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Author Topic: Google scares me, I think.  (Read 6755 times)

tranglos

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Google scares me, I think.
« on: November 24, 2011, 04:38 PM »
Okay, now I am spooked. I was talking to a friend on Google Chat (part of the GMail interface). Through stupid absent-mindedness I typed a question, then closed the GMail tab and went to other things.

A minute later the reply came to my Android phone.

Apparently Google figured out that I was no longer "on" the chat and re-routed the message. Useful, yes. But scary, too! My phone is tied into my Google account, otherwise it'd be pretty useless, but I still try to keep up pretenses by disabling GPS, location services, all that. But there is no escaping anymore.



Renegade

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2011, 05:42 PM »
The company of the future: Enabling all the stuff you don't want with no obvious way to turn that **** off! :D

I get the same thing. I just can't be assed about caring anymore. If I did, I'd do nothing but un-hose things 25 hours a day.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Eóin

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2011, 07:13 PM »
I'm not so sure that Google intelligently rerouted the message, rather it probably reroutes every message and the ones classed as read don't get highlighted.

Either way, Google is VERY scary, Facebook is even more terrifying!

nosh

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2011, 11:35 PM »
*nosh hands out +1s (don't sue me, Google!) to everyone who's posted*

One of my scarier Google moments was when they introduced chat into their web mail and someone I was trying to avoid messaged me :'(
I was signed in by default, Google had decided who my friends were and who was I to argue? :)

I'm going to disassociate my main gmail ID from any Google service I use - create new, unrelated usernames for each service. I plan to extend this to other non-Google services like Twitter too. People tend to use the same user ID across services for the sake of convenience and it makes it hellishly simple for anyone to connect the dots.

mahesh2k

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2011, 01:45 AM »
They're nagging android users (ice cream sandwich update) to sign up for google+. This is way too scary than facebook. Adwords and analytics carry more personal data than facebook can collect in their fortress.

I don't know why mouser is using google analytics here if there is piwik alternative that he can install on server. I have blocked analytics already with ghostery and ABP but still why use it.

joiwind

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2011, 04:51 AM »
I don't know why mouser is using google analytics here if there is piwik alternative that he can install on server. I have blocked analytics already with ghostery and ABP but still why use it.

StatCounter is better than piwik IMHO.

mahesh2k

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2011, 08:53 AM »
Statcounter is not a replacement for google analytics or piwik. Statcounter is similar to awstats and suits as a hit counter. Though it does show data like piwik and analytics but it comes with feature limitation. It also has a limit of logs as per member level. For free members data and logs are limited. In case of piwik and owa there is no such limitations as it is self hosted and if you've a dedicated server then piwik and owa are good replacement of google analytics.

Open web analytics and Piwik both are free and carry exact same features that are in offer from Google analytics.

joiwind

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #7 on: November 25, 2011, 12:08 PM »
mahesh2k - yes you're right, I should have thought before speaking.

Stoic Joker

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2011, 12:51 PM »
Open web analytics[/url] and Piwik both are free and carry exact same features that are in offer from Google analytics.

Do either of these run better (or just right...) on a Windows IIS server?

mahesh2k

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2011, 01:28 PM »
mahesh2k - yes you're right, I should have thought before speaking.
Your point still holds because piwik requires self hosting and statcounter frees your from that limitation. Statcounter is a good package for those without their own servers or those with shared servers.


@Stoic Joker, working with linux server so no idea about Windows box.

zridling

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #10 on: November 25, 2011, 03:48 PM »
If you have verify enabled, it will send you a message each time you logon from another physical device. Make sure it's disabled:
https://www.google.c...counts/SmsAuthConfig

f0dder

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Re: Google scares me, I think.
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2011, 10:32 AM »
Okay, now I am spooked. I was talking to a friend on Google Chat (part of the GMail interface). Through stupid absent-mindedness I typed a question, then closed the GMail tab and went to other things.

A minute later the reply came to my Android phone.

Apparently Google figured out that I was no longer "on" the chat and re-routed the message. Useful, yes. But scary, too! My phone is tied into my Google account, otherwise it'd be pretty useless, but I still try to keep up pretenses by disabling GPS, location services, all that. But there is no escaping anymore.
Nothing scary about this, it's simply the (extremly useful) gmail+gtalk integration. And I agree with Eóin's assessment that it's nothing to do with "detecting which device you're on", but rather your android phone doing pull updates every N seconds, and only popping up chat messages that haven't been flagged as 'read'... which they would be, when sitting on your PC.
- carpe noctem