... and Joe Public just keeps on using Android and Google ...

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted by CKN
I haven't read this thread or the link in the first post.

Is "alarm guy" on his privacy crusade again?

You know-the privacy none of us really have any way...........

If your concerned-stay off your computer, throw away your cell phone, pay cash for everything and live on a mountain in a cabin in Montana-and write a manifesto in your free time.


If you haven't read this thread, then why again are you once again commenting on threads you haven't read, oh, that's right ... you have nothing better to do. You like writing manifestos for people who do not agree with you? Think that they should only agree with you?

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by JHZR2
I just don't get it. It's beyond easy to change search engine. I don't even need to type the URL.

Not sure what you don't get. Google isn't paying Apple billions of dollars knowing that Apple users are immediately changing the default search engine, they're paying them because 99% of Apple users do not ever change it. Doesn't matter how it's done or how easy it's done.


Your statement is misleading.
hallstevenson makes it clear that anyone who wishes to remove google from an iPhone can click and its done.

You or Joe public can not do that with android.
Your stats on percent of apple users who do not switch is incorrect and completely wrong regarding privacy. you do not have to have a gmail account to use an iPhone or search with google.
Your gmail account is what keeps track of you and every place you go, travel, visit and well as scan every email you send and receive. Not google search.

Fact is, iPhone gives you the choice, one click and google invasion of your privacy is off your phone.
Another fact, why is it wrong to accept billions of dollars? Are you against free enterprise like you are against your individual right to privacy?
SO many get it backwards ....

 

[alarmguy]

Well, this turned into a lively thread ... time for me to bow out ) ...
There are always people who will try to tell you what to do, or give up, and most of all limit your knowledge with inaccurate but good "sounding" information (fake news) and right to chose as an individual.
Many societies lose sight of that fact until it is to late, they will choose to tell you freedom and privacy is pointless.

Whether you admit it or not, Apple right up front makes it easy to chose whatever you want to do.
The whole deflection point form some of saying Apple collects billions of dollars to be the default on iPhones (12 billion to be exact) is stupid. Like hello?? Are they a charity or in business to make money?
Answer = to make money, so what is your point? Answer = nothing.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by alarmguy
Well, this turned into a lively thread ... time for me to bow out ) ...
There are always people who will try to tell you what to do, or give up, and most of all limit your knowledge with inaccurate but good "sounding" information (fake news) and right to chose as an individual.
Many societies lose sight of that fact until it is to late, they will choose to tell you freedom and privacy is pointless.

Whether you admit it or not, Apple right up front makes it easy to chose whatever you want to do.
The whole deflection point form some of saying Apple collects billions of dollars to be the default on iPhones (12 billion to be exact) is stupid. Like hello?? Are they a charity or in business to make money?
Answer = to make money, so what is your point? Answer = nothing.


I still don't agree with everything you've said, but what did come out of this thread is I made the effort to remove half the Google from my phone yesterday (most of which I wasn't using anyway). I'm going to start backing up my pictures to my hard drive on my laptop instead of saved to Google drive. Convenience and reliability is the reason I was using the cloud anyway, but as you've stated there are good reasons not to depend on them for everything.

I just have to put more time into backup. Once software updates end and I have to install a custom ROM on my phone to get security updates, I may go ahead and remove Google altogether.

I've switched to duckduckgo already and turned off my location history etc. It's a good idea to make some effort I guess, even if they can track us no matter what.

Apple will never be the answer for me because I strongly believe in "right to repair" which they are fighting to kill off. Why should I be able to fix my car in my driveway, but not my phone or laptop? Or if I can't fix it myself I want it be able to go to a repair facility and have it fixed without having paid a premium for the right to have it replaced and the old one scrapped every time something happens.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted by alarmguy
Originally Posted by CKN
I haven't read this thread or the link in the first post.

Is "alarm guy" on his privacy crusade again?

You know-the privacy none of us really have any way...........

If your concerned-stay off your computer, throw away your cell phone, pay cash for everything and live on a mountain in a cabin in Montana-and write a manifesto in your free time.


If you haven't read this thread, then why again are you once again commenting on threads you haven't read, oh, that's right ... you have nothing better to do. You like writing manifestos for people who do not agree with you? Think that they should only agree with you?


You can always use the "block feature" alarm guy if you don't find my posts "entertaining" as I find yours. Apparently-it appears you have enough time to carry on this crusade of yours.....

 

[Hall]

You seem to have issues with maintaining focus.

Originally Posted by alarmguy
hallstevenson makes it clear that anyone who wishes to remove google from an iPhone can click and its done.
Where did I state anything about removing Google from an iPhone ? I'll save you the effort - I didn't.

Originally Posted by alarmguy
Your stats on percent of apple users who do not switch is incorrect...
Okay, I'll play along.... What is the correct percentage ?

Originally Posted by alarmguy
...and completely wrong regarding privacy. you do not have to have a gmail account to use an iPhone or search with google.
Your gmail account is what keeps track of you and every place you go, travel, visit and well as scan every email you send and receive. Not google search.
Again, more irrelevant rambling about something I didn't say.

Originally Posted by alarmguy
Another fact, why is it wrong to accept billions of dollars? Are you against free enterprise like you are against your individual right to privacy? SO many get it backwards ....
Haha !!! Again, Apple accepts these billions of dollars to buy your data (and your privacy) from Apple ! And Apple willingly obliges Google ! Quit attempting to make Apple into some sort of saint. Money talks to them !! And yes, for enough money, even Apple will sell (provide access to) your data.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by alarmguy
Well, this turned into a lively thread ... time for me to bow out ) ...
There are always people who will try to tell you what to do, or give up, and most of all limit your knowledge with inaccurate but good "sounding" information (fake news) and right to chose as an individual.
Many societies lose sight of that fact until it is to late, they will choose to tell you freedom and privacy is pointless.

Whether you admit it or not, Apple right up front makes it easy to chose whatever you want to do.
The whole deflection point form some of saying Apple collects billions of dollars to be the default on iPhones (12 billion to be exact) is stupid. Like hello?? Are they a charity or in business to make money?
Answer = to make money, so what is your point? Answer = nothing.


Guess it's not just the iPhone that so amazingly warns of apps getting location in the background. Thought it was funny since alarmguy brought it up, I decided to try out waze instead of Google maps today.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
I still don't agree with everything you've said, but what did come out of this thread is I made the effort to remove half the Google from my phone yesterday (most of which I wasn't using anyway). I'm going to start backing up my pictures to my hard drive on my laptop instead of saved to Google drive. Convenience and reliability is the reason I was using the cloud anyway, but as you've stated there are good reasons not to depend on them for everything.


Just an FYI ... I've noticed photos have literally disappeared on my Android when I had the Google cloud enabled. I turned off the cloud from having access to my phone photos. I really don't need to be able to see my cloud photos from any device I'm on. Do some Google searches on disappearing photos and you'll see it a big topic from many people.

 

[Pew]

I don't get it, OP states applications (that the user can choose to not use but they decide to download and use anyways) breaches customer privacy but then states Apple is better? Android phones without a Google account is as useful as an iPhone without an iCloud account.

Not to mention the latest iPhone update tracks user location because of COVID-19. How's that for customer privacy breach?

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by Pew
I don't get it, OP states applications (that the user can choose to not use but they decide to download and use anyways) breaches customer privacy but then states Apple is better? Android phones without a Google account is as useful as an iPhone without an iCloud account.

Not to mention the latest iPhone update tracks user location because of COVID-19. How's that for customer privacy breach?


I'm not completely free of Google, but with very little effort I've disabled most Google apps including the "Google app" as you can see in the screenshot.

My homescreen shows the apps I'm now using as alternatives to Google apps.

So far everything is still working normally, but I have to find replacements for Google calendar, Google sheets and start paying with my debit card like a cave man again.

 

[caprice_2nv]

If we want to talk about choice, heres some more screenshots of stuff i don't believe alarmguy is aware of. You can literally look at every app that has permission to anything such as microphone, contacts, etc and you can deny them permission. You can even access system apps.

If you are a real privacy fanatic what more do you want? People who don't care are not going to touch this stuff anymore than most iphone users will switch the search engine.

I honestly believe more android users are actually likely to bother going into this and making an effort to be privacy conscious.

Google is going to use information from anyone who is willing to give it up, by using google assistant or other google apps, sure, just like apple is going to take the payout from google to have their search engine on an iphone, because most people probably want google search anyway.

I have also now switched calendars, keyboard, cloud storage, etc and the phone still runs without any errors. Google is nearly eliminated from my phone now.

 

[caprice_2nv]

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Originally Posted by Pew
I don't get it, OP states applications (that the user can choose to not use but they decide to download and use anyways) breaches customer privacy but then states Apple is better? Android phones without a Google account is as useful as an iPhone without an iCloud account.

Not to mention the latest iPhone update tracks user location because of COVID-19. How's that for customer privacy breach?


I'm not completely free of Google, but with very little effort I've disabled most Google apps including the "Google app" as you can see in the screenshot.

My homescreen shows the apps I'm now using as alternatives to Google apps.

So far everything is still working normally, but I have to find replacements for Google calendar, Google sheets and start paying with my debit card like a cave man again.

Waze is a google app.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Originally Posted by Pew
I don't get it, OP states applications (that the user can choose to not use but they decide to download and use anyways) breaches customer privacy but then states Apple is better? Android phones without a Google account is as useful as an iPhone without an iCloud account.

Not to mention the latest iPhone update tracks user location because of COVID-19. How's that for customer privacy breach?


I'm not completely free of Google, but with very little effort I've disabled most Google apps including the "Google app" as you can see in the screenshot.

My homescreen shows the apps I'm now using as alternatives to Google apps.

So far everything is still working normally, but I have to find replacements for Google calendar, Google sheets and start paying with my debit card like a cave man again.

Waze is a google app.


I forgot they bought them. Guess my last alternative is an old map? Lol.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted by caprice_2nv


I forgot they bought them. Guess my last alternative is an old map? Lol.
Paper maps are fine they just down warn of traffic conditions. I guess a CB would come in handy to see what's going on down the road, if the truckers even use them anymore. It's hard to do without google maps.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv


I forgot they bought them. Guess my last alternative is an old map? Lol.
Paper maps are fine they just down warn of traffic conditions. I guess a CB would come in handy to see what's going on down the road, if the truckers even use them anymore. It's hard to do without google maps.


I work for a land surveyor so I'm often driving places I don't know and have to use some kind of navigation to find my destination. I've always used Google maps and it's pretty reliable around here. I'm going to give Waze a try just so I can leave the Google app disabled and have most permissions denied to Google play services. I've looked pretty closely at my apps and permissions and Google doesn't have access to much of anything now.

 

[alarmguy]

Kinston is a beautiful place by the way! I am assuming upstate NY. Spent many many vacations and trips up there from Long Island before moving south.
IN fact, best friends are always up there in Woodstock, family has a really nice place up there.

Anyway, my posts are about the general public, they are clueless. But I can see this thread has had some people take a "look" at their phones which is good. Maybe the others who have not posted anything here will have learned something and down the road someone else will from them and so on.

I have had Android phones until last year, wife and daughter still do and you can more then ever deny a lot of access.
Sometimes I just turned off so much stuff it started affected the performance of the phone. Google maps is hard to beat, Apple Maps is an acceptable substitute but still for anything critical most times is google. I do say "most" sometimes not.
Many of these "permissions" to "opt out" have been brought about by pressure on our Congress as in Europe they do much more and it makes our Congress look bad. SO you do have more options then ever but there are so many that for me, I had the resources to delete google from my life, no more. (for the most part)

Its a hobby for me, so dont take anything too serious, like many in this thread have! So many comments I am not spending any more time answering them *LOL*
We all know the truth as far as the data collection by google. Heck, I know people in the industry, they package your information just like home loan and sell it to the highest bidders!

PS, I am curious, when you ran Waze, did you get an alert on the start page of your phone, much like a text message that alerted you to the fact that Waze was tracking you or did you have to swipe down to see it?
With the iPhone it appears right on the main page until you tap to get rid of it, so there is no way you can miss seeing it and knowing it, my last Android phone did not alert me just a year ago or so, my apple phone always did. (remember I used two cell phones for the last 8ish years, apple and android. )

 

[alarmguy]

^^^ as a side not to the above post.
IN this thread I referenced halstevenson instead of another person and he replied =

"Originally Posted by alarmguy
hallstevenson makes it clear that anyone who wishes to remove google from an iPhone can click and its done."

halstevenson -
"Where did I state anything about removing Google from an iPhone ? I'll save you the effort - I didn't."

Hal is correct, he didnt say that, if you read through the thread, the moderator clearly shows how easy it is to change search engines on an iPhone. Once you do, you have google out of your life on your iPhone. Not so with Android phone, your phone is tied to a gmail account, you know, the same email system that scans every one of your emails.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru...-on-using-android-and-google#Post5458535

Anyway, enough said for me, glad I provoked some thought, paying attention to thoughts and ideas is what makes the world better. (and you can bet many times more people get my point then posted in here) )

Maybe we will discuss Facebook some day *LOL*
You know, the physiological profile they haveon you, by clicking on "like" ... ??? (smile) ... now lets add that to your search engine history ... shopping history ... and people start to wonder why they even bought something ... when ... ok, tell me why? (another topic... some day)

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by alarmguy
Kinston is a beautiful place by the way! I am assuming upstate NY. Spent many many vacations and trips up there from Long Island before moving south.
IN fact, best friends are always up there in Woodstock, family has a really nice place up there.

Anyway, my posts are about the general public, they are clueless. But I can see this thread has had some people take a "look" at their phones which is good. Maybe the others who have not posted anything here will have learned something and down the road someone else will from them and so on.

I have had Android phones until last year, wife and daughter still do and you can more then ever deny a lot of access.
Sometimes I just turned off so much stuff it started affected the performance of the phone. Google maps is hard to beat, Apple Maps is an acceptable substitute but still for anything critical most times is google. I do say "most" sometimes not.
Many of these "permissions" to "opt out" have been brought about by pressure on our Congress as in Europe they do much more and it makes our Congress look bad. SO you do have more options then ever but there are so many that for me, I had the resources to delete google from my life, no more. (for the most part)

Its a hobby for me, so dont take anything too serious, like many in this thread have! So many comments I am not spending any more time answering them *LOL*
We all know the truth as far as the data collection by google. Heck, I know people in the industry, they package your information just like home loan and sell it to the highest bidders!

PS, I am curious, when you ran Waze, did you get an alert on the start page of your phone, much like a text message that alerted you to the fact that Waze was tracking you or did you have to swipe down to see it?
With the iPhone it appears right on the main page until you tap to get rid of it, so there is no way you can miss seeing it and knowing it, my last Android phone did not alert me just a year ago or so, my apple phone always did. (remember I used two cell phones for the last 8ish years, apple and android. )


Thanks, I do like it here in Kingston. I have friends in Syracuse NY, if we ever get to visit again.

The reason Waze had my location was I put in my work address and home address so it could tell me what time I needed to leave the house. Initially I only gave it permission to use location while in the app but that feature required the permission all the time.

The notification came up in the status bar like any text or email. In fact it was on the lockscreenci noticed first while checking the time.

If it had just been shortly before going to work I could understand but it was Sunday afternoon while chilling at the father in laws, no real need for it yet.

Pressure from people like you is the reason permissions have become so transparent especially in Android 10. It is much improved.

 

[alarmguy]

^^excellent^^ got to run ... yes, much improved.