Google data collection

brewmaster15 · 10-07-2019, 03:52 AM

I think most of us are aware that google makes its money off the data it collects from its users. We use the various services often for free as a trade off. But because it collects data as its source of revenue there is always the chance it will abuse that and be too intrusive.

I had an experience today that reminded me of that. I use an older samsung s5 phone. I had done a factory reset yesterday and hadn't gotten around to setting up the screen lock yet.

I got an email from google this morning reminding me to confirm my recovery email for my account. It was a legit email. Upon doing so.. I get a message that made me pause..

"Add a screen lock on your Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung Galaxy S5
No screen lock detected
A screen lock protects the emails, messages, photos, and other personal info that you keep on your phone"

Seriously? Google has their hooks so deep into my phone that know if my phone uses a screen lock. Thats pretty telling. I'm extremely conservative about my privacy settings so this really stood out

Maybe its because its National Cyber Security Month that Google felt they were doing me a favor but it just high lights how much Data that behemoth collects.

Al

**pepperberry farm** · 10-07-2019, 03:56 AM

heh, wait until you start getting bill reminders from Google that you didn't set up...

or a 'special deal' from Amazon on a product you were looking at the day before...

slartibartfast01 · 10-07-2019, 03:59 AM

Originally posted by brewmaster15

I think most of us are aware that google makes its money off the data it collects from its users. We use the various services often for free as a trade off. But because it collects data as its source of revenue there is always the chance it will abuse that and be too intrusive.

I had an experience today that reminded me of that. I use an older samsung s5 phone. I had done a factory reset yesterday and hadn't gotten around to setting up the screen lock yet.

I got an email from google this morning reminding me to confirm my recovery email for my account. It was a legit email. Upon doing so.. I get a message that made me pause..

"Add a screen lock on your Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung Galaxy S5

No screen lock detected

A screen lock protects the emails, messages, photos, and other personal info that you keep on your phone"

Seriously? Google has their hooks so deep into my phone that know if my phone uses a screen lock. Thats pretty telling. I'm extremely conservative about my privacy settings so this really stood out

Maybe its because its National Cyber Security Month that Google felt they were doing me a favor but it just high lights how much Data that behemoth collects.

Al

Just out of interest does your S5 screen flash green at lower brightness levels and which version of Android are you running? I am running LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2) at the moment.
Off topic I know.

tokyoscape · 10-07-2019, 04:03 AM

Yeah, it tell me the same with all of my devices. it remember everything even you tell it to not track, don't remember, don't listen, etc.
It is not only Google by the way.

brewmaster15 · 10-07-2019, 04:34 AM

Originally posted by slartibartfast01

Just out of interest does your S5 screen flash green at lower brightness levels and which version of Android are you running? I am running LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2) at the moment.
Off topic I know.

running 6.01 right now. It doesnt flash green but in the past I had that happen. Ive used s5 since they came out as I am attached to the concept of a removable user replaceable battery...something thats getting harder to find in a phone. Anyway when I had that green flashing issue it turned out to be a bad battery issue... changed the battery and the phone was fine.
Al

crazy4oldcars · 10-07-2019, 04:37 AM

I have had people tell me about seeing ads for products that were the subject of face-to-face conversations. Not online, but the phone was listening.
I haven't had this happen to me. Yet.

Kirk B.

MatKus · 10-07-2019, 06:08 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by brewmaster15

Seriously? Google has their hooks so deep into my phone that know if my phone uses a screen lock. Thats pretty telling. I'm extremely conservative about my privacy settings so this really stood out

It's android based phone. When you run it for first time, it asks you for gmail account and if you agree to send your data to google.
Google not only knows what you are using, but also (by default, can be turned off):
stores online complete history of your GPS location including "walking, bike ride, car ride" etc. Sign in - Google Accounts
stores all you contacts
stores all your installed apps
stores complete history of pages visided in chrome brower
stores complete history of searches in google Welcome to My Activity
stores complete list of viewed in Youtube videos
stores complete list of pages you've visited using any browers if on this page is google analytics script, script for google ads etc.
and many more

and all of this is mixed with everything you visit using google chrome on your desktop to make sure next ads you'll see might be interresting for you.

You can download everything google knows about you from page Sign in - Google Accounts
just be warned - it takes a lot of data. For me it was about 60GB of data not counting google drive, google photos etc. (and they do track those, including analyzing content of images)

Oh. and i think facebook knows just as much as google, just FB sells their data for anyone willing to pay, google does not do this (or at least they hide better)

Sorry, no privacy for you once you'll visit internet.

tuco · 10-07-2019, 09:56 AM

Another interesting thing. If you use a no script plugin on your browser, life can be inconvenient on the internet. But you can painstakingly allow specific scripts on sites to the point of functionality and save that. You can see a list of all the scripts a website wants to run on your browser. What is interesting is Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media all want to run scripts on your HTTP client when you visit almost any website it seems.

EDIT: Example, visiting pentaxforums.com the following scripts want to be executed:

adservice.googl.com/adsid/integrator.js
pagead2.googlesyndication.com/paged/js/adsbygoogle.js
pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/r20191001/r20190131/show_ads_impl.js
s.skimresources.com/js/3671X619907.skimlinks.js
s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js
ssl.google-analytics.com/ga.js
tcr.tynt.com/ti.js
googletagservices.com/activeview/js/current/osd.js
Several penatxforums.com scripts
z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/one.js
statcounter.com/counter/counter_xhtml.js

It's nice to see Adam hasn't sold out to the social media websites scripts.

**Reality_Check** · 10-07-2019, 10:05 AM

An old saying I remember hearing goes something like this: With Apple, you buy the product. With Google, you ARE the product. Absolutely intrusive, yet I still use an Android phone because iPhones are out of my budget (or, quite frankly, not nearly as important as the next Pentax lens I want to buy). I find the situation you've described to be disturbing to say the least. For years, I've been using made-up data any time I'm prompted for anything that isn't vitally important to ME. Birthday? Made up if it is a required field. Political views? Made up. Even if I have to fill out forms at a place like the dentist...daughter's birthdate? Spring time.

Serioiusly - this privacy issue is a very real and very pressing issue, but so few people seem to care. The little bit I've paid attention I've quickly learned that far too many people are willing to give up way too much privacy in the name of convenience.

---------- Post added 10-07-19 at 10:07 AM ----------

Awesome point (referring to the script post above mine that I tried to quote)... I should also mention that there are some browser extensions that can help mitigate a fair amount of data collection. I personally use DuckDuckGo as my search engine along with Privacy Badger to fight the whole tracking cookie situation as well. It drives me bonkers to see something pop up in my FB feed that I had shopped for only hours (or minutes) before. They can all go fly a kite.

**ChrisPlatt** · 10-07-2019, 02:07 PM

I think I'll keep my flip phone after all.

Chris

**boriscleto** · 10-07-2019, 02:11 PM - **1 Like**

One of my Facebook friends posted about trying the Impossible Whopper. Then I got a Five Guys ad on my feed

**Reality_Check** · 10-07-2019, 02:13 PM

Originally posted by boriscleto

One of my Facebook friends posted about trying the Impossible Whopper. Then I got a Five Guys ad on my feed

That cracks me up! I've only heard about the "Impossible Whopper", which I will probably never try. Five Guys? Sign me up!

MarkJerling · 10-07-2019, 02:27 PM

Originally posted by crazy4oldcars

I have had people tell me about seeing ads for products that were the subject of face-to-face conversations. Not online, but the phone was listening.
I haven't had this happen to me. Yet.

Kirk B.

I've been testing this by including things I never talk about in my conversations, just for fun. So far I can confirm that my fancy Android phone does not appear to be listening. If it is, it's not suggesting. Maybe it's speechless.

But, there's several guys in dark suits who's been following me around......

tokyoscape · 10-07-2019, 03:00 PM

They can collect data to use for many things.

Apple contractors 'regularly hear confidential details' on Siri recordings | Technology | The Guardian

The news talk about Apple, but I think Google, Amazon, Facebook and car maker etc are doing the same. It is a part of our everyday life now.

the lists go on
https://www.npr.org/search?query=privacy&page=1

We don't have to be paranoid over this, just beware so we can find ways to protect our right to privacy.

**Serkevan** · 10-07-2019, 03:03 PM - **2 Likes**

Lately I have been trying to distance myself from google as much as possible: I browse on Firefox running NoScript (with most google-related things blocked) and uBlock, use DuckDuckGo as a search engine, have moved my main email over to ProtonMail (it's cool to have @pm.me as domain!). My phone has as many Google services as possible turned off*, though it still runs Android; I'm pondering a Librem if the project truly takes off but it's outrageously expensive...

What I haven't been able to substitute is Youtube (uBlock helps, though) and Google Maps, but I never turn on location on my phone unless I'm going home at night by bike or such and want my girlfriend to live track me for added safety.

Unfortunately, while Google has done, in their earlier years, a lot for the Internet and communications in general, they have shifted quite dramatically into something very closely resembling a cyberpunk-esque megacorp. I can't say I like that. Google Home? I am not sure if I am more creeped out by Google or Amazon having their microphones at home.

*I am not sure Google actually honours this, but at least I don't really get a lot of targeted notifications...

---------- Post added 10-07-19 at 03:04 PM ----------

Originally posted by tokyoscape

We don't have to be paranoid over this, just beware so we can find ways to protect our right to privacy.

Things like what you link (it was something that was OBVIOUSLY going to happen at some point) make it clear that being paranoid is THE only way to protect our right to privacy. Well, it's not paranoia if the walls are actually listening, isn't it?

10-07-2019, 03:52 AM	#1
brewmaster15 Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: CT Posts: 1,860	Google data collection I think most of us are aware that google makes its money off the data it collects from its users. We use the various services often for free as a trade off. But because it collects data as its source of revenue there is always the chance it will abuse that and be too intrusive. I had an experience today that reminded me of that. I use an older samsung s5 phone. I had done a factory reset yesterday and hadn't gotten around to setting up the screen lock yet. I got an email from google this morning reminding me to confirm my recovery email for my account. It was a legit email. Upon doing so.. I get a message that made me pause.. "Add a screen lock on your Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung Galaxy S5 No screen lock detected A screen lock protects the emails, messages, photos, and other personal info that you keep on your phone" Seriously? Google has their hooks so deep into my phone that know if my phone uses a screen lock. Thats pretty telling. I'm extremely conservative about my privacy settings so this really stood out Maybe its because its National Cyber Security Month that Google felt they were doing me a favor but it just high lights how much Data that behemoth collects. Al

10-07-2019, 09:56 AM	#8
tuco Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Pugetopolis Posts: 11,026	Another interesting thing. If you use a no script plugin on your browser, life can be inconvenient on the internet. But you can painstakingly allow specific scripts on sites to the point of functionality and save that. You can see a list of all the scripts a website wants to run on your browser. What is interesting is Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media all want to run scripts on your HTTP client when you visit almost any website it seems. EDIT: Example, visiting pentaxforums.com the following scripts want to be executed: adservice.googl.com/adsid/integrator.js pagead2.googlesyndication.com/paged/js/adsbygoogle.js pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/r20191001/r20190131/show_ads_impl.js s.skimresources.com/js/3671X619907.skimlinks.js s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js ssl.google-analytics.com/ga.js tcr.tynt.com/ti.js googletagservices.com/activeview/js/current/osd.js Several penatxforums.com scripts z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/one.js statcounter.com/counter/counter_xhtml.js It's nice to see Adam hasn't sold out to the social media websites scripts. Last edited by tuco; 10-07-2019 at 10:40 AM.

10-07-2019, 03:00 PM	#14
tokyoscape Inactive Account Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Tokyo Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,256	They can collect data to use for many things. Apple contractors 'regularly hear confidential details' on Siri recordings \| Technology \| The Guardian The news talk about Apple, but I think Google, Amazon, Facebook and car maker etc are doing the same. It is a part of our everyday life now. the lists go on https://www.npr.org/search?query=privacy&page=1 We don't have to be paranoid over this, just beware so we can find ways to protect our right to privacy. Last edited by tokyoscape; 10-07-2019 at 03:39 PM.

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10-07-2019, 03:56 AM	#2
pepperberry farm amateur dirt farmer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 41,678	heh, wait until you start getting bill reminders from Google that you didn't set up... or a 'special deal' from Amazon on a product you were looking at the day before...

10-07-2019, 03:59 AM	#3
slartibartfast01 Pentaxian Join Date: May 2015 Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,931	Originally posted by brewmaster15 I think most of us are aware that google makes its money off the data it collects from its users. We use the various services often for free as a trade off. But because it collects data as its source of revenue there is always the chance it will abuse that and be too intrusive. I had an experience today that reminded me of that. I use an older samsung s5 phone. I had done a factory reset yesterday and hadn't gotten around to setting up the screen lock yet. I got an email from google this morning reminding me to confirm my recovery email for my account. It was a legit email. Upon doing so.. I get a message that made me pause.. "Add a screen lock on your Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung Galaxy S5 No screen lock detected A screen lock protects the emails, messages, photos, and other personal info that you keep on your phone" Seriously? Google has their hooks so deep into my phone that know if my phone uses a screen lock. Thats pretty telling. I'm extremely conservative about my privacy settings so this really stood out Maybe its because its National Cyber Security Month that Google felt they were doing me a favor but it just high lights how much Data that behemoth collects. Al Just out of interest does your S5 screen flash green at lower brightness levels and which version of Android are you running? I am running LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2) at the moment. Off topic I know.

10-07-2019, 04:03 AM	#4
tokyoscape Inactive Account Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Tokyo Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,256	Yeah, it tell me the same with all of my devices. it remember everything even you tell it to not track, don't remember, don't listen, etc. It is not only Google by the way.

10-07-2019, 04:34 AM	#5
brewmaster15 Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: CT Posts: 1,860 Original Poster	Originally posted by slartibartfast01 Just out of interest does your S5 screen flash green at lower brightness levels and which version of Android are you running? I am running LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2) at the moment. Off topic I know. running 6.01 right now. It doesnt flash green but in the past I had that happen. Ive used s5 since they came out as I am attached to the concept of a removable user replaceable battery...something thats getting harder to find in a phone. Anyway when I had that green flashing issue it turned out to be a bad battery issue... changed the battery and the phone was fine. Al

10-07-2019, 04:37 AM	#6
crazy4oldcars Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Beaumont, Texas Posts: 218	I have had people tell me about seeing ads for products that were the subject of face-to-face conversations. Not online, but the phone was listening. I haven't had this happen to me. Yet. Kirk B.

10-07-2019, 06:08 AM - 1 Like	#7
MatKus Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2017 Posts: 155	Originally posted by brewmaster15 Seriously? Google has their hooks so deep into my phone that know if my phone uses a screen lock. Thats pretty telling. I'm extremely conservative about my privacy settings so this really stood out It's android based phone. When you run it for first time, it asks you for gmail account and if you agree to send your data to google. Google not only knows what you are using, but also (by default, can be turned off): stores online complete history of your GPS location including "walking, bike ride, car ride" etc. Sign in - Google Accounts stores all you contacts stores all your installed apps stores complete history of pages visided in chrome brower stores complete history of searches in google Welcome to My Activity stores complete list of viewed in Youtube videos stores complete list of pages you've visited using any browers if on this page is google analytics script, script for google ads etc. and many more and all of this is mixed with everything you visit using google chrome on your desktop to make sure next ads you'll see might be interresting for you. You can download everything google knows about you from page Sign in - Google Accounts just be warned - it takes a lot of data. For me it was about 60GB of data not counting google drive, google photos etc. (and they do track those, including analyzing content of images) Oh. and i think facebook knows just as much as google, just FB sells their data for anyone willing to pay, google does not do this (or at least they hide better) Sorry, no privacy for you once you'll visit internet.

10-07-2019, 10:05 AM	#9
Reality_Check Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Nashville Photos: Albums Posts: 394	An old saying I remember hearing goes something like this: With Apple, you buy the product. With Google, you ARE the product. Absolutely intrusive, yet I still use an Android phone because iPhones are out of my budget (or, quite frankly, not nearly as important as the next Pentax lens I want to buy). I find the situation you've described to be disturbing to say the least. For years, I've been using made-up data any time I'm prompted for anything that isn't vitally important to ME. Birthday? Made up if it is a required field. Political views? Made up. Even if I have to fill out forms at a place like the dentist...daughter's birthdate? Spring time. Serioiusly - this privacy issue is a very real and very pressing issue, but so few people seem to care. The little bit I've paid attention I've quickly learned that far too many people are willing to give up way too much privacy in the name of convenience. ---------- Post added 10-07-19 at 10:07 AM ---------- Awesome point (referring to the script post above mine that I tried to quote)... I should also mention that there are some browser extensions that can help mitigate a fair amount of data collection. I personally use DuckDuckGo as my search engine along with Privacy Badger to fight the whole tracking cookie situation as well. It drives me bonkers to see something pop up in my FB feed that I had shopped for only hours (or minutes) before. They can all go fly a kite.

10-07-2019, 02:07 PM	#10
ChrisPlatt Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Rockaway Beach NYC Posts: 7,694	I think I'll keep my flip phone after all. Chris

10-07-2019, 02:11 PM - 1 Like	#11
boriscleto Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: North Syracuse, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 16,475	One of my Facebook friends posted about trying the Impossible Whopper. Then I got a Five Guys ad on my feed

10-07-2019, 02:13 PM	#12
Reality_Check Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Nashville Photos: Albums Posts: 394	Originally posted by boriscleto One of my Facebook friends posted about trying the Impossible Whopper. Then I got a Five Guys ad on my feed That cracks me up! I've only heard about the "Impossible Whopper", which I will probably never try. Five Guys? Sign me up!

10-07-2019, 02:27 PM	#13
MarkJerling Moderator Site Supporter Join Date: May 2012 Location: Wairarapa, New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 20,406	Originally posted by crazy4oldcars I have had people tell me about seeing ads for products that were the subject of face-to-face conversations. Not online, but the phone was listening. I haven't had this happen to me. Yet. Kirk B. I've been testing this by including things I never talk about in my conversations, just for fun. So far I can confirm that my fancy Android phone does not appear to be listening. If it is, it's not suggesting. Maybe it's speechless. But, there's several guys in dark suits who's been following me around......

10-07-2019, 03:03 PM - 2 Likes	#15
Serkevan Site Supporter Join Date: May 2019 Photos: Albums Posts: 5,976	Lately I have been trying to distance myself from google as much as possible: I browse on Firefox running NoScript (with most google-related things blocked) and uBlock, use DuckDuckGo as a search engine, have moved my main email over to ProtonMail (it's cool to have @pm.me as domain!). My phone has as many Google services as possible turned off, though it still runs Android; I'm pondering a Librem if the project truly takes off but it's outrageously expensive... What I haven't been able to substitute is Youtube (uBlock helps, though) and Google Maps, but I never turn on location on my phone unless I'm going home at night by bike or such and want my girlfriend to live track me for added safety. Unfortunately, while Google has done, in their earlier years, a lot for the Internet and communications in general, they have shifted quite dramatically into something very closely resembling a cyberpunk-esque megacorp. I can't say I like that. Google Home? I am not sure if I am more creeped out by Google or Amazon having their microphones at home. I am not sure Google actually honours this, but at least I don't really get a lot of targeted notifications... ---------- Post added 10-07-19 at 03:04 PM ---------- Originally posted by tokyoscape We don't have to be paranoid over this, just beware so we can find ways to protect our right to privacy. Things like what you link (it was something that was OBVIOUSLY going to happen at some point) make it clear that being paranoid is THE only way to protect our right to privacy. Well, it's not paranoia if the walls are actually listening, isn't it?