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by jerf 4687 days ago
Somewhat ironically, I had a Google account already (albeit only lightly used, losing Reader killed ~95% of the utility for me), but when I got my Android phone, it simply refused to link to it. I think perhaps because I didn't have GMail? To be honest the error messages were never that clear to me. So instead of linking in my "real" Google account, I had to create a new one. One I never browse with, one that has no services, one not linked to the greater anything. Instead of a lightly-but-really-used account now they just have an Android account floating in space, being virtually useless to them.
1 comments
dredmorbius 4687 days ago
That anonymous account knows where you live, who you talk to, where you go, what you read online, ...

Linking it to your legal identity isn't hard. Data show that just two ZIP Codes (in the US) can indentify an individual with 95% accuracy: your home and workplace.

Makes me want to rightgrade to an uncontracted dumbphone and a custom-ROMed tablet. Not linked to any Google accounts.

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jerf 4687 days ago
Yeah, but that's mostly useful to law enforcement, if they were interested, and for that the mere fact of a cell phone is enough to get everything you mentioned. What Google gets of value out of this account is greatly reduced, especially as I've been buying the ad-free version of the apps. (While in theory Google could get everything you say, I believe that in practice they actually do not, say, forward all of your "Reddit is Fun" actions up to the Great Google Motherserver.)

And no, I did not say eliminated. Just greatly reduced. (Again, the moreso after shuttering Reader, although I must say that while you could learn a lot about me from my blog reading list, its utility for selling me stuff was pretty low.)

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dredmorbius 4686 days ago
Yeah, but that's mostly useful to law enforcement, if they were interested

De-anonymization has been studied and applied by various parties, and I'm personally aware of at least one non-LEO application. I don't know that Google does or doesn't do this, though it wouldn't surprise me at all if marketing/advertising and/or other "personalization" services did. It would annoy me intensely to find that they were.

For that the mere fact of a cell phone is enough to get everything you mentioned.

A dumb phone can only report coarse location information, SMS messaging, and calls data. Frequently expiring SIMs would limit the useful duration of much of that information, though you'd need something like a self-hosted Google Voice forwarding service to be able to use the phone usefully while maintaining reasonable anonymity. It's not currently practical for most purposes.

Relying on a Free Software VOIP service based on the tablet preferentially for voice calls would further reduce exposure.

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