Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Is Google Fi privacy-invasive with regards to mobile data? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 days ago by unicornBro@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've heard that they ask for a Gmail account to sign up for the phone service.

I know that it's a T-Mobile mvno.

My question: Does everything people do on the internet using Google Fi mobile data get logged by Google?

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[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Honestly why even ask the question or read the ToS when you know the business model of Google?

To be clear Google is NOT a technology company! Google is an advertising company which, unlike traditional advertising companies selling physical ad space, sells online ad space. Through vertical integration they also happen to distribute software, e.g. Android, Chrome, etc, services e.g. Google Search, GMail, GDrive, GCloud, and hardware, e.g. Pixel, Nest, etc which they are not giving for free but at a low price, and infrastructure, e.g. Google Fi.

... but ALL those products are ONLY existing to sell ads!

I let derive your own conclusion for Google Fi and every other product they provide.

TL;DR: of f*cking course.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Read the TOS. They tell you.

https://fi.google.com/about/tos/#google-fi-privacy-notice

Google does Google stuff with your data, and shares it with any Alphabet entities they want. Which means it gets sold and traded like any other data. Sure "not your name" but data enough to 100% identify you, fore sure.

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Pretty much every carrier is the same way, unfortunately. And large companies sell and trade the data between each other.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is the correct take. The only difference between Google Fi and any other carrier is the amount they charge customers.

That's not meant to be a compliment to Google. It is a lament at our lack of options.

[–] bl4kers@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'd argue it's different in the case of Pixel phones. In that case they're controlling nearly 100% of the phone experience which probably allows them to maximize data collection

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

Google Fi doesn't require you to use a Pixel phone.

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Again, it's not that different from using a Pixel phone on any other carrier. The only difference is the first point of contact for some of your personal information.

By the time it's sold or traded between companies, it doesn't matter what the first point of contact was.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

Yes, but you get that, PLUS you get Google's invasive surveilance. Rather than using the default Andoid app to track who you talk to, they can do it with iphones.

[–] Steve@communick.news 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I don't know it for a fact, I just know it's true, that Google collects and logs every byte of data that goes through its servers.