• MajorHavoc@programming.dev
      0·
      5 hours ago

      To the best of my knowledge - from a spirited but doomed attempt to read Google’s privacy policies - Google is committed to deleting your location history after sharing it with 10,000 or so vendor partners.

      Each of those vendor partners have pinky promised to comply with the rules outlined in the same privacy policy that I failed to read.

      For context, I’m not convinced any living person has read the entirety of Google’s privacy policies.

      Sadly, I’m quite confident - by the law of averages, human nature, and corporate corruption - that not all 10,000 trusted partners also deletes our location data history.

      Google does take privacy preserving steps to anonymyze what it shares.

      My education opinion is that no amount of attempted anonymozation is sufficient for the breadth, scope and quantity of data that Google collections.

      Shorter answer for you: yes, I believe that is a corporate lie. True only in technicality, but likely false by any reasonable persons expectation of what “delete” means.

  • Fusty@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 hours ago

    Ok, if you say so. I have IceCat and Librewolf on computer and FREE Browser on phone.

  • Brad Boimler@startrek.websiteEnglish
    0·
    7 hours ago

    Glad I don’t use any Google services and no apps on graphene OS then for my main computers I run Fedora silverblue with no Google once again.

    • Hector@lemmy.ca
      0·
      4 hours ago

      Yes but do you use PiHole and a solid VPN? Do you spoof your browser’s useragent? Even then, some would argue that you are not safe enough from Google’s prying eyes.

  • Hirom@beehaw.org
    0·
    9 hours ago

    You should know when and how you are being tracked, and you should have an easy-button to say thanks, but no thanks.

    Opt-out!? That’s not even close to being a good solution.

    Your data should not be collected, and you should not be tracked, UNLESS you agree yo it, ie opt-in, AND data collection is proportional/appropriate for the stated goal.

    That’s the spirit of GDPR.

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    0·
    9 hours ago

    TL;DR - Google makes (arguably insane) claim that it previously acted responsibly with regards to fingerprinting, and says they will begin acting irresponsibility with fingerprinting in February.

    Practical take-aways you probably already knew:

    • Today’s Google may do or say anything to make an extra nickel.
    • Today’s Google, while it employs some excellent privacy minded engineers, has not demonstrated an organizational commitment to user privacy.
    • It is probably wise to assume that the next serious date breach at Google will end marriages, get politicians arrested, get famous people canceled, fuel successful scammers, and have every other privacy impact you can imagine. We know the Google data pool is massive, and we have reason to believe it is incredibly personal. I’m aware that Google has anonymozation solutions in play, and I do not believe those solutions will be effective in a breach scenario.
    • The average person will likely be better off ten years from now if they interact less with Google services.
    • Reddfugee42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      7 hours ago

      Like Google maps:

      we anonymize your data before selling it. So it leaves your address every morning and goes to your office every morning but it’s completely anonymous.

      • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
        0·
        5 hours ago

        Exactly. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that Google’s clever privacy engineering isn’t enough to keep any of us safe.

        Google’s expectation that we be okay with these practices feels like corporate gaslighting, to me.