, struggling to perform basic digital functions. The tech giants, meanwhile, didn’t even feel an itch.

Now researchers at Northwestern University are suggesting new ways to redress this power imbalance by treating our collective data as a bargaining chip. Tech giants may have fancy algorithms at their disposal, but they are meaningless without enough of the right data to train on.

In a new paper being presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency conference next week, researchers including PhD students Nicholas Vincent and Hanlin Li propose three ways the public can exploit this to their advantage:

• Data strikes, inspired by the idea of labor strikes, which involve withholding or deleting your data so a tech firm cannot use it—leaving a platform or installing privacy tools, for instance.
• Data poisoning, which involves contributing meaningless or harmful data. AdNauseam, for example, is a browser extension that clicks on every single ad served to you, thus confusing Google’s ad-targeting algorithms.
• Conscious data contribution, which involves giving meaningful data to the competitor of a platform you want to protest, such as by uploading your Facebook photos to Tumblr instead.

 

[Zangetsu]

Google is pathetic

An experiment was conducted by some researchers in which they used two phones one with No SIM Card + No Internet and another with only Sim Card + No Internet

And as soon they connected it to the internet after roaming around the City for a day. The phone started sending entire phone captured data to google servers

 

[Desmond]

While this thread specifically focuses on Google, other big data companies like Facebook, Amazon, etc. are also doing this. Thus this is a much more general issue.

 

[Zangetsu]

While this thread specifically focuses on Google, other big data companies like Facebook, Amazon, etc. are also doing this. Thus this is a much more general issue.

Including Telecom operator who sell our data to Credit Card/Loan Companies and other agents.

 

[Desmond]

Including Telecom operator who sell our data to Credit Card/Loan Companies and other agents.

Oh man, these are the worst. It makes me wish I had some kind of disposable phone number to give these people.

As for the telecom companies there needs to be government regulation to stop them from selling the contact info.

 

[Zangetsu]

Oh man, these are the worst. It makes me wish I had some kind of disposable phone number to give these people.

As for the telecom companies there needs to be government regulation to stop them from selling the contact info.

You can also get anybody data for as low as Rs. 500

 

[RumbaMon19]

Including Telecom operator who sell our data to Credit Card/Loan Companies and other agents.

Is it airtel? I have suddenly got a huge spike in spam calls. I get around 4-5 calls per day. I had to download truecaller for this.

Fortunately google dialer is getting caller id feature, so I will leave truecaller

 

[Zangetsu]

Is it airtel? I have suddenly got a huge spike in spam calls. I get around 4-5 calls per day. I had to download truecaller for this.

Fortunately google dialer is getting caller id feature, so I will leave truecaller

Every telecom. not just Airtel.
Also saw a string operation (long time back) of people responsible for handling Aadhaar data selling it for Rs 500

 

[RumbaMon19]

Every telecom. not just Airtel.
Also saw a string operation (long time back) of people responsible for handling Aadhaar data selling it for Rs 500

india seriously needs a regulatory.

now recently dominos and bigbasket too got hijacked.

 

[topgear]

india seriously needs a regulatory.

now recently dominos and bigbasket too got hijacked.

what's the use of a regulation when you have cartel with the regulators ... don't we have enough laws and regulations already and look how far that has brought us particularly starting from note ban. No amount of rules can save us unless we have politicians who are enjoying many things which they don't deserve. For starter : to get a decent job we need to give test of our competence but politicians who are under educated can get in top most positions without going to through a single exam of their eligibility. So they fail to understand actually what's going on and the gravity of a matter. If they don't understand how can they properly solve an issue.

 

[Desmond]

Found an interesting link about Google's internal culture of suppressing discussions about Google's monopoly in a eerily Orwellian manner - Googlespeak™ - How Google Limits Thought About Antitrust

In George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984, he introduced the concept of Newspeak – a language of “simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual’s ability to think and articulate” about taboo or undesirable topics.

Orwell observed that when you limit a person’s language, you can successfully limit their thoughts.

As it turns out, in order to turn a blind eye against growing antitrust concerns, Google has codified its own version of Newspeak and made it official company policy.
.
.
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In documents obtained by The Markup, Google makes it obvious that certain words are taboo in both internal and external communication

For example, under no circumstances are Googlers to talk about “Market Share.” Those are bad words not to be used.

Instead, Googlers should use a good word such as “Industry” or “Space” as a substitute.

*www.documentcloud.org/documents/7016658-Communicating-Safely.html

Other slides emphasize how even “competitor” is a bad word.

Indeed, the whole concept of beating the competition isn’t allowed to exist in Googlespeak™, although that is exactly what they do.

Instead of beating or getting ahead of competitors, Googlers are simply to communicate the approved concept of “Improving our product/service.”

 

[rockfella]

Google turning into a Goolag: YES and we all love it. Imagine a world without Google today.​