patrick.net

Patrick says

Six Reasons Why Google Maps Is the Creepiest App On Your Phone

Fortunately, if you have an iPhone, Apple Maps has been steadily getting better. That might not be saying much, given its rocky start, but it really is pretty good most of the time now. If you're not using an iPhone, then your entire phone operating system and all the built in apps are thoroughly compromised. And I don't think some sort of knock-off Chinese OS is going to be your saviour!

Google just disable their music app and now looking to force everyone to use YouTube music. So I disabled it and found something else that doesn't do ads or require any permissions that it actually needs.

SunnyvaleCA says

Hillariously, up until a few years ago I liked to boast that I had been "Microsoft free since 2002!" Now I'm actually switching TO Microsoft because it's by far the lesser evil.

Exactly. I feel the same way. Microsoft hit some limit of monopoly power, probably when it just became too obvious even for our own DOJ to ignore.

Somehow, they still haven't caught up with Google, and probably for the same reasons: government likes the power to spy on us and block content that Microsoft and Google give them. They probably like it even more when they spy on foreigners.

richwicks says

https://www.brandnewtube.com

I like it, but it refuses to run without cookies and localstorage turned on so that they can track you.

Another search engine alternative to Google, this one based in France:

https://www.qwant.com/?q=dominion%20voting%20systems&t=all

Patrick says

Another search engine alternative to Google, this one based in France:

https://www.qwant.com/?q=dominion%20voting%20systems&t=all

Patrick, if you click that link it takes you to a list of propaganda about how great Dominion voting machines are, and how everyone is lying about them.

Fuck Google maps. Standalone GPS for the win.

HeadSet says

Patrick says

Another search engine alternative to Google, this one based in France:

https://www.qwant.com/?q=dominion%20voting%20systems&t=all

Patrick, if you click that link it takes you to a list of propaganda about how great Dominion voting machines are, and how everyone is lying about them.

True. Maybe that's part of its mission, to promote MSM distortion.

Patrick says

richwicks says

https://www.brandnewtube.com

I like it, but it refuses to run without cookies and localstorage turned on so that they can track you.

Just open up a web browser in incognito mode. When you close it, all cookies and localstorage are gone.

OK, it's a little more work, but worth it.

Thanks.

https://reclaimthenet.org/youtube-censorship-candace-owens-men-women-podcast/

Political commentator Candace Owens accused YouTube of being “batshit woke” after it removed her podcast about gender identity. It is not clear why YouTube suddenly found the video offensive after being on the platform for a year.

On Friday, Owens tweeted that YouTube had removed her video because she said “men are not women and women are not men.” According to her remarks in the video are not so-called “hate speech” but the truth.

I use Earthlink search and AOL maps.

Microsoft is pretty evil too.



https://twitter.com/WolfieChristl/status/1331221942850949121

NoCoupForYou says

Oh please. Jesus. If somehow Europeans could not make it over here till now, Native Americans would still be living like they did in the 1500's. I don't doubt that at all.

I personally don't know any Native Americans, but they were sooooooooo damn primitive when we arrived. Even the communities they have now are generally sketchville. I'm sure most are nice people if you got to know them. They just don't seem very intelligent. Harsh opinion, but I don't think it's far from the truth.

I personally don't know any Native Americans, but they were sooooooooo damn primitive when we arrived.

True, they were a stone age people but they did give us corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Now imagine Italian food without tomatoes or Russia Vodka made without potatoes. Also imagine no cigars, chewing tobacco, cigarettes, or Prince Albert in a can.

I do know a few American Indians, and they are not into this bullshit. This bullshit is libruls. Just like American Indians actually like that sports teams are named redskins, Chiefs, and so on...
https://www.thewrap.com/washington-redskins-nfl-football-90-percent-native-americans-are-not-offended/

NoCoupForYou says

Imagine the smell of all those unwashed in the above picture.

HeadSet says

Now imagine Italian food without tomatoes or Russia Vodka made without potatoes.

Polish vodka. Russian vodka is made from grain.

Polish vodka. Russian vodka is made from grain.

And I thought Stoly production used up the supply of potatoes, and that was why potatoes at dinner were considered a treat in the Soviet Union. But you are correct.

HeadSet says

Stoly production used up the supply of potatoe

I think export Stoli is not made in Russia any more. There was a flurry of assassinations, bombings, executions, followed by lawsuits, and now there is one Stoli for Russia made in Russia, and another for Europe/US of A made in Baltic countries. Typical E. European business experience. One acquaintance of mine exited this business in early 90's after his business partner was turned into a sieve with a help of AK-47.

That sounds about right. I worked with a guy whose parents ran an ISP in Russia, until the police noticed that it was profitable and confiscated their whole setup to run it for their own profit.

Who do you go to when the police are robbing you?

The family moved to Canada after that.

HeadSet says

they did give us corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet potatoes

Well, it's not like they really gave them. They are native plants that the Indians happened to use. I guess they did improve corn yields quite a bit through selective breeding of bigger ears.

Don't forget the peppers!

Patrick says

Who do you go to when the police are robbing you?

@Patrick, A true story from E. Europe 1992: another friend of mine was in municipal police. Main income source for him was shaking down illegal exporters of metals (metal was stolen from State enterprises). After half year of lucrative "business" they shook down a group of crooks who had already paid off State police, so he got arrested. A month later State police who arrested him were arrested as well. Those particular crooks had paid off officials in Interior Ministry...so if police shakes down your business, pay off higher ranking officials.

@Dbr6 That's hilarious in a way. You could almost mathematically model the corruption.

https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/this-is-how-google-is-spying-on-everything-you-do/

Google has been secretly developing a covert version of Google Search for the Chinese Communist Party in order to enter the vast Chinese market. At the request of the Chinese government, Google will link users’ mobile phone numbers to the search terms they’ve used. This is to help the government crack down on dissidents and activists and to become more efficient overall at censoring the Internet. ...

This revelation should have been unsurprising, as Google had essentially been doing this in the West for ages. ...

If they can’t get your number from their services, Google has partnerships with Facebook, Twitter and other tech platforms to exchange that information with them. If that doesn’t work, Google turns to its 100,000s of third-party partners and data brokers like Acxiom to buy your phone number from offline databases.
Thanks to Ed Snowden, we know that all Google servers are tapped by intelligence agencies in the US and in the Five Eyes Alliance countries of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The US National Security Agency has a copy of your search history tied back to your phone number forever in their data centers. ...

Ever since Gmail came to existence, Google has been actively scanning your emails for keywords to expose you to more ads in your inbox. But Google also used your private emails to study your writing style and the way you type. Similar to how you walk is unique to your person, the way you hit keys on your keyboard and your writing style also belongs to you only.

This allows Google to identify you across your whole Internet presence, even if you create pseudonymous accounts on public forums like Reddit. ...

If you ever deleted your email or even your entire Gmail account, Google visually fulfills your request, but residual copies are kept in their offline backup systems indefinitely and Google doesn’t go after the third-party developers to delete their copies of your emails. Your private emails thus remain copied and stored in data centers across the globe with unknown security and no oversight. ...

The first time Google was caught tracking users location on their Android phones and tablets was through triangulation of nearby cell towers servicing users’ devices. This information was collected even when users turned off location services, never inserted a SIM card in their phone, or even after factory reset. There was no way for users to opt out. ...

This information was collected even when users turned off location services, never inserted a SIM card in their phone, or even after factory reset. There was no way for users to opt out. ...

This year is a big milestone for Google. 40% of global ad spending is expected to take place online, outspending TV advertising by $40 billion. Google achieved dominance in digital advertising thanks to their focus, commitment and sheer will – the will to know every single step you take.

Google is able to attract advertisers thanks to their ability to profile records of your entire activity on the web. By partnering with MasterCard and other credit card companies, Google to now has access to roughly 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the US and they’re able to track what you buy even in physical stores.

From an email:

I’m writing today to let you know that Fitbit is now officially part of Google. It’s an incredibly exciting moment for us as a company and for our Fitbit community of users around the globe.

Great, now even your Fitbit is spying on you and reporting your health info to Google to be compiled into the deep state dossier on you.

All your YouTube history can be easily stolen:

I just submitted a bug, using which, I could simply send a link to someone, and when they click on it and visit my website, I could steal their YouTube watch history, the links to watch all of their unlisted videos, their Watch Later playlist, the list of videos they’ve liked, and more. It was pretty damn cool.

https://bugs.xdavidhu.me/google/2021/01/18/the-embedded-youtube-player-told-me-what-you-were-watching-and-more/

Google is working on getting your browser itself to directly betray your browsing to them so they can sell that personal info.

Never use Chrome! Try Brave browser instead.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea

FLoC is meant to be a new way to make your browser do the profiling that third-party trackers used to do themselves: in this case, boiling down your recent browsing activity into a behavioral label, and then sharing it with websites and advertisers.

The term "Goolag" was coined back in 2006.

https://reclaimthenet.org/obama-admin-ftc-google-2013/

Obama administration refused to act on 2013 FTC report that proved Google’s wildly anticompetitive behavior

Google’s march toward overwhelming search, digital ad, and mobile OS market dominance was visible from orbit to everyone but the most casual technology observer as early as in 2013; but the Obama administration Federal Trade Commission (FTC) experts rejected it.

It was in January of that year that they decided not to sue Google after conducting a probe, launched in 2011, into the giant’s monopolistic behavior. To make matters worse, the FTC of the time neither disclosed the details of its probe, nor explained the reasons behind the decision.

Their hundreds of millions of secret dossiers on all American citizens, and the billions more on the rest of the world, ensure that Google will continue to get to do whatever the hell it wants to.

It's like the old East German secret police, the Stasi.

Sent to a European friend who wonders why I won't use Google at all, ever:

Do you remember the East German Stasi? (Staatssicherheitsdienst)

How did they control everyone?

There was a secret file on everyone where they accumulated embarrassing or legally actionable details about them.

That's Google, only a million times worse now.

Patrick says

Google is working on getting your browser itself to directly betray your browsing to them so they can sell that personal info.

Never use Chrome! Try Brave browser instead.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea

FLoC is meant to be a new way to make your browser do the profiling that third-party trackers used to do themselves: in this case, boiling down your recent browsing activity into a behavioral label, and then sharing it with websites and advertisers.

I've enabled the advertisements through Brave browser and you earn Basic Attention Tokens while doing so. After a month of using Brave, I have almost 1 BAT in my crypto wallet and the value of it jumped 50% this week to above $1. I have hardly noticed ads as they are very non-invasive and more importantly, not annoying the piss out of me. If people keep switching over to Brave, I think this system has legs as it allows users to earn part of the ad revenue and more importantly, cuts facebook, google, and the likes out of the game. I'm actually going to go on Gemini tomorrow and buy $100 worth of Basic Attention Tokens to support the system. If people continue to adopt it, the value of it will rise. I'm a big fan of Brave and after 20 years of using firefox, I was happy to switch over after Mozillas bullshit woketard tweets. I didn't realize the founder of Mozilla was the one who started Brave.

Patrick says

Google is working on getting your browser itself to directly betray your browsing to them so they can sell that personal info.

Yes, and they're already spinning it as they will no longer use cross-site cookies to track you... they'll just get the browser itself to track you