“Google has received much criticism for changes it made to Allo upon its release, as opposed to what privacy features it said the app would have when it was first announced back in May,” FastCompany reports.
“Then, Google said the app would have end-to-end-encryption in ‘Incognito Mode’ and store messages only for a limited time,” FastCompany reports. “However, when the app was released to the public, it did not use end-to-end-encryption and reportedly stores user messages indefinitely—which law enforcement could access with a warrant.”
FastCompany reports, “Those who care about their privacy and mass surveillance should steer clear of the app, Edward Snowden said in a series of tweets.”
Free for download today: Google Mail, Google Maps, and Google Surveillance. That's #Allo. Don't use Allo. https://t.co/EdPRC0G7Py
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 21, 2016
What is #Allo? A Google app that records every message you ever send and makes it available to police upon request. https://t.co/EdPRC0G7Py
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 21, 2016
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Privacy and Google do not mix.
SEE ALSO:
Google to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple’s privacy settings to collect user data – August 31, 2016
Apple takes a swing at privacy-tampling, personal data-guzzling rivals like Google – September 29, 2015
Apple reinvents the privacy policy – September 29, 2015
Apple selling targeted ads, but their new privacy policies shows they think different about tracking – September 29, 2015
Apple: Hey Siri and Live Photos data stays only on your device to ensure privacy – September 12, 2015
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 2015
Edward Snowden supports Apple’s stance on customer privacy – June 17, 2015
Mossberg: Apple’s latest product is privacy – June 12, 2015
Apple looks to be building an alternative to the Google-branded, hand-over-your-privacy ‘Internet Experience’ – June 11, 2015
Understanding Apple and privacy – June 8, 2015
Edward Snowden: Apple is a privacy pioneer – June 5, 2015
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Never, never, never trust anything from evil google!
I have to admit, Google’s use of my personal data is starting to both piss me off and freak me out…
Really, it’s taken this long?
Hey Mike,
You and I are on different sides of the political spectrum, but I really dig the fact that we are definitely in agreement on this issue!
I’ve posted this several times before here at MDN, but more education about Alphabet/Google won’t hurt.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you’re using Google services you should know that:
— When you perform a search using Google, the text string of your query as well as the URLs you subsequently click are recorded. All of them. Every. Single. Time. Since the late 90s.
— If you have any non-Gmail email account (including your own domain-based email account), are you aware what happens when you reply to anyone who sends an email message to you from their Gmail account? That’s right, the text in the originating message as well as the text in YOUR message are auto-scanned and analyzed upon passing through the Gmail servers. The results are added to your Google profile that is indexed under your own email address, and then utilized for ad profiling and and any other marketing purposes they see fit to use.
— Contacts stored in a Gmail account are used for profiling and association with other Google-indexed accounts (including non-Gmail accounts).
— The videos you watch on YouTube are also added to your profile.
— The photos you upload to Google Photos absolutely do have facial recognition applied, with the results being cross-referenced with your Google profile and other Google profiles. In other words, they know who you know.
— Let’s be clear: Even if you don’t have a Gmail account, you have a Google profile from using Google search, watching YouTube, or exchanging an email with someone who uses a Gmail account. And this is linked with every single website you visit that has ads, because those are served and tracked by a variety of Google ad services such as Double-click, etc.
— All of this information is retained forever by Google.
None of this is paranoid conspiracy theory; it’s simply the way Google does business. And the overwhelming majority of people worldwide seem to have gladly and/or ignorantly accepted it.
Thanks for the reminder. Just switched my Safari search pref to DuckDuckGo.
Yet Another Bamboozle
By Google!
Eric Schmidthead in the whitehouse on a weekly basis, Goggles primary success as a data collection platform….. It’s obvious that Google is C.I.A.
This is what all the so called government ‘lobbying’ is all about. In exchange for complete US government surveillance and access to Google data, Google will remain immune from any government probe or DoJ investigation (no matter what they do), while competitors are placed under extreme and biased scrutiny.
on the other hand.
i never used much of anything google and pretty much only relied on apple’s systems until the last year or so.
but the total integration that google is now beginning to deliver in how all of its apps work together is just so well done that i have begun to use chrome and google search app and map etc etc so much now.
with google i myself am their product (my info and my on line behavior is what they sell to others). we all get that.
but i have waited too long and apple’s market penetration is just too low still. all people in asia (where i am based) are using whats app and line. i need to collaborate with persons all over. and i was amazed at how many people are connected using these other competitor apps versus iMessage (SMS/audio). nearly 100% of people I communicate with have a google email address that they use for personal email.
google allo will easily become the new standard. and once google uses it as a base for micro payments, before apple gets around to implementing a similar money transfer system, google will again crush apple.
apple is moving too slowly in areas it doesnt need to move slowly in. apple has rarely been the market initiator. but even for established tech (like having a track pad along with a keyboard for iPad) its not moving quickly enough.
moving MacBook air into a touch screen iOS w/keyboard (touch and key) platform is there waiting but nothing so far.
as far as privacy, the lines are now blurred: apple has already announced it will be aggregating our individual info and selling that.
bottom line: google selling my info: i really have no problem
with google selling my info. i love the integration with the rest of the world that apple is choosing to not market to.