Google worse than Facebook regarding Privacy

[KBD47]

Who Has More of Your Personal Information?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-has-mo ... 1524398401


I think Google sometimes gets a pass regarding privacy from the Linux community because Google has often been friendly toward Linux. But the bigger Google/Alphabet gets the more of your privacy they swallow up.

[Pierre]

well - - that Link has a PayWall on it.

but, the first paragraph is right - - beware of Google as well as of FaceBook.

[KBD47]

well - - that Link has a PayWall on it.

but, the first paragraph is right - - beware of Google as well as of FaceBook.

My apologies. I didn't see a paywall. maybe my ad-blocker got me past it.
For some reason people seem to want to give Google a pass, but they are worse than Facebook.

[Sir Charles]

Google Tracks So Much Data It Fills 23,000 Pages In 15 Days — Enough For A 7’9″ Pile

[Schultz]

I don't trust either one equally. Unfortunately, my wife uses Facebook.

[trytip]

i agree, suggesting privacy is bad somewhere and posting a link to a site full of trackers and counters is counter productive. bbc.com is likewise bad they don't even use https pcmag.com is also full of crap.

[KBD47]

I use Ublock Origin and Privacy Badger along with Https Everywhere on Firefox. I try to eliminate the junk wherever I can. Gmail is hard to get away from because even if you don't use it, someone you know probably does and your replies end up on Google servers anyway. But switching search engines is easy, as well as using any browser other than Google Chrome. But if you use Android for mobile it is very hard to get out of Google's info gathering. Still, you can go into privacy settings at Google and try to shut it down as much as possible.

[sarge816]

But if you use Android for mobile it is very hard to get out of Google's info gathering. Still, you can go into privacy settings at Google and try to shut it down as much as possible.

Truth, and I've spent the last year and a half experimenting with going "Google-Free" on my Android Moto G initially and now Moto G4. It's not easy, the phone has to be bootloader unlocked and rooted and you have to really, really want to be rid of Google because so much in the Android world depends upon it. For example, I uninstalled everything Google, including Play Store, Play Services, Framework, EVERYTHING. Pretty much running as close to AOSP ROM as possible on the stock 7.0. There are so many apps that will absolutely refuse to run without Play Services, even down to the standard keyboard. Ofcourse, the easy way would be just to load a custom ROM but that has many problems of it's own.

The good news is that some apps WILL run without Google and you can find alternatives for those that won't. I used Amazon Appstore (some apps still require Google, believe it or not) and also F-Droid, an open source app store. Battery life on my phones nearly doubled without all that tracking BS churning in the background and they are far more responsive. If anyone out there is actually interested in doing this I'll post more details about the process and open source apps I used to replace Google but suffice it to say it can be done, it just takes work and compromise.

And no, I do not use Facebook either.

[Portreve]

I would switch away from Android in a second if I realistically could, but WhatsApp, Google Docs, Calendar, and driving just aren't available any other way (particularly with the integration functionality) so I'm kind of stuck.

My next laptop, however, will possibly be a Purism unit.

[BigEasy]

From the article:

Take weekends into considering and Google has an eye on your workouts, the restaurants you frequent, where do you shop, and places you hang out. Whenever I visit someplace, it doesn’t take much time to get notifications from Google.

Total BS for me. I constantly use Google as serch engine, have Android smartfone and never seen something like this. Question:what I doing wrong, or mabe I something doing right?

[KBD47]

Truth, and I've spent the last year and a half experimenting with going "Google-Free" on my Android Moto G initially and now Moto G4. It's not easy, the phone has to be bootloader unlocked and rooted and you have to really, really want to be rid of Google because so much in the Android world depends upon it. For example, I uninstalled everything Google, including Play Store, Play Services, Framework, EVERYTHING. Pretty much running as close to AOSP ROM as possible on the stock 7.0. There are so many apps that will absolutely refuse to run without Play Services, even down to the standard keyboard. Ofcourse, the easy way would be just to load a custom ROM but that has many problems of it's own.

The good news is that some apps WILL run without Google and you can find alternatives for those that won't. I used Amazon Appstore (some apps still require Google, believe it or not) and also F-Droid, an open source app store. Battery life on my phones nearly doubled without all that tracking BS churning in the background and they are far more responsive. If anyone out there is actually interested in doing this I'll post more details about the process and open source apps I used to replace Google but suffice it to say it can be done, it just takes work and compromise.

And no, I do not use Facebook either.

Good job on getting Google Free!
One thing that has helped me with my phone is to use it primarily as just a phone, and use a tablet or my laptop for actual computing. I have not got as far along as you, but I have gone through and removed or disabled much of the google stuff on my LG phone. Things like location services and google apps. I've replace Chrome--which takes up lots of storage space--with Firefox mobile and Startpage as the search engine for the rare times I need a browser. I also removed/disable Google itself from my phone, the phone search/Google Now program. For email, Protonmail and Tutanota are my primary email services on my phone so that Gmail rarely is used.The only other apps I use on my phone are weather, and music which I have on a microsd card.
I'm glad you mentioned Amazon. I have a 10" Amazon Fire tab that I use for video and reading and quick web searches. While Amazon I'm sure gathers info too, I highly doubt they do so on the scale of Google.
When an Android device is first set up Google asks for spying permission during the setup as well as to back up everything. I opt out of all that junk.
Again, great job getting Google free. We really need a Linux option for mobile that is a real option like Linux on the desktop.

[KBD47]

From the article:

Take weekends into considering and Google has an eye on your workouts, the restaurants you frequent, where do you shop, and places you hang out. Whenever I visit someplace, it doesn’t take much time to get notifications from Google.

Total BS for me. I constantly use Google as serch engine, have Android smartfone and never seen something like this. Question:what I doing wrong, or mabe I something doing right?

Do you keep location services off? I do and it helps.

[trytip]

if you still haven't DEACTIVATED ALL privacy in chrome settings you are sending all your data, how long you were there, how many times you visited and a graph of almost everything you do including what devices you connect to it ...
here should be your settings like so


here you can see everything you did


here you can see all devices connected to your computer past and present


this data is accumulated and stored in your profile and if you did not UN-tick "Automatically send" you can believe that google chrome have every single thing you did that day-week-month-year

you can open the chrome statistics page by typing chrome://about in address and you can check your chrome://site-engagement

[KBD47]

It is insane how much info Google collects. I figure Google knows more about most people than anyone but God.
People who use Google should also go under "My Account" and "Personal info & Privacy" "Go To My Activity" and drop down the window that says: control what activity gets saved..
Mine looks like this:
https://imgur.com/DQnOyZh

[trytip]

@KBD47
i did PAUSE my activity when i first got my gmail account but it's always a good idea to do a privacy check especially if you access google with an android sometimes these activities are turned on when you accept some new terms for a gps app https://myactivity.google.com/ it used to be much more confusing trying to use google maps on android and accepting that you turn on web history but you don't have to even though they make it harder to navigate if web history is off

and if you think using Firefox you get away from google type about:config in address and then search for "google"

[KBD47]

@KBD47
i did PAUSE my activity when i first got my gmail account but it's always a good idea to do a privacy check especially if you access google with an android sometimes these activities are turned on when you accept some new terms for a gps app https://myactivity.google.com/ it used to be much more confusing trying to use google maps on android and accepting that you turn on web history but you don't have to even though they make it harder to navigate if web history is off

and if you think using Firefox you get away from google type about:config in address and then search for "google"

Yes! Google will try to wear you down with requests to turn things on hoping you will give in. Even some apps like Accuweather will nag you to turn on gps when their app works perfectly fine without it.
Edit: the about:config search for Google in Firefox, isn't that mostly about security, and malware info they get from Google, or am I missing something? Thanks!