re: iOS/Android blended family

Having second thoughts about switching to Android after reading about privacy issues with Google and seeing Apples stated privacy policy.

Is that silly?

You are going to start a shite storm with this post haha.

I think it depends on what your personal preference is. You have to first realize that Google is a services and advertising company, and apple is a hardware company.

Google makes money by people using it's services and selling ad space. Apple makes money by selling phones. The trade off, is that Google's services are generally better, and the machine learning that Google does allows things like the Google assistant to be light years better than Siri.

For me personally, I enjoy that Google's services are able to make my life easier by using the Google assistant to complete tasks for me. Others will disagree, and say that they prefer privacy. The truth is, if you are that concerned over privacy, you have no business owning a smartphone at all, as they all can be accessed. Just look at how many iCloud hacks there are.

Now the cool talking point is for people to say that Google is selling your data, but that is completely false. What Google does, is match ads to potential users. The companies buying the ad space do not know anything at all about you.

For example, if I am looking at fishing lures, and Bass pro wants to advertise on Google chrome, they will match us together, but Bass pro will not know a thing about me. (Hope that made sense)

Now the real tricky part is that this is not Android dependent, if you use chrome on an iPhone you are subjected to the same issues. Same goes for every Google service. You can easily opt out of all of this tracking on an Android also, but again, that limits the experience and in my opinion defeats the purpose of a smartphone

I'm not saying it is black and white. I'm saying if you are that concerned with privacy. Not referencing the casual user.

Point is, if your information is on anything digital, it can be accessed. So in that case, if you are that concerned about privacy, you shouldn't own a smartphone.

I have referenced it before, but I always think about my father in law. He thinks it is crazy that we have Google homes in our house "because they are listening to you". So when ever I go over to his house and walk by his iPad, I make sure to let out a "hey Siri"

Great post, thanks

quote:

---

Now the real tricky part is that this is not Android dependent, if you use chrome on an iPhone you are subjected to the same issues. Same goes for every Google service. You can easily opt out of all of this tracking on an Android also, but again, that limits the experience and in my opinion defeats the purpose of a smartphone

---

I definitely use google maps and Chrome, so I guess they know everything about me already.

Personally I really like what the EU is doing with data protection. You still get the services, but now you are backing the providers of those services into a corner with data usage restrictions. We have benefitted some for their effort in the States by them outing offenders.

quote:

---

The problem is everyone should be that concerned with privacy and demand more action on it

---

I agree to an extent, but it is a balance between companies offering excellent services that are intuitive for free (or the price of your data), and keeping your privacy. There is a reason why so many prefer Google maps and Waze over apple maps, and Google can not do what they have done with mapping without user data to build their mapping. This goes for most services out there

And I just do not know what action could even be taken at this point.

quote:

---

Can you explain alittle more what the EU is doing? I am not really familiar

---

That would take a lot more explaining than I care to do here, look up the stuff on GDPR and such. It's supposed to give more consent to the individual about how their data is used. It overreaches a lot like with a lot of EU stuff, but I find it better than the big fat nothing burger we are doing here.

Any person can request all personal data that a company has on them and how it is being used. Big fines for a company that isn't compliant.

So looking into it does seem like some of that stuff is trickling down from the EU slowly. Google has actually started to make some of its data collection stuff on Android opt in instead of opt out which I think is the smartest move for them. They have also made it easier to opt out of anything you are currently in like targeted ads.

I did also read that as far as history goes it is a fairly simple process to get all of your data history. They email you a zip file and then you can request for it all to be deleted.

Cool will have to check it out, yeah they need to do a better job of killing background apps. I make sure to turn on everything to only while using on location tracking. Need something similar for background usage.

I use Textra as well but iPhone videos that come in are hot garbage