Huawei phones are currently claiming that the Google app is a virus, sending SMS messages without user knowledge.
  • tinsukE@lemmy.worldEnglish
    36·
    1 year ago

    Appears to be a useful app, with a plaetora of features, but gathers your personal data, including voice, just to sell it to the highest bidder, all under the umbrella of an ads platform (which is also a very sketchy business).

    Yup, sounds like a virus to me.

    • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      1 year ago

      Google doesn’t sell your data though. That would completely kill their business which is selling ads.

      They collect all that data so they can position themselves as the best ad service since they can target ads based on that info.

      If they sold the data, then anyone bought it would just use it to target people without paying Google to do so.

      • Why9@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        I’m afraid you are deluded if you think all your data is safe with Google.

        Ads make money, because the valuable data can be sold.

        Google collects data about you and by doing so, is able to target you with products that are suitable to you.

        Other companies will pay top dollar for that kind of data. From Google trends, to purchasing habits, sentiments around world events, elections, sports events and betting…

        It’s all useful to other companies, not Google. Google just wants to collect it all and create a product out of you that can be marketed to people who want to sell you stuff.

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Oh no, I don’t trust Google at all. The only Google product I use is gmail and that’s just because it’s too convenient.

          And you haven’t disagreed with me. You’ve just talked around it. You directly agreed with me in fact. Other companies absolutely pay top dollar for it. They pay Google to serve ads to people because Google has access to that data.

          That’s literally Google’s business. Google is an ad company. Everything else they do is to support their advertising business. The entire pixel line is Google selling hardware to keep people in the Android ecosystem to collect data so that Google can sell ads.

          They pay billions to keep Google search the default search engine on all of Android, Apple (Mac and iPhone), and windows, so they can collect data and sell ads.

          Google is an ad company. Period. They don’t sell your data. It’s more valuable for them to know because they sell the damn ads. They have built their empire on being the sole proprietors of that info.

          Buying data that Google doesn’t own is such a huge market because of the hold Google has on the market. You can only advertise according to Google’s terms and they’re relatively expensive. For the vast majority of legit companies, Google is the easiest platform as long as you’re also advertising on Facebook and other industry specific sites.

          If you’re an unscrupulous group, then abiding by rules isn’t in your motto anyway so you need to build your own algorithms based on data that you can’t collect from a captive audience. So you buy it from the companies that do collect a ton of data.