Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds

Re:Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers an... by mindslight on Monday December 10, 2018 @01:40PM (#18650121)

Stating it as a direct trade for the service being no charge is fallacious in that Google does not actually give you the option to just pay money for the service/storage and skip the surveillance. Instead, the true price remains nebulous - with your "permanent record" continuing to grow and becoming ever more of a liability.

It's certainly possible to develop user-centric software with the same functionality and polish, at a grassroots level. The fact that the industry is being dominated by VC money looking for scalable winner-takes-all growth is indicative of the magnitude of what's really at stake.

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Re:Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers an... by zanny on Monday December 10, 2018 @06:03PM (#18651900)

I run Lineage on my phones, I always have the option to purge Google entirely and not let them track me. The choice is between spying vs money, its between spying or not being spied on.

I sympathize with the plight of those unknowingly being spied upon - I've had enlightening conversations with family members when I show them this very feature they weren't aware of on their Android devices - but it often feels like the demonization of Google treats it like nobody ever volunteers in. Because I definitely wouldn't pay for it, but its a nice service to have.

[ Parent | on HN ]