this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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Privacy Guides

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago

Google recklessly violated privacy laws to spike ad profits

And they will continue doing so because the "risk" is worth the consequences.

Here's an idea: Fine them the value of all that ad revenue + 20%. Then see how willing they are to break privacy laws.

If they can't profit from doing illegal stuff, they won't do illegal stuff.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Uhh, 'secretly'? Google tracks everybody, what's the secret?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can just RTFA, it's literally in the first three sentences:

Filing a proposed class-action suit in California, Katherine Wilson has accused Google of using Google Analytics and DoubleClick trackers on the California DMV site to unlawfully obtain information about her personal disability without her consent.

This, Wilson argued, violated the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), as well as the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and impacted perhaps millions of drivers who had no way of knowing Google was collecting sensitive information shared only for DMV purposes.

You don't think Google is tracking you when you're filing your taxes online, do you?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I usually think TurboTax is tracking me and selling my data to Google and others.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Why not both?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I'm going to assume TurboTax is an American thing, and that's insane that you're willingly using something that you think is selling your income, taxable earnings, and government information to advertisers.

That is NOT a reasonable expectation for most of the world that Google operates in, including California with it's data protection laws, which once again is what this article is talking about.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Honestly at this point why are people shocked that Google is tracking them?

Everything you do and are is a data point for advertising.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Government agencies being data brokers should also be a concerning issue.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Governments have been data brokers since the Doomsday Book

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

The question is not weather Google is tracking or not, the question is if Google is breaking the law doing so.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

just because you can do a thing didn't mean you should do a thing.

Or something like that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

They are. Openly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It ain't stalking if a company is doing it, peasant !!!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

the more articles like those show up in mainstream media, the more people will become disillusioned with Google.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Google needs to pump the brakes when it comes to tracking sensitive information shared with DMV sites, a new lawsuit suggests.

This, Wilson argued, violated the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), as well as the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and impacted perhaps millions of drivers who had no way of knowing Google was collecting sensitive information shared only for DMV purposes.

Likely due to promoting the website's convenience, the DMV reported a record number of online transactions in 2020, Wilson's complaint said.

Wilson last visited the DMV site last summer when she was renewing her disability parking placard online.

"That Plaintiff and Class Members would not have consented to Google obtaining their personal information or learning the contents of their communications with the DMV is not surprising."

Congressman James P. Moran, who sponsored the DPPA in 1994, made it clear that the law was enacted specifically to keep marketers from taking advantage of computers making it easy to "pull up a person’s DMV record" with the "click of a button."


The original article contains 554 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!