Google spy

[Odd-no-more]

I checked my Google time line and it had my trip to the dentist shown clearly on a map. OK I know they do this, but it had it marked as on a motorcycle, so how did they know that?

 

[XxAnthxX]

Did you not see the suspicious blacked out SUV following from a distance?

 

[Vipar]

Drone

 

[Odd-no-more]

I have been thinking, and I reckon their software could tell when I filtered past the standing traffic, and then moved faster than a push bike. It did give me a shock though.

 

[34127]

When I look at my local google street view I can see myself walking down the road.

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[pappajohn]

Nothing new than 4 years old on mine and of those shown the majority I've NEVER been near.

 

[Neil Bedwin]

My timeline for the year has me doing many miles on a motorbike.....don't own one, can't ride one, never ridden one! Must be mistaking my rapid cycling for a motorbike Well, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

 

[Coolcats]

It amazes me why people give google et.al all their data so easily. Personally I use safari or Firefox as a browser DuckDuckGo go as a search engine will not have a google account not even for you tube. It really is a dystopian technology.

You can see what ‘they’ already know about you and where you go, imagine linking your health to insurance companies (do you go to the gym regularly take regular walks, how often do you go to a pub etc, how fast do you drive how useful that data would be to insurance companies.

Am I being paranoid? Probably not, why else would a big organisation collect so much data it’s certainly not a benign activity.

 

[Richard n Ann]

When going round corners on a bike the phone leans over. There are gyroscopes in it that can sense the tilt.

 

[DBK]

The most useful feature for me is the way Google links photos I take with the place they were taken. They do this by connecting the time the photo was taken with the location the phone provides. All my photos are stored in the Google cloud and I can search them by place name.

For example, I was watching the Scenic Railway Journeys program last night, which was about Sicily, and it mentioned Ragusa. Searching in Google Photos for Ragusa throws up our visit there and the photos I took. And these are photos taken by my camera not the phone, although it would have included any if I had. It basically catalogues my photos automatically and is very useful. The privacy side doesn't bother me one jot.

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[sciac2001]

Silicon Valley increasing control over us all.

Along with the nicer things of their tech - as per DBK above - comes the spying when we do not want to be spied, the specific targeting of our personal preferences and much more disturbing, the censorship of free speech.

 

[chaser]

I know it's probably easy to get past it to someone who is determined, but saying insurance folks could use it falls down as they can't access it without your Google password.

 

[Lofty1]

Mine tells me where I am and when and where I left from, Alas it won't tell me what I came out for!

 

[kevenh]

And these are photos taken by my camera not the phone, although it would have included any if I had. It basically catalogues my photos automatically and is very useful.

Google (and others) can use AI on a photos content to match with known landmarks and time & date of the picture if there’s a track of the journey.
Scary but interesting.
My employer facilitates Sky using live face recognition on video feeds - Sky used it for one of the recent royal weddings. I think it freaked people out with the legalities and people’s anonymity. Not seen it used publicly since.

edit: here’s a pre-wedding article about Sky

 

[SpeedyDux]

Google doesn't always get it right. The other day it asked me to rate a shop that I had only walked past without entering.

I do find this excessive corporate surveillance both intrusive and disturbing.

The energy consumed by the server farms is also bad for the environment yet they get away with it. Not sure if this is true but I read that 40% of Ireland's electricity is used for server farms of corporations that use Ireland as a tax haven. Crazy.

Where are Extinction Rebellion when you want them?

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[Clipgate]

If you think Google record your every move, you cannot imagine what data our agencies collect.
Turning off the GPS on your mobile I am told does not stop data collection.
I remember using data to verify locations, before even more accurate GPS recording.
Even a simple mobile with no GPS can triangulate your position, a little less accurate but gives a reasonable picture of your activities, even to the extent of time in one location.
I see people here concerned about recording time in the Schengen area, forget passport scan and record, your mobile will confirm and record your exit and entry too.

 

[andyjc]

I live next door to a pub so it frequently asks me how I rate the Coach & Horses. This is especially irritating as it's not bright enough to realise the pub is closed due to corinavirus!