• can@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          Do they sell data or sell services using data they collect? Honest question.

          • cynar@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I believe generally not. They sell the results of processed data, but the data is their golden goose. Why sell it wholesale, when you can charge for every use of it?

              • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
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                11 months ago

                I think they profile individuals and sell those profiles to ad companies, or in the case of google (ad company AND source of data) they pair ads to devices that fit a profile for the ad, like “rides a bike”, “risk averse”, “owns several cats” would be a profile for an ad selling cat bike seats that can hold 4 cats. That’s one way of using the data but there are many more, each more nefarious than the previous one, I guess culminating with Cambridge Analytica, especially their African endeavours.

                Btw is your username in reference to the band can?

                • can@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  Btw is your username in reference to the band can?

                  Yes it is! You’re only the second person to catch that in my 6 months here.

                • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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                  11 months ago

                  Google is the ad company. They don’t sell their primary business advantage to competitors.

                  CA bought data from Facebook, not Google.

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
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              11 months ago

              You’d be surprised how blatantly companies sell very personal data on a person. Google’s not going to do it openly because of pr, but a little subsidiary might

              Google probably isn’t going to sell everything, but it’s pretty likely there’s an offshoot company who will sell individual data.

              Their data is indeed their golden goose, but if they sell data for individuals at $300 or even $10 a pop, no one is going to get enough of their dataset to compete. They could even rate limit… Although if companies start to pay a billion or 10 to get full data dumps on a country, they might refocus on collection.

              After all, the data isn’t the true golden goose… It’s the golden eggs that they process and sell. It’s their ability to collect data that’s most valuable

                • theneverfox@pawb.social
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                  11 months ago

                  Here’s a list of examples where Google was examined by the courts The first search on the topic I’ve made

                  I don’t have a smoking gun for you, but I’ve got a dozen lawsuits saying that Google is lying about their assertion that they don’t sell user data

                  It’s not proof, but it’s very telling… I’m not saying that Google is directly selling user info, I’m saying that you can buy a list of credit card purchases made by any individual from Equifax for $200

                  Google isn’t selling information directly, but it sure as hell seems like they’re selling it indirectly

                  I haven’t looked into the issue deeply, but a casual search has only reinforced my opinion

        • PixxlMan@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          If anything they’d be buying since they’re the ones presenting ads… The whole data selling discussion online is always ridiculous. Who are these mystical data buyers ready to shell out billions for crappy “data” (does anyone participating in these discussions actually have a definition of what they think this ridiculously non specific ““data”” even is?) to present slightly better ads to users? Why would Google sell this data, shouldn’t they want to keep it to themselves?

          • Still@programming.dev
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            11 months ago

            selling your data refers to people buying ads and being like I want to show my dog food ad to 100,000 people who have a dog, and then Google only shows the ad to people who have a dog

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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              11 months ago

              That’s not what selling is. At all. Selling implies that any random person with money has access to data about you.

          • ButtDrugs@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            I know of a SaaS company that charges for their products to end users for a monthly fee. They make significantly more money selling the data of their users to 3rd parties than they do from subscriptions. Also, they figured this out after the fact, it wasn’t a core business component when they launched, but they still ended up raising the monthly fees due to “inflation”.

        • Auzy@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          Where do I go to buy a list of your location history off Google if it’s not true?

          • cumberboi (any/all)@beehaw.org
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            11 months ago

            Ok I just went down a very deep internet rabbit hole and went from believing google definitely sells data to it doesn’t sell data to it sells data (kinda). I’d recommend this article on RTB’s which explains how google advertisements actually work and how they leak your data (including your location).

            I’d also recommend watching the short video by Brave linked in the article - I didn’t understand the first part but the actual article explains it quite well, the end is the juicy part.

            Hope this helps!

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      Yeah if you attend a protest, go to church or vote leave your phone at home.

      Damn the world is getting crazy

            • Pilkins@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Look up “Kingsman church scene” or watch the movie. The scene is one of the best action scenes. Won’t necessarily spoil the movie but will give up some info.

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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          11 months ago

          The government will know you went to church. That’s pretty scary if you ask me. Church should be a safe place and having the government track you literally anywhere is concerning. Not to mention it opens up the door for people to be watched even more because they attended a church, mosque or something else.

          • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Technically speaking, anywhere that your face/body/gait can be seen/analysed, is where you will be tracked. At this point, the most prudent thing to do is to completely divorce your online identity from your physical self.

    • lemmyingly@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      For sure. It won’t be just Google authorities will be asking for your location data.

  • doctorcrimson
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    11 months ago

    I feel like the vast majority of headlines about this stuff could use clarification of “without warrant.”

    • random65837@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because that data tells them a lot less and requires a paper trail, which they don’t like.

      • SlopppyEngineer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        11 months ago

        Yes and no

        The Telco can say between what antennas you are. In urban areas with lots of antennas that’s still pretty accurate to almost say what building. Especially with 5G the number of antennas and accuracy go upto in some cases centimeter/inch accuracy so better than GPS. That last case would be in a mall with small antenna in each corridor.

        In rural areas with data switched off that’s more like somewhere in that square mile, way worse than GPS.

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    They can still access it locally, if Google wanted to protect people then they wouldn’t store location data

    • LucasBrandt@midwest.social
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      11 months ago

      You’ll still have the option of syncing it to Google’s servers, but it will be encrypted there so only you can view the contents, not Google

  • Beefalo@midwest.social
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    11 months ago

    Oh well, guess I’m still happy about this magic bag i got for going places I don’t want Google knowing about.