With all the attention paid to Facebook over ‘data breaches’ and privacy violations, it’s easy to forget there are four other Big Tech corporations collecting just as much — or even more — of our personal info. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are all central players in “surveillance capitalism” and prey on our data. According to new reports, Google might in fact harvest ten times as much as Facebook.
Curious about how much of his data Google had, web developer Dylan Curran said he downloaded his Google data file, that is offered by the company in a hub called “My Account.” This hub was created back in 2015, along with a tool called “My Activity.” The report issued is similar to the one Facebook delivers to its users upon request.
Whether or not those reports are comprehensive is still up in the air, yet Curran says that his was 5.5 GB, which is almost ten times larger than the one Facebook offered him. According to Mr. Curran, the amount and type of data in his file suggests Google isn't only constantly tracking our online movements but might also be monitoring our physical locations.
Curran’s Google report contained a shocking amount of documentation on his web activity, going back over a decade. But maybe more importantly, Google had also been tracking his real-life movements via his smartphone device or tablet. This included somewhat random places he had frequented, many of the foreign countries and cities he's visited, the bars and restaurants he went to while in those countries, the amount of time he spent there; even the path he took to get there and back.
That, of course, is not new. It's been well-known for some time that Google silently tracks us everywhere we go and creates a map of our physical movements through its Location History feature. You can deactivate it by going to your timeline and adjusting the preferences.
Another Google user downloaded his file and found the company had been archiving his data even when he browsed in Incognito mode, a setting which advertises itself as one that doesn't save browsing history.
Like Facebook, Google gathers our info for sale to 3rd-party advertisers, including our names, email addresses, telephone numbers, credit cards, specific ways we use Google’s services, our mode of interaction with any website that uses Google technology (like AdWords), our device, and our search queries. And if we don’t enter our account and make adjustments, pretty much anything we do online while deploying a Google tool is tracked.
But much of the location data stems from the use of Google apps such as Maps or Now, that broadcast our location, according to The Mind Unleashed. If you want to stop this information from being shared, you have to go into your account settings and make adjustments.
Google’s policy also lists the three major categories of data collection: Things you do; Things you create; and Things that make you “you.”
However, you do have the ability to limit this info from getting out. You can turn off location tracking, voice searches, and other features; you can view and edit your preferences; you can also adjust your public profile, and you can download Google’s data hoard to see what they see.
Will deleting a select amount of our data from the innards of the Big 5 stop predatory data mining? Certainly not. While Facebook testifies before Congress, however, we have an opportunity to draw attention to some of the consequences of a technocracy which privatizes surveillance. As the control grid tightens, our reaction indicates our level of complacency.
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