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This is the big pivot of privacy, according to Google.
Tuesday, The New York Times Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote an editorial on privacy in which he said that privacy was not a luxury product and that Google intended to offer people a "clear and meaningful choice" around their privacy. data. On the same day, Pichai's opinion group held its annual developer conference, I / O, during which it announced that Android Q, its latest mobile operating system, would with 50 privacy and security features.
Some of these features are new, such as more accurate location tracking controls, particularly sensitive topic for Google because it has been continued last summer for location data storage even after users have deactivated the location history settings. Others have already been announced or are extensions of what Google was already offering in its applications, such as connections without password in Chrome mode or in "incognito" mode.
But as Google increases the number of privacy features (as part of an attempt to clean up its reputation), configuring settings, flip-flops and dashboards within its applications seems impose more responsibilities on the user Platform. As Pichai himself said, Google's goal is to give people "choices". your choice if you want to take the time to adjust, monitor, extract or disable something. Just like it is Google choosing not to change its fundamental approach to data collection to help better target advertising and thereby make a lot of money.
Nevertheless, the leaders made privacy a focal point in Tuesday's I / O speeches. They showed how the latest mobile operating system will remind users that applications are using their location even when they are not available. do not use it. Users can adjust privacy settings in three different ways: Activity Controls, Location History, and Ad Settings. And, apart from Android Q, Google users can now set deadlines in which Google retains certain types of information, although by default, Google retains indefinitely your web and activity data.
Otherwise, the features have been moved to slightly more convenient locations. "In [Android] Q, we brought privacy to the first level in the settings, "said Stephanie Cuthbertson, Senior Director of Android, during the speech yesterday. This is a modification of the current mobile design, which involves going to Google's services and preferences; although "higher level" still does not mean that the page is immediately visible. In the future, if you use Google Mobile Search and you tap the image of your account, the "Your data in search" option will appear as an option in the drop-down menu. At this time, if you tap the image of your account, you must first tap "Manage your Google Account" to access "Personal Information and Privacy."
Jen King, director of privacy protection for the Center for Internet and Society, says she believes that most people tend to find privacy settings very confusing. We most often think of Facebook, which regularly reorganizes its privacy settings and offers users an extremely detailed set of options. But Google is not immune to that either. As part of her own doctoral dissertation, which included a small sample of topics, she found that half of those surveyed knew how to clear their Google search history and many had taken the initiative to browse and clean it.
"It will be a small minority that will take the initiative," said King. "It's not that people do not care; It's just A), not their absolute priority, and B) it's often hard for people to understand this stuff. "
When WIRED asked Google for information about how users are using Google's existing privacy tools on mobile and the web, the company initially shared the same statement published in a 2018 blog: "Billions of people have already visited their Google account and more than 20 million people do it every day. " When she was in a hurry, the company said that in the past 28 days, 160 million connected users have "used" the privacy tools at Google's account level, which can be found in the Data and Personalization section of My Account. . He declined to share the number of people who used the Privacy Checkup tool, the most important step-by-step guide when accessing your Google Account.
This recent essay on privacy practices, written by former googler Jessica Powell, was of course satirical, but it's hard not to think about it: "If we make it a bit difficult to get to your parameters, this is that people are not really interested in playing with these things. "
Most people do not read privacy policies either, according to a recent survey conducted by more than 4,000 US adults. Axios and SurveyMonkey. But Google has faith in your will. When Rick Osterloh, Google's hardware manager, introduced the new Nest brand smartphone on Tuesday, he made it clear that the camera and the camera's microphones could be turned off mechanically and that a light was on. for the camera. He also stated that the company "publishes confidentiality commitments for our domestic products that clearly explain how they work, what data they store, and how they are used."
All you have to do, according to my browsing experience in this new privacy protection doctrine, is to go to the Google Help Center, then in Your Privacy, then in Data Security and privacy on Google Home, and to determine which of the 26 sample questions best fits the question. the question you're asking about Google Home products and your data. If you can find it, it will only take a few days to understand what's right for you!
It seems that Google is actually using its intelligence to make our online and mobile experiences more private in other ways. On Tuesday, during the I / O keynote address, Mr. Pichai spoke about Google's work on federated learning, which allows researchers to create machine learning models from disparate datasets and data. perform artificial intelligence functions locally on a device. In short, it allows devices running Google's software to be smarter. without send user information to Google's servers somewhere. This change is similar to the changes made by Google to comply with the GDPR, the European Data Protection and Privacy Act that came into effect about a year ago.
It is also easy to imagine Google, if it wanted to, by using its artificial intelligence prowess to make the privacy settings less expensive, or by making even smarter suggestions about the parameters, as it is done for localization. in Android Q. It could create an automated version. of its confidentiality report. Researchers have already created applications such as this one around application permissions, questions that must be addressed when first installing an application to ensure that the creator of the application is not too intrusive. A Google spokesman said the company had no similar feature to announce at the moment, but that she "is still looking for new ways to improve transparency and give users a useful control over their privacy ".
And then there is the sometimes legitimate argument that disabling some default settings, such as disabling location services in a map application, would break the functionality of the application. Having requests for permissions whenever you use certain apps would probably be irritating; Think about how many times you can open your Gmail app every day or have to review a series of data tracking requests every time you want to get directions. The truth is that many people may care enough about privacy, but care more about convenience.
Technology companies have made the choice between convenience and privacy, and convenience will always prevail. Smaller utilities, such as moving a privacy setting higher up the hierarchy of an application, are probably not the answer.
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