Think about it, Google Maps is (I think) the biggest collection of map data and information on locations everywhere around the world, yet I don’t want an advertising company knowing that I just went to a fast food place.
YouTube is an endless trove of video content that anyone can contribute to, yet I’d much rather not give an advertiser information on every little interest that I have in video.
It’s so bad for you, but it’s so good.
My youtube front page just shows random foxnews, joe rogan, andrew tate, prager u, copaganda, hunter biden’s laptop, china, tiktokers, all bunch of things I have no interest in. There are no republicans or nationalists in my household. Don’t know why these shit keep showing up.
Sometimes these kind of channels show up in my recommended videos. When they show up I click on “do not recommend this channel”.
My roomie keeps getting videos and adverts about visiting Dubai/UAE/Qatar etc.
We’re both LGBTQ+ so that wouldn’t end well.
Oh no 😳
My guess is that it’s because the area we live in has a decently sized immigrant population, usually Middle East/North African.
Those countries are probably a lot more appealing to them than they are to us, but the algorithm lumps us all in in the same demographic.
It just shows up because it’s popular and they don’t reasonably know what you like.
Yikes… I hope you find your way out of that hole, maybe starting over may help? I know seperate channels on the same account have different recommended pages, so that might work.
I am not even logged in. I clear my entire browser every day and youtube still tries to shove propaganda. I use Firefox + uBlock Origin on Android. Seems like if you dont use an account, they just show what the average person watches, which is apparantly right wing shit.
They have some good apps, but at the same time you can’t guarantee any sort of longevity with them. I think they’re going to pull the plug on Assistant soon, because it’s been in maintenance mode for a couple of years and the service is getting really bad.
That’s my issue. Privacy aside, for a time Google was making really good free services. Then they started abandoning everything. Why did we need Allo and Duo when hangouts existed, why did they basically abandon voice for years, etc.
I can’t trust that any of their apps will exist in a year besides the main ones like Maps so why would I use them.
Right, it makes no sense. I think the goal with Allo and Duo was to provide competition to Facetime and iMessages, but they could’ve just revamped the Hangouts app. Allo shut down, and Duo has been rebranded to Google Meet. Hangouts is still around, now called Google Chat, and sits in Gmail apparently.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but you can use Google Maps without GPS and in Incognito mode, and you can watch YouTube without being logged in and/or not saving your watch history. You’re in complete control over the info you give Google. You can fully enjoy their services without the ickyness you described.
They can fingerprint your browser and (very) probably your hardware, along with ip, location, and other leaked data, allowing them to reliably identify you whether you’re logged in or not.
At this point, it’s more of a symbolic protest.Good thing for Google that they can still track you in a number of other ways.
Oh, definitely. I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but there’s room for a middle ground between selling your soul to Google and avoiding their services like the plague.
I actually think OpenStreetMaps have much more content. In my town Google shows roads and houses. OSM shows me everything down to fences, entrances, beach boardwalks, positions of every single trailer in our nearby tourist housing and more. This is critical when you’re a delivery guy and you need to know where the entrance to the gated facility is. I used Waze to drive, and then OSM Viewer to walk. Even when you zoom in on an empty spot in Google, OSM shows type of land, elevation, where the trees are if there are any, who is the owner of the land if it’s owned by a company. I also like that it shows what factories are called and their land border, instead of just unnamed boxes. Worked for me both in Ukraine and in Ireland.
Is Open Street Maps app called OsmAnd?
That’s a client for it, i personally use Organic Maps
