Google Will Make It Slightly Easier To Turn Off Smart Features (gizmodo.com) 15
"[I]n the coming weeks," Google will show a new blanket setting to "turn off smart features" which will disable features like Smart Compose, Smart Reply, in apps like Gmail; the second half of the same prompt will disable whether additional Google products -- like Maps or Assistant, for example -- are allowed to be personalized based on data from Gmail, Meet, and Chat. Gizmodo reports: Google writes in its blog post about the new-ish settings that humans are not looking at your emails to enable smart features, and Google ads are "not based on your personal data in Gmail," something CEO Sundar Pichai has likewise said time and again. Google claims to have stopped that practice in 2017, although the following year the Wall Street Journal reported that third-party app developers had freely perused inboxes with little oversight. (When asked whether this is still a problem, the spokesperson pointed us to Google's 2018 effort to tighten security.)
A Google spokesperson emphasized that the company only uses email contents for security purposes like filtering spam and phishing attempts. These personalization changes aren't so much about tightening security as they are another informed consent defense which Google can use to repel the current regulatory siege being waged against it by lawmakers. [...] Inquiries in the U.S. and EU have found that Google's privacy settings have historically presented the appearance of privacy, rather than privacy itself. [...] So this is nice, and also Google's announcement reads as a letter to regulators. "This new setting is designed to reduce the work of understanding and managing [a choice over how data is processed], in view of what we've learned from user experience research and regulators' emphasis on comprehensible, actionable user choices over data."
A Google spokesperson emphasized that the company only uses email contents for security purposes like filtering spam and phishing attempts. These personalization changes aren't so much about tightening security as they are another informed consent defense which Google can use to repel the current regulatory siege being waged against it by lawmakers. [...] Inquiries in the U.S. and EU have found that Google's privacy settings have historically presented the appearance of privacy, rather than privacy itself. [...] So this is nice, and also Google's announcement reads as a letter to regulators. "This new setting is designed to reduce the work of understanding and managing [a choice over how data is processed], in view of what we've learned from user experience research and regulators' emphasis on comprehensible, actionable user choices over data."
Re: (Score:1)
Bill Maher recently had this to say about radicalised liberals:
"Democrats were supposed to flip the senate and didn't. Supposed to flip state legislatures. Not a one. And they lost seats in the house. In a year that was so much about making people aware of racism, their share of minority votes went down. The message to Democrats from so much of the country seems to be 'We don't like Trump, but we still can't bring ourselves to vote for you.' If Cracker Jack was made of popcorn and dog shit and half the peop
Proof (Score:2)
So this is nice
So a company whose entire business model revolves around putting billions of people under intense surveillance and monetizing their private data in every possible ways promises to make it slightly easier to opt out a bit, and you think that's nice?
I'd like a regulatory body to verify that they make good on the promise personally. I'm not holding my breath though...
Re: (Score:2)
The government is loving this unfettered access to all your data. So your wish is unlikely to be granted, although expect some token posturing.
Uhh, why a smart blanket in the first place? (Score:3)
Google will show a new blanket setting to "turn off smart features"
Geez, I just need a blanket to keep me warm, not have smart features in the first place.
Why wouldn't a "Smart" feature (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
They are disabled by default, you have to opt in to all of it. At least you do in the EU because GDPR requires affirmative, clearly explained opt-in consent that is freely given.
Re: (Score:2)
Good! (Score:2)
Real estate site design (Score:1)