Categorized Directory

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Search directory
  • Web crawlers
  • Collect data
  • Indexation
  • Bankroll

Categorized Directory

Header Banner

Categorized Directory

  • Home
  • Search directory
  • Web crawlers
  • Collect data
  • Indexation
  • Bankroll
Collect data
Home›Collect data›Unredacted Google Lawsuit Docs Details Efforts to Collect User Location

Unredacted Google Lawsuit Docs Details Efforts to Collect User Location

By Ed Robertson
May 29, 2021
0
0

Recently unredacted documents in a lawsuit against Google reveal that the company’s own executives and engineers knew how difficult the company had made it difficult for smartphone users to keep their location data private.

Google continued to collect location data even as users turned off various location sharing settings, made popular privacy settings harder to find, and even pressured LG and other phone makers to hide them. settings precisely because users liked them, according to the documents.

Jack Menzel, a former vice president overseeing Google Maps, admitted in testimony that the only way Google wouldn’t be able to determine a user’s home and place of work is if that person has intentionally threw Google off the beaten track by defining its home and work. addresses like other random locations.

Jen Chai, senior product manager at Google in charge of location services, was unsure how the company’s complex web of privacy settings interacted with each other, according to the documents.

Google and LG did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

The documents are part of a lawsuit filed against Google by the Arizona attorney general’s office last year, which accused the company of illegally collecting location data from smartphone users, even after it was taken down.

A judge ordered new sections of the documents not to be redacted last week in response to a request from business groups Digital Content Next and News Media Alliance, who argued it was in the public interest to know and that Google was using its legal resources to remove scrutiny from its data collection practices.

The unsealed versions of the documents paint an even more detailed picture of how Google has obscured its data collection techniques, confusing not only its users but also its own employees.

Google uses a variety of means to collect user location data, according to documents, including WiFi and even third party applications not affiliated with Google, forcing users to share their data in order to use those applications or, in some case even to connect. their phones to WiFi.

“So there is no way you can give your location to a third party app and not to Google?” an employee said, according to the documents, adding: “This doesn’t look like something we would like on the front page of the [New York Times]. “

When Google tested versions of its Android operating system that made it easier to find privacy settings, users took advantage, which Google saw as a “problem,” according to the documents. To resolve this issue, Google then sought to bury these settings deeper into the settings menu.

Google has also tried to convince smartphone makers to hide location settings “through active misrepresentation and / or concealment, deletion or omission of facts” – ie data available to Google showing that users were using these settings – “in order to appease [manufacturers’] confidentiality issues. “

Google employees seem to recognize that users are frustrated by the company’s aggressive data collection practices, which can hurt its business.

“Fail # 2: * I * should be able to get * my * location on * my * phone without sharing this information with Google,” one employee said.

“Maybe that’s how Apple eats our lunch,” they added, saying Apple was “much more likely” to allow users to enjoy location-based apps and services on their phones without sharing data with them. Apple.

Related posts:

  1. Biden administration will not seek to join Open Skies treaty after 2020 release
  2. Emory creates a new institute for personalized medicine in brain health | Emory University
  3. New Barber Shop Instills Bulldog Name and Spirit: Olmsted Dates and Data
  4. CICSE asks schools to submit average grades for students in class 11, internal exam – The New Indian Express

Categories

  • Bankroll
  • Collect data
  • Indexation
  • Search directory
  • Web crawlers

Recent Posts

  • Live-Action TV Spider-Mans Who Didn’t Appear in No Way Home
  • Bennet bill would create federal definition of school shooting, direct incident data collection
  • The 10 Most In-Demand Entry-Level Remote Jobs Landing Right Now
  • Face-Scanner Clearview accepts the limits of the legal settlement | Economic news
  • Ex-minister embroiled in Hellenic row over staff cuts

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions