http://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-google-tracks-you/
QuoteHow Google Tracks You – And What You Can Do About It
Ever get the feeling you're being watched?
It's because you are – and for a rough proxy of this, use the browser extension Ghostery to see how many tracking scripts are watching you on a typical media site. (It doesn't work for everything, but a large media site like Vice.com has 50+ trackers, with 40 of them focused on advertising).
Capturing this user data helps sites sell their inventory to advertisers, but a select few companies operate in this capacity at a whole different level. Google and Facebook are the best of examples of this, as nearly $0.60 of every dollar spent on digital advertising goes to them. They both have the sophistication and ubiquity to capture incredible amounts of information about you.
GOOGLE IS EVERYWHERE
Today's infographic, which comes to us from Mylio, focuses in on Google in particular.
The search giant is massive in size, and there is a good chance you tap into Googleverse in some way:
Global market penetration for Android is 61-81%.
Google has a 78.8% market share for online search.
The company generates $67.4 billion in annual ad revenue.
Google processes two trillion searches annually.
30-50 million websites use Google Analytics to for tracking.
There are 700,000 apps available in the Google Play store.
82% of videos watched online come from YouTube.
In total, Google has at least 79 products and services.
According to Google's documentation, it uses these services to pull out information on the "things you do", "things you create", and the things that make you unique.
SEE WHAT GOOGLE COLLECTS
All in all, Google tracks your activity history, location history, audio history, and device history. It also builds a profile for you for serving ads – age, gender, location, income, and other demographic data.
You can view and actually download this history by using a tool called Google Takeout.
Many people understand that their data helps support advertising revenues on websites they enjoy. Others are rightly concerned about their privacy, and how their information is used. Regardless of which category you fit in, becoming informed about how privacy on the internet works will help you craft an experience that best fits your preferences.
(http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/how-google-tracks-you.png)
For me, it's a cost of doing business. If Google can provide me with a lot of cool stuff for free, especially maps with live traffic, I have no problem allowing them to track some of me. There is so much info out there, already. The genie is out of the bottle and he's not going back in.
I stopped using google as my main search engine years ago : https:duckduckgo.com <-instead
I also removed the Android OS from my phone and installed Linux instead
Ubuntu Touch: https://www.ubuntu.com/mobile (https://www.ubuntu.com/mobile)
no social media either - once FB wanted a copy of my license (or passport) and SS card to "verify" my identity, I tuned out. will be setting up a Diaspora pod soon, once I upgrade the service panel in my house to accommodate my equipment.
Diaspora: https://diasporafoundation.org/ (https://diasporafoundation.org/)
about the only thing google I use is youtube
I don't use Facebook or any Google services outside of youtube (the only service they provide that, in my opinion, has no legitimate competitor), but it isn't due to my concern for privacy (although I know I'm in the minority here). I think anti-trust issues are the much bigger problem coming from Alphabet.
Https://myactivity.google.com
Quote from: aldermanparklover on January 19, 2017, 02:47:09 PM
no social media either - once FB wanted a copy of my license (or passport) and SS card to "verify" my identity, I tuned out. will be setting up a Diaspora pod soon, once I upgrade the service panel in my house to accommodate my equipment.
If your account was locked, you can have them text a verification code to unlock.
Quote from: Jim on January 19, 2017, 03:39:48 PM
Quote from: aldermanparklover on January 19, 2017, 02:47:09 PM
no social media either - once FB wanted a copy of my license (or passport) and SS card to "verify" my identity, I tuned out. will be setting up a Diaspora pod soon, once I upgrade the service panel in my house to accommodate my equipment.
If your account was locked, you can have them text a verification code to unlock.
No, Facebook locked my account and demanded physical identification because they wanted to "confirm" I was a "real" person (regardless of how many years I had my account, or all the personal content I had uploaded, etc) - I think I was part of the conservative purging and oppression they were doing because of how pro Trump I am, and my wall feeds to the effect. I am also strongly anti gay marriage and FB doesn't tolerate anything against lgbtqxyz1234
Quote from: stephendare on January 19, 2017, 04:10:07 PM
Quote from: aldermanparklover on January 19, 2017, 03:54:52 PM
Quote from: Jim on January 19, 2017, 03:39:48 PM
Quote from: aldermanparklover on January 19, 2017, 02:47:09 PM
no social media either - once FB wanted a copy of my license (or passport) and SS card to "verify" my identity, I tuned out. will be setting up a Diaspora pod soon, once I upgrade the service panel in my house to accommodate my equipment.
If your account was locked, you can have them text a verification code to unlock.
No, Facebook locked my account and demanded physical identification because they wanted to "confirm" I was a "real" person (regardless of how many years I had my account, or all the personal content I had uploaded, etc) - I think I was part of the conservative purging and oppression they were doing because of how pro Trump I am, and my wall feeds to the effect. I am also strongly anti gay marriage and FB doesn't tolerate anything against lgbtqxyz1234
this, also, is non factual nonsense.
Ok smart guy, what was it then?
Because everything was copacetic until I start espousing my political beliefs - and don't get me wrong, there were a couple times where I got a TOS content warning for meme's I uploaded (one was even because a meme had the Sears logo in it) prior to so that's why I think my "extra" verification was politically motivated.
As a guy whose job it is to piece this data together and creates models to predict how you will be behave in the future, I can tell you without question that it's terrifying. We're taking a blind leap of faith that Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple in particular will never turn against us. The same apparatus that is used for marketing can be flipped at a moment's notice to squash political opposition.
One day, it's all going to blow up in our faces.
In the same way that Target can know that a girl is pregnant before her own parents do (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#16d1fa4234c6), Big Brother will one day know - if they don't already - what our political views are, who's in our social network, what our travel patterns are, where we work and shop, what we search for on the internet, where our kids go to school, etc. All of these things make up who we are.
And year-by-year, you see the big companies trojan horsing more of these platforms into our lives that could potentially be used against us in the future. Look at Google. First it was search. And then they made their way into our email boxes with Gmail. And our messaging with Hangouts and Allo. And then into our pockets with Android. And now they've infiltrated our homes and cars with always-listening Google Home/Assistant tech.
Brick by brick, we're building our own prisons every time we click that "Accept Terms of Use" checkbox.
It might make a few decades to roost, but the wrong person is going to be handed the keys to the data kingdom, and we're going to have no one to blame but ourselves.
Not a conspiracy theory, but an inevitability unless we drastically alter course as a society and start valuing privacy over convenience and guarding all of our data with the same vigilance that we guard our social security number or financial records with.
Quote from: aldermanparklover on January 19, 2017, 03:54:52 PM
I am also strongly anti gay marriage and FB doesn't tolerate anything against lgbtqxyz1234
AdAm AnD eVe, NoT aDaM aNd STEVE, amiright?
Quote from: KenFSU on January 19, 2017, 04:56:58 PM
Quote from: aldermanparklover on January 19, 2017, 03:54:52 PM
I am also strongly anti gay marriage and FB doesn't tolerate anything against lgbtqxyz1234
AdAm AnD eVe, NoT aDaM aNd STEVE, amiright?
As someone who spent 15 years as an IT consultant for businesses, I agree with your large post.
With respect to gay marriage, it was not the big brother's place (in America's case the courts; the branch furthest removed from the will of the people) to legally redefine marriage against the will of society and then thrust the new definition into government services in order to normalize the change. This is government working AGAINST the people.
What's next, redistributing newborn babies among parents to fight racism or a "cultural disadvantage"? There's no right that says a baby has to grow up with the people who birthed it or share genes with and in some cases the government removes children for the safety of the child - the government already looks at a child as a sovereign individual so the next step is just a clever legal argument and some money see it through.