this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
141 points (95.5% liked)
Privacy
32456 readers
359 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Imagine that you buy a phone from Google's Google Fi MVNO cellular service. You order a phone and it's to be delivered. The phone was part of a promotion for signing up. You paid a reduced rate for it because you are a new customer. Then the phone is stolen out of the package while in the custody of the shipping company. You make a complaint to Google because the phone never arrived and you can't activate service and fullfill your end of the bargain without it. They say that it's the responsibility of the shipper. You then make a complaint with the shipper who claims that although they may be at fault (not likely that they admit that), they are not on the hook for reimbursement. That you must contact Google. You go back to Google. They "escalate" your case to the next tier of customer support. You wait months. They charge you the full cost of the phone even though you never received it. They do this because per the terms of your agreement with them you did not activate service with the phone and maintain that service for the specified period of time and within a specified time limit. You contact your credit card company. They offer you the option of doing a charge back.
Google doesn't like that you charged back. Now your entire personal and professional google accounts and anything linked to them are gone. They nuked them. There is no customer service to contact to review what's happened. You can't get into company email. You can't get into private email. You can't get 2fa codes sent to you via email for any of your bank or other web based accounts linked to that email. Anything and everything in Google drive? Gone. Your family photos? Gone. If you use an android phone you are no longer logged into a Google account rendering your phone only partially functional. They can't serve you with personalised ads anymore. But on the other hand you also have no recourse other than hiring a lawyer (which may be exceptionally cost prohibitive) to get revenge porn of you removed from Google search results in compliance with right to be forgotten laws and anti-revenge porn laws. Meanwhile your data still allows them to target other people you interact with. They get ads for things like the same toothpaste that was on your shopping list in Google Keep. Movies you like. Shows you've purchased. That data you gave them free and clear can still be used by other people and agencies to track you. Your employment history. Your rental history. Whether you've ever been evicted.
They won't sell it. But they'll still use it. And you will have less avenues to delete it or otherwise change it.
What an imagination you have there. Wow.
Google actually has been caught nuking accounts that have done charge backs. Could you make a new account? Yeah. Maybe. But would you?