This is why Alexa and Google no longer have access to my home automation

by Volker Weber

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I have installed Google Maps for a single day in London and then removed it. It tried to convince me to enable location history so that it could track me. I declined. Try to use Google Home without sweeping authorizations to track everything.

If you have an iPhone, install and use Jumbo Privacy to clean up behind you.

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Update: As I have learned today, Jumbo Privacy is also available for Android.

Comments

Just to understand: have these Google activities been tracked without your consent? Or more correctly: have they been done in spite of you having actively switched off tracking?

Google officially is pretty transparent with what they store about you, e.g. your location history, and lets you see everything they have stored. They don't make it as straightforward as possible to switch off the various tracking "features", but it's doable, and then, at least officially, no location data is stored anymore in your profile.

That does of course not mean that they COULD still track and store everything without your consent. But I have some remaining trust in them that they are not actively criminal. Even if they have come a long way from their immaculate "don't be evil" image.

Andreas Eldrich, 2019-11-21

Just try Jumbo and find out.

Volker Weber, 2019-11-21

I am on Android, so I am probably a lost cause anyway, privacy wise ;)

Andreas Eldrich, 2019-11-21

Google hat zwar nicht die Location gespeichert, wohl aber die in Maps aufgerufenen Kartenausschnitte?

Markus Mews, 2019-11-21

Andreas, so ist es.

Markus, mindestens die.

Volker Weber, 2019-11-21

Hab mir die App grad mal angeschaut und verstehe das Geschäftsmodell von Jumbo nicht so ganz. Womit verdienen die Geld, wenn die App kostenlos ist, und die auch meine Daten nicht haben wollen. Und sollte ich mein Handy lieber "2121 Atelier, Inc" anvertrauen als Google? Man weiss es nicht... Aber wie gesagt, als Android Nutzer bin ich da eh raus.

Andreas Eldrich, 2019-11-21

Andreas,

"Our business model will be a subscription, similar to Spotify, iCloud, or Netflix. We will always keep a free version of Jumbo, but advanced protections will be available for users who pay for Jumbo+." https://blog.jumboprivacy.com/vision-and-trust.html

Michael Roesch, 2019-11-21

Für Android gibt es bereits einen Inkognito-Modus für Maps https://support.google.com/maps/answer/9430563?hl=de&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&oco=1 - dein Aufruf zur Datensparsamkeit ist trotzdem wertvoll.

Thomas Cloer, 2019-11-22

Der Andreas sprach ja vom Business-Modell. Und das heißt bei Google ganz klar, alle Daten sammeln, alles wissen, Werbung verkaufen. Man muss halt wissen, auf was man sich einlässt.

Volker Weber, 2019-11-22

Thank you for the write-up, Volker! I'm Becky from Jumbo. We really appreciate you sharing our app with your readers.

I wanted to let you (and your readers) know that Jumbo is available on Android as well:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jumboprivacy

We will also be launching Jumbo+ as a subscription soon. Like all the decisions we make here, our business model will never be at odds with the privacy of our users. We also don't collect or store our users' data on any servers. Everything is done right on your phone.

Becky Brooks, 2019-11-22

Thanks, Becky, that is great news to me. I will include that link above.

Volker Weber, 2019-11-22

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