Comment on In North Korea, your phone secretly takes screenshots every 5 minutes for government surveillance
Zacryon@feddit.org 3 weeks agoI don’t have the time right now to addeess all of this, but:
Device interactions can be used to identify users, predict and manipulate their behaviour, contribute to further identification measures etc…
Furthermore my point was that there are many reasons to be cautious about any type of data collection and processing. Saying a specific type would be ridiculous undermines the possible dangers stemming from this. Therefore I wouldn’t plainly discard these concerns.
Even if, in this context, the transmission is not widely noticed, this doesn’t pose a universal guarantee, especially if this can be turned on on demand via backdoors, trojans or whatever. Even worse if the transmission can be hidden. (Less likely for very proficient users with extremely tight network monitoring & control, but that’s rarely the case.)
dev_null@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I absolutely agree with you. What I’m arguing against is baseless FUD without any specifics, any sources, any details, and making extraodinary claims without extraordinary evidence. I didn’t mean that the type of tracking is ridiculous, what I’m saying is ridiculous is the claim that Google is collecting the logs of EVERY touch on EVERY Android device. Does that claim even needs to be disproven?
Is that happening on Chinese Android phones without any Google services? Is that happening on AOSP phones without Google services? Is that happening on GrapheneOS, on other custom ROMs? Is that happening on my washing machine that for some reason runs Android? Is that baked into the system? From which Android version? In a particular system app? Where can I see these logs of all touches for myself?
It is patently obvious it cannot be happening on EVERY Android device. And I’d welcome evidence that it’s happening on even a SINGLE one. But I don’t see it. Because it’s made up hyperbole that’s poisoning the discussion of real tracking.
stebator@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I mentioned “Google Account Settings.” It is buried deep within submenus, so it is harder for regular users to find. However, you can find it by navigating through your Google account settings. Look for “Manage your data & privacy” > “History settings” > “Web & App Activity.”
dev_null@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Yeah, good stuff to tell people about!
But “Google is tracking your every touch on any Android device” is very different from “Google saves a history of your Google searches, and some major actions in some Google apps”.
stebator@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Have you checked what’s in it? Every action and touch is logged with all the details. Many people didn’t even guess that such actions could be logged. It’s like super spyware activity; it’s very creepy. “Google is tracking your every touch on any Android device” - is exactly what it does.
I first noticed this issue around 2015, and I have been trying to disable it on every Android device since then. However, it re-enables itself from time to time. I have a few Google accounts, and it must be disabled on each one.