[local_dev]

I would say that we have different definitions of 'abuse' in the case of Google. Of course, Google doesn't sell your data directly to anyone, allow anyone to get your metadata, or allow anyone to view your data. In that sense, I also completely trust Google to be good stewards of my data.

That said, while I agree that Google does not 'abuse' my data by giving it to others in any form, Google absolutely does use my data to try to sell me things. From my perspective, this is abuse. Google is using data that I generated to psychologically manipulate my behavior.

When Google Search, gmail, and other like services from Google were released, Google was a tech company first and foremost. These properties/services were offered for "free". At the time, most people didn't realize that "free" meant paying with your data. Now, Google is an advertising company and I do not want them to have my data because of that fact. In a similar vein, if The Trade Desk or another adtech company provided a "free" email service it would likely not be widely adopted as it would be well understood that users are paying with their data.

[bagacrap]

Does Netflix with its recommendation engine also "psychologically manipulate" you into watching movies you like?

[tomjen3]

No, it manipulates me into seeing things it thinks won't make me kill the subscription, just like youtube doesn't suggest a good video, it suggest a video that I am likely to click on.

[underslung]

..yes.

[iamgopal]

My problem is different, I was all in with google, and with all my data of 20 years, they couldn’t recommend me a good next video on YouTube or better search for long tail keywords for which I did found site on their very own search engine.

[mav3rick]

PLEASE DON"T USE ANY GOOGLE PRODUCTS. Problem solved.

[millstone]

The linked article has five trackers from Google-owned domains. You don't have to use Google products for Google to track and profile you.

[ttt0]

And I don't, but some people are more or less forced to use either Google or Microsoft products by their employers. I really wish the solution was as simple as that.

[tylerhou]

The solution is as simple as: Go into your privacy settings, and turn off ad personalization. Takes like three clicks.

https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated?hl=en

I have it off for both my personal and Google corporate accounts. (Disclaimer: I work at Google.)

If you don't want to be signed in at all, you can install a Chrome extension.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/iba-opt-out-by-goo...

[ttt0]

That's really cool, but didn't you guys got sued for tracking people even after they opted out?

https://www.cnet.com/news/google-sued-for-allegedly-tracking...

If I remember correctly you were also tracking logged out users. Are you still doing that or how do I opt out if I don't have an account? Do I have to install Chrome?

[tylerhou]

Everything below is my opinion, or information to the best of my personal knowledge. I don't speak for Google.

That lawsuit alleges that Google was tracking people (with analytics) during incognito mode, which is different from opting out of ad personalization. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23552967 for HN discussion on the topic.

If you use Firefox, you can install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/interest-adve... to also opt out of ad-personalization.

Turning off ad personalization doesn't turn off tracking; it just prevents that data from being used in ads. If you want to turn off data collection altogether (for your Google account) you can manage activity altogether https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols. (I don't know whether this affects analytics; I assume it does, though.)

If you want to disable analytics tracking when you're logged out, you can install another extension (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) or just install a content blocker like uBlock Origin that blocks the analytics.js/gtag.js scripts altogether.

[underslung]

fwiw I do not work at Google and I believe opting out of ad-tracking (via your Google account) is independent of general data analytics.

The stronger fingerprinting technology becomes (whether browser and/or network based) the more irrelevant a Google account will be for PII tracking.

[this is my opinion, take with grain of salt]