If I disable most of Google's privacy settings on Android - is the big G still spying?

[anon(50597)]

I agree 100%. The amount of data google collects is staggering, and besides google has already shown itself to be irresponsible with the power it already has by abusing its monopoly.

If you use google services, then google knows your phone calls, texts, location, wifi spots, work place, house, shopping habits, websites you visit, apps you buy, how much time you spend per app, when you're awake, what you search for, what videos you watch...even the content of your phone calls if you use google voice...pretty much every facet of your life. And to take all that information and just sell it to others for a profit is just disgusting.

And just for the record, this data is not anonymous and is hackable. I remember reading articles about how google engineers have been in trouble for doing things like reading emails, going through chat transcriptions and stalking kids.

Edit: As an example for the last paragraph, I looked up the name of one such individual who got caught, his name was 'David Barksdale'

If I understand correctly, they do no “just take that information and sell it to make a profit”, but I could be wrong. They direct advertising, from companies wanting to sell “x” to people who are interested in “x”. If you answer that advertisement, sure, they now know who you are but you accept that. If you do not answer the advertisement, that company has no clue who you are.
Google does not sell mailing lists, your information is more valuable to them than that because only they know it. If they gave your information away to everyone, they would be out of business in a week. Google would cease to be valuable.

 

[Guytronic]

I think carriers make active mobile numbers freely available for call spammers to harvest. To me call spamming is way worse than any other privacy concern.
It's turned the telephone into a weapon for criminals.

 

[tgp]

I think carriers make active mobile numbers freely available for call spammers to harvest. To me call spamming is way worse than any other privacy concern.
It's turned the telephone into a weapon for criminals.

Lists like that are widely available. You can purchase lists of names and phone numbers for a demographic you specify. Businesses buy them all the time for marketing purposes.

 

[RumoredNow]

I think carriers make active mobile numbers freely available for call spammers to harvest. To me call spamming is way worse than any other privacy concern.
It's turned the telephone into a weapon for criminals.

They have bots autodialing every number combination or off of curated lists. They've been doing this since the 1990's. Cloud/computing power has advanced so much that a 10 year old could do it from his tablet most likely.

I've been called 1827 times (slight exaggeration) to take advantage of student loan forgiveness programs. I have no such loans and never have. It's obviously random dial or from a general list of numbers. I've also won a free Bahamas cruise once a week from the same "radio station giveaway program" several times a week for months now. Every time I block the number, they call me from another. From either scam. Bots behave this way.

Sure enough there are people connected to it somewhere. I can't get rid of the cruise scam entirely because the bot calls and hangs up as soon as the phone rings. If you call back it goes to a recorded message saying I've won a free cruise from hot 100 or some smack and to go to a web site to register. Block the number and a new one calls with the same M.O.. I got rid of the student loan scammers though, despite the shifting numbers showing in caller ID. I'd press the number to speak to a "representative' each time and then cuss them out as fast, loud and crudely as possible until they hang up on me. Eventually they blocked their bot from dialing me.

All this started since a casual acquaintance installed a bad app on his Android that was supposed to be a better contacts/call manager/caller ID app than stock. It started sending me spam texts to install the app until I advised him to uninstall it. He did, but the spam calls started right afterwards (i.e.: right after it could no longer use his SMS to try and lure others into the circle). Obviously it had permission to read his contacts/use phone/SMS/etc.

My wife is on the same carrier as I am and she isn't having this problem. It's not the carriers.


PS: for @Wolfjt this guy got the app off of Google Play. Verified by talking to him and by the links it sent me which clearly went to Play (which was ironic [or moronic] as I was on a Windows Phone at the time. See how safe it is to only use Play? Me thinks you protest too much on this point.

 

[Wevenhuis]

Yes. Likely it is collecting some basic telemetry data. Microsoft does it too.

 

[Wolfjt]

They have bots autodialing every number combination or off of curated lists. They've been doing this since the 1990's. Cloud/computing power has advanced so much that a 10 year old could do it from his tablet most likely.

I've been called 1827 times (slight exaggeration) to take advantage of student loan forgiveness programs. I have no such loans and never have. It's obviously random dial or from a general list of numbers. I've also won a free Bahamas cruise once a week from the same "radio station giveaway program" several times a week for months now. Every time I block the number, they call me from another. From either scam. Bots behave this way.

Sure enough there are people connected to it somewhere. I can't get rid of the cruise scam entirely because the bot calls and hangs up as soon as the phone rings. If you call back it goes to a recorded message saying I've won a free cruise from hot 100 or some smack and to go to a web site to register. Block the number and a new one calls with the same M.O.. I got rid of the student loan scammers though, despite the shifting numbers showing in caller ID. I'd press the number to speak to a "representative' each time and then cuss them out as fast, loud and crudely as possible until they hang up on me. Eventually they blocked their bot from dialing me.

All this started since a casual acquaintance installed a bad app on his Android that was supposed to be a better contacts/call manager/caller ID app than stock. It started sending me spam texts to install the app until I advised him to uninstall it. He did, but the spam calls started right afterwards (i.e.: right after it could no longer use his SMS to try and lure others into the circle). Obviously it had permission to read his contacts/use phone/SMS/etc.

My wife is on the same carrier as I am and she isn't having this problem. It's not the carriers.


PS: for @Wolfjt this guy got the app off of Google Play. Verified by talking to him and by the links it sent me which clearly went to Play (which was ironic [or moronic] as I was on a Windows Phone at the time. See how safe it is to only use Play? Me thinks you protest too much on this point.

This article sums it up. https://www.wired.com/2016/12/never-ever-ever-download-android-apps-outside-google-play/

 

[RumoredNow]

This article sums it up. https://www.wired.com/2016/12/never-ever-ever-download-android-apps-outside-google-play/

Totally disregards my point; but of course you once again promote your narrative that "if you stick to Google Play everything is...

"​

 

[nate0]

Totally disregards my point; but of course you once again promote your narrative that "if you stick to Google Play everything is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmBXEZEYtg "​

Did you have to post the whole song?!

 

[RumoredNow]

Did you have to post the whole song?!

It's an ear worm, ain't it? :winktongue:

 

[nate0]

It's an ear worm, ain't it? :winktongue:

Ya those kinds of worms can actually be more infectious...

 

[anon(50597)]

Totally disregards my point; but of course you once again promote your narrative that "if you stick to Google Play everything is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmBXEZEYtg "​

I don’t think anyone is saying it’s perfect (what is?) but it certainly cuts down on your chances. No doubt about that.

 

[Wolfjt]

Totally disregards my point; but of course you once again promote your narrative that "if you stick to Google Play everything is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmBXEZEYtg "​

Obviously it's not just my point of view. So, you can disregard it, no sweat of my nose.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

Call me crazy, but I'm all in with Google services. I don't mind at all that they profit off of the data they collect on me. If you don't like that aspect of using an Android device, that's fine. There are other options. And I totally understand other people's concerns. But, if you want to use a high end Android phone like it's supposed to be used, you most likely need to give in to their way of doing things. Google has developed an absolutely amazing and lucrative business model, regardless if anyone agrees with it or not. It's proven to be a worthy endeavor for them. Great for them. Great for me too, because I get to use all sorts of cool devices. Really wish MS would innovate on the scale and the speed that Google does.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

And holy cow...that song up above is truly special.

 

[Guytronic]

There's an Android app named "Spy Monitor" that makes it easy to see which apps on my phone are hitting servers around the globe.
Sometimes I see multiple traces to Mountain View CA where google lives.
Something that worries me is my Mate 9 connects to a location in Hong Kong called China Network Services. Not sure who that is...might be Huawei I'm thinking.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

There's an Android app named "Spy Monitor" that makes it easy to see which apps on my phone are hitting servers around the globe.
Sometimes I see multiple traces to Mountain View CA where google lives.
Something that worries me is my Mate 9 connects to a location in Hong Kong called China Network Services. Not sure who that is...might be Huawei I'm thinking.
//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171118/848006ca33f9c0eae13717b4a790f821.jpg

Thanks. Downloading now.

 

[RumoredNow]

Obviously it's not just my point of view. So, you can disregard it, no sweat of my nose.

If you disregard what I write, then why quote me?

See how that works? When I quote you (or throw you an @mention) I'm addressing your point. Yet you feel compelled to quote others while ignoring the very arguments you quote. That's intellectual bankruptcy. Simple repetition of your view without actually addressing the counterclaim does not advance a conversation or refute the counterclaim.

It's like scoring a goal and after the opponent scores a goal wanting the referee to credit your first goal all over again without running any plays.

 

[anon(50597)]

So back on topic.....

 

[Umbrokhan]

Tor, Brave browser and Firefox are best for privacy.
use DuckDuckGo search engine, use VPN.
Use ios, iPhone for more privacy. (DuckDuckGo Recommends iOS over Android for More Privacy in Recent Reddit).

The reality is, it's very hard to escape.

Google is now tracking you on 76% of websites, with Facebook lurking on about a quarter. The data they collect as you browse the web, combined with your search history, likes, and other information, leads to huge personal profiles that are used to target invasive ads at you across the Internet.

The most popular alternative to Android is of course iOS, which offers easy device encryption and encrypted messaging via iMessage by default.