A problem with paying is that you have to be logged on so you can’t avoid being ...

chronogram · on Aug 27, 2023

You have privacy controls in your Google account. I have web & app activity off, location history off, YouTube search off and YouTube watch history auto deleting after a few months. https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy

If you're talking about them building a secret extra profile about you with those things turned off, then they wouldn't need you to login for that.

koolba · on Aug 27, 2023

Maybe if there was a single toggle, available at sign up, that said, “Never track anything”.

Because what happens over time is that some new feature or service comes along that you have to also opt out of.

38 · on Aug 27, 2023

This is misleading. At least with Google Play, they track all installed apps on your account forever.

even if you uninstall, remove from history in the app, and remove from Google account history, future API calls reflect that you've installed the app before.

tinus_hn · on Aug 27, 2023

And if you believe Google is not storing that information anyway I’ve got a beautiful bridge for sale.

If you don’t use an account you can create a fresh container every once in a while and start the game anew and you can choose to not associate it all with your identity.

izacus · on Aug 27, 2023

If you're right, you can easily earn big amount of money by filing a GDPR complaint or suing Google for lying about privacy.

kibwen · on Aug 27, 2023

If my country either took privacy seriously or took corporate malfeasance seriously, then Google wouldn't exist in the first place. Here's to hoping, though.

flangola7 · on Aug 27, 2023

What evidence is there that Google is specifically storing it? Wouldn't that violate GDPR?

fifteen1506 · on Aug 27, 2023

Yes. But they aren't abiding by COPPA either so... (last week news, search for YouTube + COPPA).

tinus_hn · on Aug 27, 2023

Read the privacy policy, they explicitly state they store it. Obviously, because in many cases they need to know who watched that. For instance for their licenses they need to be allowed to show you copyrighted content.

You can ‘pause history’ which means ‘If you turn off your YouTube watch history and have no significant prior watch history, YouTube features that rely on your watch history to give video recommendations, like recommendations on the YouTube homepage, are removed.’ it doesn’t mean they don’t store it.

Google stores everything and deletes nothing. If you don’t want Google to keep track of information, you have to make sure they don’t have it and never get it.

flangola7 · on Aug 31, 2023

> Google stores everything and deletes nothing. If you don’t want Google to keep track of information, you have to make sure they don’t have it and never get it.

This would be a clear GDPR violation. This isn't the 2000s or 2010s any more.