Privacy concern

How is /e/ able to maintain your privacy from google if other people have you in their contacts?

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

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I don’t think that’s something /e/ could prevent. If people have you as a contact and use Google services – and therefore grant permission to access the contacts and other data – I think there’s little we can do. What other people do with our phone number or data in general cannot be controlled, not by /e/ neither by us, unless people also choose consciously to deGoogle theirselves.

In short, /e/ will never send our data to Google, but our contacts probably will. And all we can do is try to raise awareness about Google’s (and Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft’s) privacy issues. I think we often forget that our data is also our family and friend’s data when making privacy-concerned choices. So if we choose to stay in a googled environment, we could be technically choosing to give someone else’s data to GAFAM, even if they chose to deGoogle themselves.

But I think the question here is: what will GAFAM know about you? If you use /e/ and privacy-friendly apps they certainly won’t know about how many hours you spend looking at the screen of your phone, or who you talk to, when you go to sleep, and so on. They will probably know that those people using their services have your number (and other info, this depends) linked to your name and probably surname.

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Interesting to compare the parallels of your post to this about Apple devices and the false sense of privacy (E2E encryption on iMessage when uploading to iCloud).

iMessage: Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung durch iCloud-Backup ausgehebelt ⋆ Kuketz IT-Security Blog

*may need a translation tool

I recently stumbled upon this article (paywall) on the German IT website Heise/c’t, which raises the same question the thread starter raises (i.e. what other people divulge about us), and links to this blog post from an IT expert who scanned his whole inbox for mail sent from/to Gmail. Scary!

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How are there no legal implications for this if Google is indirectly obtaining people’s information against their will? Anyone know?

I’m sure it is varies by country. This is an issue and from my perspective should not be allowed.

Really? The lemmings sign the T&C!

In Europe there have been moves against world dominating operations, eg but as they pay no taxes they are able to pay the fines in lieu.

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:point_up_2:Maybe I wasn’t clear. I am referring to data Google collects on person A (no T&C signed) due to communication they have with person B (did sign T&C).:point_down:

Edit: I have never thought of this👆. Even if I take all precautions to avoid Google tracking/collecting data on me, if I communicate with someone who uses any of Google’s services (ie stock Android spyware) what meta data does Google collect to mine and use to identify me through fingerprinting? It seems nearly impossible to avoid this. From my perspective this is highly unethical and very frustrating.

@TDunlap thanks for sharing this question. It has sparked thought and increased understanding.

You were clear, I was dim. I temporarily forgot I had to worry about that too. :slight_smile:

Well, as I look back I can see how that could be misinterpreted. Thanks for making clear. It is baffling that many just blindly accept these T&Cs… I admit I have been guilty of doing this in the past. We sign and give GAFAM permission to spy, CRAZY!

I think we’re going to have to create laws stating that information containing identifiable data about us is our property and may not be used or sold to others without our explicit permission.

Maybe we could charge them to use it :blush:

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Most people think “Well, if I don’t agree I can’t use the app, so I’m just going to agree”.

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