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vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium Member
join:2005-03-01
Polar Park

vaxvms

Premium Member

Google Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

Every weekday at 3:40 p.m., the message popped up on my phone: 22 mins to Work. Google Now was doing its job. It was reminding me where to go and how to get there.

Google Now, in case you don’t know, is the flagship software embedded in the Android smartphone operating system (it’s also available on iOS); its aim is to seamlessly turn your device into a personal assistant that provides “just the right information at just the right time.” It achieves this by using Google’s devouring awareness of your calendar, inbox, and movements. It tracks and predicts your travel, your appointments, your web interests: it tracks you. That may make some people antsy. Not me. Let’s be real: Google knows so much about me already. Might as well put it to use. For me, Google Now is strange and neat and vital.

»www.theatlantic.com/tech ··· /378608/

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3

Premium Member

Not on my phone. I rooted the phone, and most of Google's crap, including Gmail is gone. I use a mail service to get mail via IMAP. I only use Gmail for those whom I suspect would sell addresses, don't use Google calendar, don't sync anything with Google. I use GSM, so I can store and edit my contacts myself.

This town has nothing I really want to buy or see, so I use Amazon or other online specialty stores. Telling me locations would infuriate me.

beck
MVM
join:2002-01-29
On The Road

beck to vaxvms

MVM

to vaxvms
I like Google Now. I root and rom my phones (except for my republic phone) but since I first got Google Now, I've put that on. I don't use it as much as I should.

It's not like everyone doesn't know everything already. There is no privacy.

el_huason
@108.38.68.x

2 recommendations

el_huason to vaxvms

Anon

to vaxvms
I would never allow any entity or device take control of my life like this. What happened to keeping good habits for yourself? Did it go the way of the dodo already >:( ?
said by beck:

It's not like everyone doesn't know everything already. There is no privacy.

Of course there isn't. That's because most human beings are sellouts and don't care what consequences their actions have on others (this is why I keep a good distance away from everyone else - I want to preserve what little privacy I still have left before the government, 3-letter agencies and corporate entities get a hold of it for good )

"Only two kinds of human beings can be trusted - dead and extinct. All others must be avoided at all costs" me.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

3 recommendations

NormanS

MVM

said by el_huason :

I want to preserve what little privacy I still have left before the government, 3-letter agencies ...

Unfortunately, once the government 3-letter agencies get to know you, there is no way back to being unknown. Anybody who has ever been in the U.S. armed forces lost a good chunk of their privacy on swearing in.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

1 recommendation

Nanaki (banned)

Member

Yep privacy is pretty much gone the way of the dodo with the advent of internet for every one.

As for google knowing me better than my self heh not so much. I do not exist under my real name on google searches

Now google does know where novaflare road his bike in 2010 to 2012 when i was tracking my rides with latitude. I had that all publicly linked and viewable so my cycling buds could meet up with me when i was out and about and just happened to be close by. Just got me a really decent bike i found in the trash of all places because of a flat front tire heh. I love luck finds like this. I may have to find me a alternative to latitude sense it is gone and set it all back up. I loved running in to the guys from the various cycling forums while out on a joy ride on my mtb or cannon dale etc. Lots of fun.Yeh sharing latitude publicly essentially made me findable by any one. But i was smart about it i turned on only after i was a few miles from my house and back off at a dif spot on coming back.

But part of the enjoyment from cycling is riding with new people and it is a very social sport/activity.

goalieskates
Premium Member
join:2004-09-12
land of big

1 recommendation

goalieskates to vaxvms

Premium Member

to vaxvms
said by vaxvms:

Let's be real: Google knows so much about me already. Might as well put it to use. For me, Google Now is strange and neat and vital.

Possibly one of the saddest admissions I've read on here.

If Google knew me, it would know better than to make an appearance. Google Now may appeal to a certain group, but the article didn't make it any more attractive or compelling to the rest of us. Not so much from a security pov, but because we already have a processor and we're comfortable using it.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

3 recommendations

StuartMW to vaxvms

Premium Member

to vaxvms
said by vaxvms:

Let’s be real: Google knows so much about me already. Might as well put it to use.

I hear/read that argument a lot.

"So much is known about me already it's not worth bothering trying to maintain any privacy at all".

If that justification was true then one may as well tell everyone everything, post it all on the internet, remove ones blinds/curtains from their home and walk around naked.

I happen to be in the same boat as some here. The US gummint knows a great deal about me--information I had to give them.

However that doesn't mean I want them, or others, to know stuff I don't need to give them. The same applies to Google et al. They have no business knowing anything about me. I deliberately don't use any of their "services" except when I have no alternative. Even then I'm careful to limit what they can gather.

Just because we live in an age where convenience trumps privacy for the great majority of the population it doesn't mean we (those that value their privacy) should just give up. We can limit what we give out (and up) albeit with some sacrifice of convenience. As for those that don't care that's their problem.
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

19579823 (banned) to vaxvms

Member

to vaxvms

Some of us dont use that crap so google knows NOTHING of us

DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium Member
join:2001-07-23
Bristol, CT

DrStrange to vaxvms

Premium Member

to vaxvms

Re: Google Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

If I ever have a use for a smartphone, I'll have to come up with more disinformation to feed whomever. If there's anything I'm doing that I don't want anyone to know about, I keep it offline and off the phone etc. Otherwise I use what others know about me to my advantage by careful manipulation.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned) to 19579823

Member

to 19579823

Re: ‏

Ill use google tied to gps etc i could not care less how much google knows about novaflare. That is all google knows me by that and nanaki-seto or nanaki. I never use my real name online for any thing
Nanaki

Nanaki (banned) to DrStrange

Member

to DrStrange

Re: Google Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

yeh isnt hard. You can get your cell phone account in any name you want in prepaid no contract.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to StuartMW

Premium Member

to StuartMW
You ain't a true American if you don't.

I agree with you. I'm after marketing, I can't do too much about the NSA, but dammit, I can defeat any store in this town that wants my location to sell me something!

It's got to the point where I'm being a b***h because I can.

"Oh, you have a smart phone - let me send that by NFC"
You can't I don't have NFC.
"All new phones have NFC"
I rooted the phone, Titanium backup deleted it.
"You're a bad consumer and anti social. You don't deserve a smart phone"
Eff You.

beck
MVM
join:2002-01-29
On The Road

1 recommendation

beck to vaxvms

MVM

to vaxvms
Really. There is no privacy. And whatever you choose to call yourself, well good for you.

I'm an old fart and used to believe that I could keep my privacy. Well, if I want to live and take advantage of living, I can't. So, being curious I tried Google Now. lol! I use it when I want to and don't the rest of the time. Yeah, I stopped spending hours and hours a week keeping track of how they keep track of me. Making sure they can't track me, steal my info, yada yada yada.

And no matter how careful I've been, my info and identity have been stolen from me. So, now I really don't give a rip. I'm free now. The bad and horrible is already here.
Expand your moderator at work
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to vaxvms

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Re: Google Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

I make it nice and simple. I don't have a cell phone. One reason I don't is the long known cancer risk for anyone who has a history of neck or brain cancer. But now medical evidence is being seen that shows that the risk is far greater and for the entire population and not just those with a history of neck or brain cancer.

Cell phones cause BREAST CANCER. There is now medical proof of this if you carry the cell phone, as many teenagers and 20 somethings do, in your bra. Never carry a cell phone on your person and never put it next to your head when talking on it. Breast cancer is now occurring in YOUNG, HEALTHY WOMEN AND TEENAGERS who have no genetic pre-disposition toward breast cancer and the cause is carrying the cell phone in one's bra next to the breast. So much for all those who have laughed and said cell phones don't cause cancer.

It's a lot more difficult to become addicted to Google Now if you are keeping your cell phone away from your body at all times. Suddenly, cell phones don't seem so great anymore.

DocDrew
How can I help?
Premium Member
join:2009-01-28
SoCal
Ubee E31U2V1
Technicolor TC4400
Linksys EA6900

DocDrew

Premium Member

said by Mele20:

One reason I don't is the long known cancer risk for anyone who has a history of neck or brain cancer. But now medical evidence is being seen that shows that the risk is far greater and for the entire population and not just those with a history of neck or brain cancer.

Cell phones cause BREAST CANCER. There is now medical proof of this

I would love more info on this... do you have any links from your research?

All I can find are these:
»www.cancer.gov/cancertop ··· llphones
»www.mayoclinic.org/healt ··· 20057798
»www.cancer.org/cancer/ca ··· r-phones
»www.cancer.org/cancer/ne ··· isk.aspx

NOYB
St. John 3.16
Premium Member
join:2005-12-15
Forest Grove, OR

1 recommendation

NOYB to beck

Premium Member

to beck
said by beck:

It's not like everyone doesn't know everything already. There is no privacy.


It's because of mind sets like that that there is no more privacy.
NOYB

1 recommendation

NOYB to Nanaki

Premium Member

to Nanaki

Re: ‏

said by Nanaki:

Ill use google tied to gps etc i could not care less how much google knows about novaflare. That is all google knows me by that and nanaki-seto or nanaki. I never use my real name online for any thing


Trust me. Google and many others know you by much more than that.

If you do not think so then you do not understand "data mining" and "big data".
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to DocDrew

Premium Member

to DocDrew

Re: Google Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

It was featured on Dr Oz show today. A young woman (21 now) got breast cancer from keeping her cell phone in her bra on the left side. She said she wore her phone like that for about 4 years even though her mother disapproved (but all her friends were doing it). The cancerous lesions were in exactly the spot where the cellphone rested against her breast. Dr. Oz interviewed her, her mom and an eminent surgeon who has done approximately 10,000 surgeries for breast cancer. He said he was very skeptical at first about a relationship between the two but he now knows of several other cases of young women and teenagers with the same presentation as this young woman. They all carried their cell phones in their bras and their cancers were exactly on the spot where the cellphones rested against their breasts.

He said since this is a "hot" trend for teenage girls (to use their bras as their purses) that he is quite concerned and believes this behavior must stop as a teenager's breast tissue is still developing and he thinks that puts them at much higher risk of breast cancer while still in their teens than an older woman carrying a cell phone in their bra (but he doesn't think they should take the risk either). The girl's mother said that since she has set up a website (or Facebook page) to inform and warn that she has been contacted by parents of other teenage girls with breast cancer (no hereditary predisposition) in exactly the same spot on their breast where they carried their cell phone. Both Dr Oz and the breast surgeon stated that cell phones should NEVER touch any part of the body due to risk of cancer.

The show I watched was a rerun (new season starts right after Labor day) so I don't know when it first aired and I hate Dr Oz's website so I am not going looking there for the date (love Dr Oz though and loved the times he was on NYMed -award winning documentary- this summer). There was a mockup with enlarged xrays of the girl's breast showing exactly where the cancer was located and where her phone laid against her breast. It stunned me and the entire audience. Anyhow, probably Google would have the date the show first aired.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned) to NOYB

Member

to NOYB

Re: ‏

Trust me on this there are zero links between my forum email etc names accounts etc and my real name. I have used novaflare nova nova29 nova29usa for as long as I've been on the net. There is no link to the nicks and my real name. So no Google etc has no clue of my real name and the link to the nicks. I do not use the nick name for bank etc log ins or the like. As much history etc as my name here has it could make a handy backstop name if I was a under covert intelligence op. It has a realistic but fake address including town state zip and street even a proper phone number now thanks to Google voice that matches his non existent home zipp. No amount of data mining could ever connect the real me with my nickname that is a what amount to a deep cover identity. Now granted the nick name is obviously one that likely would never exist as a real name but still the detail it has is very real looking. After all it is 20 years old. Demographically nova flare is my age + or - that only I know.

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

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Re: Google Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

I love the google now app (that's what shows the cards) it's simple if you are at this location it learns your history so it if you leave to go home about the same time each day then it shows the time home, and in a few cases it's helped me to search for other ways to get home.. like the day it said 1 hr and 20 min to get home when a normal drive is only about 17 min.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW to Nanaki

Premium Member

to Nanaki

Re: ‏

If you have an Android (i.e. Google) phone they can know the coordinates of your home using cell tower triangulation and/or GPS. It's fairly easy to convert that into an address using public or private databases. From the address they can then figure out who lives at that address.

Google may or may not do that but it's not that hard. If your phone can be associated with Nanaki See Profile they can match all that up. As NOYB See Profile said many don't realize how little pieces of information can be linked together these days.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned)

Member

Actually i do not currently have a smart phone. I only have my tablet. As for google latitude that was used on a black berry 8330 curve. It's gps was toggled on and off. At best a gov agency could maybe with a fair bit of work taking apart the novaflare identity found out that nova flare visited the real me. And that is if any only if they had tracked me during the first 2 weeks of having that phone. I damaged the charger port and had to charge the battery in a stand alone charger. I only used it when out and about so i pulled the battery as i got close to home and tossed in the charger till my next bike ride. That was about all that phone was used for as i had magic jack for my home phone.

As for any cell account i have that is in my real name. My old one was boost and was under a different nick all to gather. Though there was the lat account in novaflare. connecting my nick and real name together is all but impossible.

The funny bit in all this i never really thought about separating my online and real life to this degree it was just a natural thing to do. See i started out online with a privacy and security conscious idea set. To this very day i have never had any computer i own infected by any spyware or viruses. Other than those i have purposefully installed on spare computers or drives in order to better understand how they work and how to remove them. Various logs etc i have posted over the years for figuring out how to get rid of a infection have been for computers i had the displeasure of getting from others to clean up for them.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

1 recommendation

StuartMW

Premium Member

said by Nanaki:

connecting my nick and real name together is all but impossible.

I wouldn't be so sure of that but that is your business.

I figure there's a 50/50 chance that Google knows my real name, address and so on even though I've never given it to them. They have almost unlimited computing power, and access to massive amounts of data, and have probably developed algorithms to link it all together. Fortunately all they can do with all that is sell it for marketing purposes. The 3-letter agencies, who likely have more data, can put you in prison and throw away the key.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned)

Member

Oh im sure they have my real name i have had a reg old land line in my name that was not unlisted. I also owned a business under my real name. So they have my real name or had it. As that has been quite a few years it may still be there but it is so far down on the results that it pretty much is not able to be found. Also both my first and last name are common and have a few variant spellings each. That finding me in all the noise and pollution is a tall order. A google etc search of my real first and last name has a couple million results and only maybe 1k of those will be me if that many. Honestly i tried finding my own name in the mess and gave up after about 3 or so hours of clicking links (left the tab open for a few days and clicked a few here and there) Never did actually find me. Found lots of people search type sites promising me they had my current address phone number etc lol. I guess current to them is 6 years old ...

Again i have gotten literally 100s of cc offers for nova flare in a po box i use to maintain than i ever got for the real me.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

1 recommendation

StuartMW

Premium Member

If you own property and happen to live in an area where those records are public you're SOL. The last time I googled my own real name those records showed up Those show my real (full legal) name and current address. One used to have to vistit the county office to get that kid of data but nowadays it's online. I constantly receive letters from people offering to buy my property.

Many years ago I forgot the name of a neighbor so I used a public database to find it. It took me perhaps 30 seconds.

Google has all that stuff.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to Nanaki

MVM

to Nanaki
said by Nanaki:

I also owned a business under my real name. So they have my real name or had it. As that has been quite a few years it may still be there but it is so far down on the results that it pretty much is not able to be found.

I bought a lot with a mobile home on it in 1981; sold it in 1999. In 2011, the State of California enacted legislation to assess the owners of property with habitable structures a fire prevention fee.

Last weekend I received three bills from State Board of Equalization demanding payment. They were linked to the mobile home I had fifteen years ago! Despite more than one intermediary residential address, they found me. And it only took me a few minutes checking with the county tax assessor's office to identify the current owners of tha property.

Two things I learned:

• The government can find me if they think they need to.
• The government doesn't always have accurate, current information about me.
Expand your moderator at work
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned) to NormanS

Member

to NormanS

Re: ‏

Right and have you sense being on line worked to obfuscate your information? The gov has old in accurate info on you with out you trying to do any thing. I have sense the beginning of being online sought to keep my internet and non internet life separate.

Like i said from about 18 months to 2 years after being online using nova flare as my name in first and last name fields he has gotten cc offers. I get under my real name maybe 1 or 2 a year while nova flare when he had a po box got 1 to 5 a month. As well as other services and product offers. By far the name nova flare gets way more junk mail than i ever do.

Now obviously the gov knows where i live who i a etc. I pay taxes i am a registered voter and i have bank accounts a ssn number etc etc. There's no way around all of that. So long as i do and have those things the gov can find me with ease. How ever making a connection between my online monikers and my self is all but if not entirely impoosible.

It is true that once something is online it always exists. How ever in practice this is not the case. All the noise and pollution that is generated could require many 10s of 1000s of man hours to actually find the real information.

Many people search sites claim to have records on nova flare and people with the last name flare do exist. Now the chances of nova flare actually existing in a addy phone etc sense are slim to none. Yet these sites claim to have the information yet really they will not have any thing legit. So they add to the background noise.

So yeh i exist online but finding the actual me is very hard. Even if you knew my location and real name you would find about a half dozen who match the exact spelling of my name and a couple dozen more results that are variants and could also be me.

There is just a ton of noise and a few OZs of actual information on me. What you have is a case of flooding the system with lots of garbage data to hide the real.

I have worked to scrub as much real information as is possible from the net. I do not have any fines court fees etc. No criminal record or the like. Any genealogy searches have been done by looking up the records in old musty books in a few libraries much of that on micro-phish film.

So the only tracks i have left online other than my business related stuff is for nova flare.