Google hit with €1.5bn fine from EU over advertising

The search engine has been fined for blocking rival online search advertisers.
Article word count: 375

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19440926
Posted by okket (karma: 35450)
Post stats: Points: 169 - Comments: 140 - 2019-03-20T11:15:48Z

#HackerNews #€15bn #advertising #fine #from #google #hit #over #with

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Article content:




[1]Google logo Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Alphabetʼs Google remains a dominant force in online advertising

Google has been hit with a €1.49bn (£1.28bn) fine from the EU for blocking rival online search advertisers.

It is the third EU fine for the search and advertising giant in two years.

The case accuses Google of abusing its market dominance by restricting third-party rivals from displaying search ads between 2006 and 2016.

In response, Google changed its AdSense contracts with large third parties, giving them more leeway to display competing search ads.

Google owner Alphabet makes large amounts of money from advertising - [2]pre-tax profits reached $30.7bn (£23bn) in 2018, up from $12.66bn in 2017.

"Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites.

"This is illegal under EU anti-trust rules," said EC commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

Last year, the EU competition authority [3]hit Google with a record €4.34bn fine for using its popular Android mobile operating system to block rivals.

This followed [4]a €2.42bn fine in 2017 for hindering rivals of shopping comparison websites.

AdSense fine

The European Commission said that websites often had an embedded search function.

When a consumer uses this, the website delivers both search results and search adverts, which appear alongside the search result.

Googleʼs "AdSense for search" product delivers those adverts for website publishers.

The Commission described Google as acting like "an intermediary, like an advertising broker".

In 2006, Google started to include "exclusivity clauses" in contracts which stopped publishers from placing ads from Google rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo on search pages, the Commission said.

From 2009, Google started replacing the exclusivity clauses with "premium placement" clauses, which meant publishers had to keep the most profitable space on their search results pages for Googleʼs adverts and they had to request a minimum number of Google adverts.

Publishers also needed to get written permission from Google before making any changes to how rival ads were displayed, letting Google control "how attractive, and therefore clicked on, competing search adverts could be", the Commission said.

Between 2006 to 2016, Google had more than 70% of the search intermediation market in the EU. It generally had more than 90% of the search market and more than 75% of the online search advertising market, the Commission added.

References

Visible links
2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47125043
3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44858238
4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40406542

HackerNewsBot debug: Calculated post rank: 159 - Loop: 64 - Rank min: 100 - Author rank: 69

Trump orders investigation into critical news outlets, Google, Twitter and Facebook

“It seems to be, if it’s conservatives, if Republicans, there is big discrimination,” Drumpf said of social media platforms. “I see it absolutely on Twitter,” he said, also naming Google and Facebook as offenders.

I guess her heard about Nunes' lawsuit against Twitter for allowing people to express their sometimes blatant opinion. But why would he name Twitter anyway? I mean, he's on there all the time, trampling through it with his tweets, it's like his regular press secretary. He's an idiot, after all.

“You look at the networks, you look at the news, you look at the newscasts – I call it Fake News,” Drumpf said, letting Bolsonaro know he had first dibs.

During the eventful Rose Garden presser, Drumpf also announced the “twilight hour of socialism has arrived” in the Western Hemisphere, citing unrest in Nicaragua, and change in Cuba.

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#Trump #DonaldTrump #FakeNews #Twitter #Facebook #Google #Autocracy #Authoritarianism #News #Politics #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfExpression #FreePress #PressFreedom #ImpeachTheMotherfucker #NotMyPresident #PresidentTrump

Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

Stadia is here.
Article word count: 994

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19432957
Posted by valgaze (karma: 1706)
Post stats: Points: 274 - Comments: 302 - 2019-03-19T17:15:34Z

#HackerNews #cloud #gaming #google #service #stadia #unveils

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Article content:




Google is launching its Stadia cloud gaming service at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who says he plays FIFA 19 “quite a bit,” introduced the Stadia service during a special keynote at GDC this morning. Describing it as a platform for everyone, Pichai talked up Google’s ambitions to stream games to all types of devices. Stadia will stream games from the cloud to the Chrome browser, Chromecast, and Pixel devices, and it will launch at some point in 2019 in the US, Canada, UK, and Europe.

Phil Harrison, a former Sony and Microsoft executive, joined Pichai onstage to fully unveil Stadia in [1]his role at Google. Harrison says Google will amplify this game streaming service by using YouTube and the many creators that already create game clips on the service. Google previously tested this service as [2]Project Stream in recent months, allowing Chrome users to stream games in their browser. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was the first and only game to be tested publicly using Google’s service, and the public tests finished in January.

Of course, Google won’t limit Stadia to just one game. Google demonstrated a new feature in YouTube that lets you view a game clip from a creator and then hit “play now” to instantly stream the title. “Stadia offers instant access to play,” says Harrison, without the need to download or install any games. At launch, games will be streamable across laptops, desktops, TVs, tablets, and phones.

"Google will leverage YouTube for Stadia"

Google demonstrated moving gameplay seamlessly from a phone to a tablet and then to a TV, all using Google-powered devices. While existing USB controllers will work on a laptop or PC, Google is also launching a new Stadia Controller that will power the game streaming service. It looks like a cross between an Xbox and PS4 controller, and it will work with the Stadia service by connecting directly through Wi-Fi to link it to a game session in the cloud. This will presumably help with latency and moving a game from one device to another. You can also use a button to capture and share clips straight to YouTube, or use another button to access the Google Assistant.

To power all of this cloud streaming, Google is leveraging its global infrastructure of data centers to ensure servers are as close to players around the world as possible. That’s a key part of Stadia, as lower latency is a necessity to stream games effectively across the internet. Google will support up to 4K at 60 fps at launch, and it’s planning to support up to 8K resolutions and 120 fps in the future.

"Stadia has more teraflops of power than an Xbox One X"

Google is partnering with AMD to build a custom GPU for its datacenters. It’s a chip that Google claims will deliver 10.7 teraflops of power, which is more than the 4.2 teraflops of the PS4 Pro and the 6 teraflops of power on the Xbox One X. Each Stadia instance will also be powered by a custom 2.7GHz x86 processor with 16GB of RAM.

One of the first games to launch on Google’s Stadia service will be Doom Eternal, which will support 4K resolution, HDR, and 60 fps game play. Doom Eternal doesn’t have a firm launch date just yet, but it will also be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. Stadia will also embrace full cross-platform play, so developers can enable cross-platform multiplayer and game saves and progression.

Focusing on developers, Google also unveiled an impressive way for game developers to apply their own design style to titles on Stadia. It’s a machine learning-based style transfer tool that developers can use to simply drop an image into the video frames of games and have it mimic the style throughout. Google is also using something called State Share to let players easily share moments, so you can even share an exact link to a part of a game, changing the way games are typically shared. Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert is even building an entire game all around this new State Share feature.

YouTube is a giant part of Stadia, and Google appears to be relying on it to push gamers to its cloud service. More than 50 billion hours of gaming content was watched on YouTube during 2018, so Google is letting Stadia users highlight, capture, and share straight to YouTube or even let viewers play alongside creators. A Crowd Play feature of Stadia is designed to facilitate this, and it includes a lobby system to let you match up with YouTube content creators.

"Google launches its own game dev studio"

Google is even creating its own game studio for Stadia-exclusive titles, Stadia Games and Entertainment. Jade Raymond, who recently joined Google as a VP is leading Google’s push for its own games. Raymond is an industry veteran who has previously worked at Sony, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft. Google says more than 100 studios already have dev kits for Stadia, and more than 1,000 creatives and engineers are already working on titles that will work on the service.

While Google unveiled Stadia today, it had no details on exactly when the service will be available other than 2019. Google didn’t reveal pricing or even how many games the service will have at launch, but is promising more details in the summer.

Google will naturally face competition from a number of rivals that you’d typically associate with games and gaming services. Microsoft is planning its own [3]xCloud game streaming service, which it [4]demonstrated recently, with public trials set to start later this year. [5]Amazon also appears to be readying a similar service, and both Nvidia and Sony are already streaming games over the internet. Even Valve is [6]expanding its Steam Link game-streaming feature to allow you to stream your Steam games from a PC to anywhere through the Steam Link hardware or the Steam Link app.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/22/16921214/phil-harrison-google-games
2. https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/8/17950998/google-project-stream-gaming-assasins-creed-odyssey-first-impression
3. https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/8/17950878/microsoft-xcloud-game-streaming-xbox-games-features
4. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/13/18263405/microsoft-xcloud-game-streaming-demo-video
5. https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/10/18177253/amazon-cloud-gaming-service-rumor-job-posting
6. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/14/18265818/valve-steam-link-anywhere-personal-cloud-service-gaming-pc-gdc-2019

HackerNewsBot debug: Calculated post rank: 283 - Loop: 167 - Rank min: 100 - Author rank: 45

KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

“KDE Connect has been removed from @GooglePlay for violating their new policy on apps that access SMS [1]. The policy has an explicit exception for companion apps (like KDE Connect), but it was…
Article word count: 590

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19429193
Posted by coolgoose (karma: 115)
Post stats: Points: 161 - Comments: 52 - 2019-03-19T09:09:29Z

#HackerNews #connect #for #from #google #kde #new #play #policy #removed #sms #store #violating

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Article content:



[1] [IMG][2]Albert Vaca Cintora‏ @albertvaka [3]3h3 hours ago

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KDE Connect has been removed from [4]@GooglePlay for violating their new policy on apps that access SMS [1]. The policy has an explicit exception for companion apps (like KDE Connect), but it was removed anyway and thereʼs no way to talk to Google. 1/N [1][5]https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9047303 …

[6] [IMG][7]Albert Vaca Cintora‏ @albertvaka [8]3h3 hours ago

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Google only provides one-way forms to contact them. Iʼve filled the forms regarding this policy change (including one they sent to existing apps before the policy was effective) but never got an explanation to why KDE Connect doesnʼt qualify as a companion app. 2/N

Show this thread
[9] [IMG][10]Albert Vaca Cintora‏ @albertvaka [11]3h3 hours ago

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There is simply no way to talk to a human being at [12]@Google. I bet this saves a lot in customer support. 3/N

Show this thread
[13] [IMG][14]Albert Vaca Cintora‏ @albertvaka [15]3h3 hours ago

* 
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Iʼm about to upload a version of KDE Connect to the Play Store with the SMS functionality removed. Those who want the full app, can still download it from F-Droid: [16]https://f-droid.org/packages/org.kde.kdeconnect_tp/ … Thanks [17]@fdroidorg! 4/N

Show this thread
[18] [IMG][19]Albert Vaca Cintora‏ @albertvaka [20]3h3 hours ago

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To make things better, the [21]@GooglePlay console gives me an internal error, so I canʼt upload the version without SMS support. Meanwhile, new users canʼt download KDE Connect. [22]👏 Good job Google.[23]pic.twitter.com/Cy8D1CsOJH

Show this thread
[24] [IMG][25]Gürkan 🇪🇺�’‏ @gurkanfalan [26]2h2 hours ago

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Replying to [27]@albertvaka [28]@GooglePlay

Thanks google for constantly reminding me that I should free myself from it.

[29] [IMG][30]Alfie Day‏ @Azelphur [31]2h2 hours ago

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Replying to [32]@albertvaka [33]@GooglePlay

Good thing I was already using [34]@fdroidorg. [35]@GooglePlay needs sort this silliness out.

[36] [IMG][37]Andrei Costin Balaianu‏ @ABalaianu [38]3h3 hours ago

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Replying to [39]@albertvaka [40]@GooglePlay

This is so Google (and Apple, and Facebook and...wait...I donʼt have enough characters available for this list)

[41] [IMG][42]Chris Hills‏ @chaz_6 [43]36m36 minutes ago

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Replying to [44]@albertvaka [45]@GooglePlay

It would be useful if the *.apk files were available at [46]https://github.com/KDE/kdeconnect-android/releases/ … for direct installation in the meantime

[47] [IMG][48]mase‏ @mase_nocturnal [49]1h1 hour ago

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Replying to [50]@albertvaka [51]@GooglePlay

Thankfully it is still on [52]@fdroidorg

[53] [IMG][54]Giuseppe Pignataro‏ @fastbyte01 [55]2h2 hours ago

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Replying to [56]@albertvaka [57]@kubuntu [58]@GooglePlay

The Google support for developers publishing on [59]@GooglePlay is really worst. [60]@Android is the first mobile OS thanks for the support of all the developers that create apps for it and they arenʼt able to give us a decent support.

[61] [IMG][62]Carlos Soriano‏ @csoriano1618 [63]53m53 minutes ago

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Replying to [64]@albertvaka [65]@GooglePlay

Recently we had some issues too with Google API policies at GNOME... itʼs not being easy to work effectively with them [66]😔

[67] [IMG][68]Carlos Soriano‏ @csoriano1618 [69]51m51 minutes ago

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Replying to [70]@csoriano1618 [71]@albertvaka [72]@GooglePlay

This is like all big companies though, we had a good experience with other departments like GSoc or so.

[73] [IMG][74]RAMY‏ @RamySami [75]2m2 minutes ago

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Replying to [76]@albertvaka [77]@GooglePlay

Epic was right not to put Fortnite on Google play

[78] [IMG][79]RTheren‏ @r_theren [80]4m4 minutes ago

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Replying to [81]@albertvaka [82]@GooglePlay

I use the version fro F-Droid anyway. This really sucks, like a lot.

[83] [IMG][84]Chris Hills‏ @chaz_6 [85]38m38 minutes ago

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Replying to [86]@albertvaka [87]@GooglePlay

Perhaps this could be pursued under antitrust laws? They must be able to be held to account.

[88] [IMG][89]Anthony Maurin‏ @spartanz51 [90]54m54 minutes ago

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Replying to [91]@albertvaka [92]@Alex193a [93]@GooglePlay

@GooglePlay please fix that

[94] [IMG][95]Emrah Urhan‏ @raxetul [96]1h1 hour ago

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Replying to [97]@albertvaka [98]@sinanonur [99]@GooglePlay

[100]😡

[101] [IMG][102]Vladymyr L‏ @Vladymyr_L [103]2h2 hours ago

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Replying to [104]@albertvaka [105]@GooglePlay

I think the worst thing that could do Google for his customer is to leave them without the best program without any real reason just for some dumb policy.

References

Visible links
1. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
2. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
3. https://twitter.com/albertvaka/status/1107924633750253568
4. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
5. https://t.co/WDXEqTUhHl
6. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
7. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
8. https://twitter.com/albertvaka/status/1107924634823987200
9. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
10. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
11. https://twitter.com/albertvaka/status/1107924635818098689
12. https://twitter.com/Google
13. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
14. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
15. https://twitter.com/albertvaka/status/1107924636799504384
16. https://t.co/vsudDrzzgS
17. https://twitter.com/fdroidorg
18. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
19. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
20. https://twitter.com/albertvaka/status/1107924637927772160
21. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
23. https://t.co/Cy8D1CsOJH
24. https://twitter.com/gurkanfalan
25. https://twitter.com/gurkanfalan
26. https://twitter.com/gurkanfalan/status/1107944301487706112
27. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
28. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
29. https://twitter.com/Azelphur
30. https://twitter.com/Azelphur
31. https://twitter.com/Azelphur/status/1107942514982555648
32. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
33. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
34. https://twitter.com/fdroidorg
35. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
36. https://twitter.com/ABalaianu
37. https://twitter.com/ABalaianu
38. https://twitter.com/ABalaianu/status/1107933048375595010
39. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
40. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
41. https://twitter.com/chaz_6
42. https://twitter.com/chaz_6
43. https://twitter.com/chaz_6/status/1107965389470879745
44. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
45. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
46. https://t.co/xDeIT4JimH
47. https://twitter.com/mase_nocturnal
48. https://twitter.com/mase_nocturnal
49. https://twitter.com/mase_nocturnal/status/1107955556042473474
50. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
51. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
52. https://twitter.com/fdroidorg
53. https://twitter.com/fastbyte01
54. https://twitter.com/fastbyte01
55. https://twitter.com/fastbyte01/status/1107951448304898048
56. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
57. https://twitter.com/kubuntu
58. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
59. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
60. https://twitter.com/Android
61. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618
62. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618
63. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618/status/1107961030204899328
64. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
65. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
67. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618
68. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618
69. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618/status/1107961542547517441
70. https://twitter.com/csoriano1618
71. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
72. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
73. https://twitter.com/RamySami
74. https://twitter.com/RamySami
75. https://twitter.com/RamySami/status/1107973938615906307
76. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
77. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
78. https://twitter.com/r_theren
79. https://twitter.com/r_theren
80. https://twitter.com/r_theren/status/1107973513917411328
81. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
82. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
83. https://twitter.com/chaz_6
84. https://twitter.com/chaz_6
85. https://twitter.com/chaz_6/status/1107964950243393541
86. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
87. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
88. https://twitter.com/spartanz51
89. https://twitter.com/spartanz51
90. https://twitter.com/spartanz51/status/1107960807386685445
91. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
92. https://twitter.com/Alex193a
93. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
94. https://twitter.com/raxetul
95. https://twitter.com/raxetul
96. https://twitter.com/raxetul/status/1107958422920720385
97. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
98. https://twitter.com/sinanonur
99. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay
101. https://twitter.com/Vladymyr_L
102. https://twitter.com/Vladymyr_L
103. https://twitter.com/Vladymyr_L/status/1107948467480154112
104. https://twitter.com/albertvaka
105. https://twitter.com/GooglePlay

HackerNewsBot debug: Calculated post rank: 124 - Loop: 108 - Rank min: 100 - Author rank: 82

EU government websites have undisclosed adtech trackers from Google and others

Plus: UK health service sites contain commercial trackers
Article word count: 857

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19424041
Posted by snaky (karma: 3287)
Post stats: Points: 162 - Comments: 44 - 2019-03-18T19:03:20Z

#HackerNews #adtech #and #from #google #government #have #others #trackers #undisclosed #websites

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Article content:




All but three of the European Union member statesʼ government websites are littered with undisclosed adtech trackers from Google and other firms, with many piggy-backing on third-party scripts, according to an analysis of almost 200,000 webpages.

The [1]report (PDF), published today by Cookiebot in collaboration with civil rights association European Digital Rights (EDRi), scanned 184,683 EU government webpages on 11 and 12 March to assess the cookies on each.

It found that there were 112 companies slurping up information on EU citizensʼ browsing habits on the webpages of the governments supposedly fighting the good fight against excess stalking of netizens.

Adtech trackers were found on 25 of the 28 member statesʼ sites, with only Spain, Germany and the Netherlands clean of commercial cookies. There were 52 companies identified on Franceʼs government sites, 27 on Latviaʼs and 19 on Belgiumʼs. Twenty cookies were [2]identified on GOV.UK, of which 12 were marketing, and all belonged to one company – Google.

Indeed, the search giant is described as the "kingpin of tracking" within the report, present on 82 per cent of all the sites and accounting for three of the top five trackers: YouTube, DoubleClick and Google.

The report authors said this was of "special concern" because Google can cross-reference trackers with its first-party account details via its widely used consumer services such as Mail, Search and Android apps.

Separately, the work assessed public health service sites, again finding that cookies were widespread, with 52 per cent of those tested having commercial trackers.

And again, Google was right up there, making up two of the top five, with the others being Adobeʼs eversttech.net, AppNexusʼ adnxs.com and Mediamathʼs Mathtag.com.

For this assessment, the researchers chose six EU countries and carried out 15 health-related search queries – such as "How do I know if I have HIV?", "Signs of being an alcoholic" and "I want to terminate my pregnancy" – from IP addresses in each country to identify the relevant landing pages on each nationʼs health service.

In the UK, some 60 per cent of these landing pages had such ad trackers, less only than Irish sites, where trackers appeared on 73 per cent of landing pages. A single German website about maternity leave was monitored by 63 companies, while a French page about abortion was tracked by 21 firms.

The group said this could be used to "infer sensitive facts about [usersʼ] health condition and life situation" and be resold to target ads. "These citizens have no clear way to prevent this leakage, understand where their data is sent, or to correct or delete the data," it said.

The extent of tracking on these sites is even more alarming, the report argued, because they donʼt rely on ad revenue. In some cases, governments will want to use companiesʼ services, but in others the firms gained access to these non-commercial sites through "free" third-party JavaScript tech services, like share buttons or plugins.

"These scripts can act as Trojan horses, opening backdoors to the website code through which ad tech companies can silently insert their trackers," the report said.

It urged website owners to be more careful when including third-party components on their sites; to make sure they had a detailed overview of the current trackers; and to remove any unwanted ones from the source code.

Visitors should also be offered full transparency and control over trackers on the site – but it shouldnʼt just be up to users to lock down their browsing habits. Stronger regulations need to be in force, and adhered to.

"How can any organisation live up to its [European General Data Protection Regulation] GDPR and ePrivacy obligations if it does not control unauthorised tracking actors accessing their website?" asked Cookiebot founder Daniel Johannsen.

"Public sector bodies now have the opportunity to lead by example – at a minimum by shutting down any digital rights infringements that they are facilitating on their own websites."

Diego Naranjo at EDRi used the opportunity to lament the delay to the long-awaited [3]ePrivacy Regulation, which was initially meant to be enforced as the yin to the GDPRʼs yang, covering communications data rather than personal data.

However, it has been [4]stuck in discussions between member states for more than a year, and privacy activists fear it is being watered down as a result of lobbying from adtech industry and concerns among member states.

If it does lose ground, Naranjo warned, it will "open a Pandoraʼs box of more and more sharing, merging and reselling of personal data in huge online commercial surveillance networks, in which citizens are being unwittingly tracked and micro-targeted with commercial and political manipulation."

Their calls for progress echo those made by the European Data Protection Board last week. The group – made up of the blocʼs data protection watchdogs and EU data protection supervisor – issued a statement urging legislators to "intensify efforts" to adopt it.

"The future ePrivacy Regulation should under no circumstance lower the level of protection offered by the current ePrivacy Directive and should complement the GDPR by providing additional strong guarantees for all types of electronic communications," it [5]said. ®

Sponsored: [6]Becoming a Pragmatic Security Leader

References

Visible links
1. https://www.cookiebot.com/media/1121/cookiebot-report-2019-medium-size.pdf
2. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uz5lrz5bqglracj/AAD9s8fzdpZem1KE-1KvNKqFa/UK?dl=0&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
3. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/11/european_parliament_eprivacy_rapporteur_birgit_sippel_interview/
4. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/02/2019_eprivacy_brexit/
5. https://edpb.europa.eu/news/news/2019/european-data-protection-board-eighth-plenary-session-interplay-eprivacy-directive_en
6. https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1818/-7142/becoming-a-pragmatic-security-leader?td=wptl1818

HackerNewsBot debug: Calculated post rank: 122 - Loop: 125 - Rank min: 100 - Author rank: 24

How to live without Google (2017)

Google tracking is more pervasive than most people realize. We show you some alternatives to Google services to limit your exposure.

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19419732
Posted by deathwarmedover (karma: 187)
Post stats: Points: 110 - Comments: 103 - 2019-03-18T09:39:26Z

#HackerNews #2017 #google #how #live #without

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Article content:




Remove Google from your life? Yes, it can be done!

[1]Emoji

Google trackers have been found on [2]75% of the top million websites. This means they are not only tracking what you search for, theyʼre also tracking which websites you visit, and using all your data for ads that follow you around the Internet. Your personal data can also be subpoenaed by lawyers, including for civil cases like divorce. Google answered [3]over 100,000 such data requests in 2016 alone!

More and more people are also realizing the risk of relying on one company for so many personal services. If youʼre joining the ranks of people whoʼve decided Googleʼs data collection has become too invasive, here are some suggestions for replacements with minimal switching cost. Most are free, though even those that are paid are worth it — the cost of not switching is a cost to your personal privacy, and the good news is we have a choice!

[4]Boy choosing from a selection of ice cream.

Google Search -> [5]DuckDuckGo (free)
Letʼs start off with the easiest one! Switching to DuckDuckGo not only keeps your searches private but also gives you extra advantages such as our [6]bang shortcuts, handy [7]Instant Answers, and knowing youʼre not trapped in a [8]filter bubble.

Gmail, Calendar & Contacts -> [9]FastMail (paid)
We host @duckduckgo.com addresses on FastMail, an independent, paid service that also includes calendar and contacts support across all devices. There are also several ways to get encrypted email between trusted parties by [10]integrating PGP encryption tools. Even more private email alternatives are [11]ProtonMail and [12]Tutanota, both of which offer end-to-end encryption by default.

YouTube -> [13]Vimeo (free with paid options)
For videos that are only on YouTube (unfortunately, a lot), you can search for and watch them on DuckDuckGo for better privacy protection via YouTubeʼs "youtube-nocookie" domain. If youʼre creating and hosting video yourself, however, Vimeo is the best-known alternative which focuses on creators.

Google Maps -> [14]Apple Maps (free), [15]OpenStreetMap (free)
For iOS users, Apple gives you an alternative built in via Apple Maps, so no installation is necessary. For wider device support, check out OpenStreetMap (OSM) which is more open, though may not have the same ease-of-use or coverage quality as Apple Maps.

Google Drive -> [16]Resilio Sync (free with paid options), [17]Tresorit (paid)
Another service we use internally, Resilio Sync, provides peer-to-peer file synchronization which can be used for private file storage, backup, and file sharing. This also means your files are never stored on a single server in the cloud! The software is available for a wide variety of platforms and devices, including servers. An alternative cloud storage and backup service with end-to-end encryption is [18]Tresorit.

Android -> [19]iOS (paid)
The most popular alternative to Android is of course iOS, which offers easy device encryption and encrypted messaging via iMessage by default. We also have [20]tips to increase privacy protection on your iPhone or iPad.

Google Chrome -> [21]Safari (free), [22]Firefox (free), [23]Brave (free)
Safari was the first major browser to include DuckDuckGo as a built-in private search option. A more cross-device compatible browser is Mozillaʼs Firefox, an open source browser with a built-in tracker blocker in private mode. Brave goes one step further with tracker blocking switched on by default. There are also [24]many more browsers that come with DuckDuckGo as a built-in option, such as [25]Vivaldi, which is well suited for power-users.

Blogger -> [26]Ghost (paid), [27]WordPress.com (free with paid options)
Ghost is both a hosted (paid) and self-installable blogging platform, tracker-free by default and run by a non-profit foundation. We like it so much we use it for [28]our own blog! A free alternative is WordPress, powering an estimated 33% of the worldʼs websites. Itʼs also available both for self-installation and as a hosted service with no third-party trackers by default. The community is huge with extensive multilingual documentation and many themes to choose from.

Google Hangouts -> [29]Zoom (free with paid options), [30]appear.in (free with paid option)
Zoom is a robust video chat alternative we use internally that works well even for large numbers of participants, though requires software to be installed. A web-only alternative is appear.in which doesnʼt require an account — just go to the website to open a chat room and youʼre ready.

Google Duo and Android Messages -> [31]Signal (free)
There are several services offering private messaging but, as weʼve mentioned before, Signal gets our recommendation. It offers free, end-to-end encryption for both messages and private calls. Itʼs also recommended by Edward Snowden and renowned security expert Bruce Schneier, among others.

Google Groups -> [32]Discourse (paid, or free if self-installed)
Discourse is an open source discussion platform, offering public and private conversations with a trust system and spam protection. Paid hosting is offered but the software is also freely available for administrators to host on their own servers.

As you can see, moving away from Google neednʼt be hard. In fact, you might find you prefer the alternatives while also getting better privacy!

For more privacy advice, [33]follow us on Twitter & get our [34]privacy crash course.

References

Visible links
2. https://spreadprivacy.com/followed-by-ads/
3. https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/userdatarequests/?metric=users_accounts
5. https://duckduckgo.com/
6. https://duckduckgo.com/bang
7. https://duck.co/ia
8. https://spreadprivacy.com/filter-bubble/
9. https://www.fastmail.com/
10. https://blog.fastmail.com/2016/12/23/pgp-tools-with-fastmail/
11. https://protonmail.com/
12. https://tutanota.com/
13. https://vimeo.com/
14. https://www.apple.com/ios/maps/
15. http://www.openstreetmap.org/
16. https://www.resilio.com/individuals/
17. https://tresorit.com/
18. https://tresorit.com/
19. https://www.apple.com/ios/
20. https://spreadprivacy.com/iphone-privacy-tips/
21. https://www.apple.com/safari/
22. https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/
23. https://brave.com/
24. https://duck.co/help/desktop/other-browsers
25. https://vivaldi.com/
26. https://ghost.org/
27. https://wordpress.com/
28. https://spreadprivacy.com/
29. https://zoom.us/
30. https://appear.in/
31. https://signal.org/
32. https://www.discourse.org/
33. https://twitter.com/duckduckgo
34. https://duckduckgo.com/newsletter

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