• 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      I have all my histories turned off and once a year or so I go in and make sure they haven’t added anything new for me to turn off.

      Now the question is, are they really not collecting my data or have I just made it so I can’t see what they have on me?

      • Randelung@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        They collected incognito session info, whose entire existence was ‘not keeping a history’, so almost 100% the latter.

        • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          It just not stores the session >_> Nothing was ever fully incognito about it beyond the icon looking like a spy.
          Also it’s made by Google. Not much of a surprise.

          Now for Firefoy I would be interested.

  • Nommer@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Alternative title: People creeped out after woman discovers what tech literate people have been saying to do for a decade

    • rar@discuss.online
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      5 months ago

      Same can be said for any field, academic or not. For example, it won’t do any good to dismiss cancer awareness campaigns because doctors have been saying about it for decades. It’s for the public’s benefit, and everyone deserves privacy.

      • gjghkk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        In my country, we had been saying that the government was doing business with Israel, even though they were condemning on every public forum. It took only 1 journalist until the whole public saw the hypocrisy. 1 journalist against all TV channels and internet trolls. (Here 95% of all TV channels are sponsored by government).

        I remember telling this years ago, yet this man, who also had to leave the country for his other journalist work said it at the right time with the right tools.

        So, what I get this is, don’t stop telling the truth. Even though nobody listens now, people will when the right time comes.

        • refalo@programming.dev
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          5 months ago

          what’s wrong with doing business with Israel? I believe most countries do so… and they have some of the smartest engineers in the world.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            In case you somehow missed the news: they’re currently killing lots of innocent people in Gaza. Not doing business w/ Israel puts pressure on the Israeli government to stop doing that.

              • gjghkk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                5 months ago

                I actually don’t think it works. It’s better if we retaliate in the same way Israel does.

                What 7 October taught is the hypocrisy of our leaders. I am specifically talking about Muslim leaders and Erdogan, but in general I think this is also true.

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        There isn’t a soul in your country that isnt aware cancer exists.

  • Account_93@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Those same people will be shocked when their smart assistant has saved all past recordings of their requests. Lmfao

    Then again, This article is on one of the cancers of the internet “unilad”.

  • spizzat2@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    To save you some time, it’s Google’s Ad Center, which the article doesn’t even link to, as far as I can tell.

    I’m not creeped out by any of the info I found in mine, but I am annoyed. “Yes, Google, I searched for [random thing] twice because I needed to know a little more information. That time has passed because I bought it or the event has passed or whatever. Reminding me about it just makes it weird.”

  • penquin@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    I’ve had mine turned off for years, but it doesn’t really matter, Google and all these tech giants will still collect whatever info they want regardless.

  • kennebel@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    some people might like that it helps them get targeted ads - after all, the tech has crunched all the data, and can advertise things to you that you might actually want.

    Hahahahaha Next best thing to ad blocking, is generic ads that you don’t care about and can ignore more easily, and you know that the company is getting paid less for those ads showing.

  • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Well I had it disabled on my main account, but to be sure I checked my other accounts, which weren’t disabled. Turns out Google thinks I’m a high income female who works at a large real estate company. Kind of tempted to visit a bunch of weird sites to poison their data more

    • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I checked my throwaway/spam account. Apparently, I’m a high-wage tech employee at a large company, and I’m also a homeowner.

      Damn, they think too highly of me.

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    What I want to know is why when I’m talking to my wife in the car about buying new shoes do I get a YouTube ad that evening about new shoes, when I never got that kind of ad before.

    Are our phones listening to us while we talk in the car, and then ads are generated from that?

    I’d really like to know the answer to that question.

    Edit: fixed typo, shoes, not shows.

    Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I highly doubt phones are always listening.

        But, they already are.

        Some people like the option where they just say “Hey Google” (or whatever) and then the phone talks back to them, so they’re always listening so they can hear that initiation sequence. This old article from Vice describes what I’m speaking of.

        Personally I’d like the ability to turn that feature off, so I have to explicitly enable the microphone to have Google listen to what I’m saying.

        Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

              • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                You don’t know the difference between someone saying a microphone is always on (hot) for processing a wake word vs saying the microphone is always on (hot) for data collection.

                No, I’m very aware of the distinction, my career was as a computer programmer, and have worked with hardware as well, and I’m very aware of technology, and have an Android certification.

                You were just assuming one thing that I was saying, when I was actually saying a general thing.

                The mic is hot by default. It has to listen for the activation sequence.

                What I’m suggesting is that while that mic is hot it’s also gathering other data and storing it locally, and then it sends it off in a batch with other traffic later on, so it’s not detectable from someone who’s monitoring network traffic from the device.

                Temporally, you’re assuming that all eavesdropping is transmitted in real time, where I am not.

                Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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      5 months ago

      I am skeptical about listening not only because it was not proven, but also because almost the exact same result is achievable via much, much simpler and omnipresent means.

        • SapientLasagna@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          And their conclusion was completely wrong.

          Because unless you’re a journalist, a lawyer, or have some kind of role with sensitive information, the access of your data is only really going to advertisers. If you’re like everyone else, living a really normal life, and talking to your friends about flying to Japan, then it’s really not that different to advertisers looking at your browsing history.

          These days, a private conversation about pregnancy, abortion, voting, or your feelings about geopolitical stuff like Gaza or Ukraine could absolutely be used against you, depending on where you live.