this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Privacy

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I created a google takeout and in that zip file I found some files containing a ton of data about me. It has logged every single page I visited while using the google search engine and chrome browser. It even logged every single time I opened an app on my old android phone. It even has VOICE RECORDINGS of me and a log of every time I used google assistant. This is just some of the data and I'm very sure there is even more data they have.

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 8 months ago

How do you think they are able to pay the bills of those expensive af services for free?

[–] [email protected] 86 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Fortunately you can degoogle many Android phones. And stop using big tech products in general. They have a lot of issues, not only a complete lack of privacy

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (14 children)

I might be looking into a new phone soon, what do you suggest?

[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago (9 children)

A pixel, if you buy into GrapheneOS being the pinnacle of security. Otherwise, anything with an unlockable bootloader and LineagOS support.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Graphene gang representing

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (8 children)

Ironically enough, Google Pixels are great phones if you need to de-google with GrapheneOS.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (17 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

If you want a normie phone that you can install a privacy-focused OS on, Google Pixel is a surprisingly good option. Just take a look at the LineageOS's and GrapheneOS's officially supported devices lists before purchasing a specific model. You can also choose Xiaomi or Motorola but you won't be able to lock the bootloader with a custom OS installed on that phones which can create some vulnerabilities. If you want to run Linux on your phone though, you either need a PinePhone or a OnePlus 6 series

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Look for DivestOS supported devices. What I cannot recommend is Fairphone. Several Hardware issues, support refuses to accept them. The support in general is horrible.

Kind regards
A Fairphone 4 user with /e/OS

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

They may even save every Google meet meeting for all we know. They may train their AI on how our faces look in meetings.

Nothing is too creepy for Google.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What's even scarier is that takeout is probably only the data they want you to see, or are legally obliged to share.

I would be willing to wager they have lots more on you that you're not even aware of.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 8 months ago (2 children)

don't forget if you have location enabled in your phone it tracks every single place you've been to

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It does that even if you turn it off. The setting just controls location access by third party apps.

Lineage os and F-droid is the better solution. It has the advantage of being bloat free as well

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (7 children)

You can also use GPS location without any google services running, it just takes a bit longer to find your position when you first connect. OsmAnd or Organic maps from f-droid, which are actually superior apps to google maps in a lot of ways, particularly OsmAnd.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

And it can be very wrong about those locations, too. For better or worse, idk. My old phone showed me going to completely different cities on the other side of my state when I went to the corner store.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

The worst part, is even when you try to avoid, you cant.

You send an email from proton, to mostly gmail account, now they have your email.

You mean your business, the guy next to you talk to google home, and you get recorded.

Every time I 'm forced to use a google account by some 3rd party, I get a panic attack from how predatory it is to get you to give them your data, you cant log out without 4 clic, it is a true dystopia we let that compagny rule our world

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

But but but you should pay for YouTube!

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago (8 children)

Just imagine what Microsoft and Apple are getting thru telemetry

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (16 children)

You do realize that Google is far worse than Apple and Microsoft combined right?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Not really although its hard to objectively prove anything

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[–] tyler 9 points 8 months ago (15 children)

Fucking whataboutism. Apple and Microsoft aren’t ad companies. They’re hardware and software companies. They don’t have to collect data on you to literally make any money, Google does. If Google doesn’t track everything you do they’re incapable of making money. The same is absolutely not true for ms and Apple.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Friends don't let friends use Google and meta. show those you care about what you have discovered. don't lecture them just make them aware, share your findings.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago (17 children)

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's the same with all the big data companies. Everything you type, say or do gets logged and never deleted.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

It could be they are collecting and hiding the data, but what they publicly disclose they have certainly varies. My de-google-fication really started when I used google takeout (like the OP here). Excluding things I wanted backed up (e.g. photos), Google still had more than a GB of textual data (this was 7 years ago or so—my memory may be wrong). I use Apple a lot so I went to their “takeout” page. They had a few MB of data pretty much all of which I considered innocuous. I don’t think they are equivalent.

I do agree Facebook probably collects as much data as Google, but I gave that up long ago.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (3 children)

while, yes, regardless of your privacy settings google still collects a sickening amount of data on you, much of these things (like voice recordings and location history) can be managed and disabled in the settings. if you wish to go further, grapheneos removes A LOT of tracking potential.

these should be opt in features, but one can opt out of much of them.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Today you learned a valuable lesson:

When an online service is free it generally means you're the product.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

Today companies will snoop your info even if you pay 1000s for a device.

Why wouldn't they, obviously no one cares

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago

Yeah, anyone who's never done this really should. It's eye-opening to see it go from a theoretical discussion to "HOLY SHIT THEY HAVE ALL MY DATA" in real-time.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Have you been under a rock?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago

I'm really not a fan of such gatekeeping rhetoric.

Congrats on already knowing stuff, I guess. The vast majority of people don't have the ability, will or exposure to engage with most technical stuff, especially since the concept of (digital) privacy still is surprisingly controversial.

We all benefit from more people caring about privacy. Comments like yours achieve the exact opposite and don't provide any value at all to the conversation.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

takeout.google.com

Everything they have on you.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 8 months ago

Everything they're willing to tell you they have on you.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

It’s Google’s name for a service that lets you download all the data Google has on your account. If you google google takeout it should get you to the page.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I really don't understand why you find this surprising. We're you expecting like...42% of all that to be saved?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, it wasn't something most of us were thinking about in the early 2000's

Then Google became ubiquitous, to the point where we didn't question it. Like cell service

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Google has a data privacy setting that lets you delete your data history at some intervals. The lowest is 3 months last I checked. Make sure to use it.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

How do you do this?

I have a few dozen google accounts, but most of them I'm locked out of. Even if I enter the correct username and password on the first try, google says I can't login because I never associated a phone number to the account.

How can I get this data?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (4 children)

I rarely interact in any meaningful way with anything in Google's ecosystem these days. I'm still tied by a couple little whispy threads, but nothing serious. I'm running GrapheneOS with no Google apps, switched my email to Proton, switched to Firefox, search with Brave, use a NAS for cloud storage, and browse YouTube anonymously with NewPipe. Occasionally I'll get an email on one of my old Gmail addresses, but other than that I feel like I've sufficiently deGoogled enough to feel safe.

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