• [email protected]@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    That’s fascinating, it sounds like the cost for Google to store, categorize, and disseminate this information is higher than the profit. Morals are unlikely to be relevant, after all. Or are they simply using devices as their storage medium?

    • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      The data has costs associated with it: they’ll want to back it up, they need to migrate it when they change formats, they need to maintain the hardware it resides on.

      And, as the article mentions, there are liabilities around law enforcement requests, costs due to data breaches, and regulatory requirements.

      Three months is plenty for them to target ads.

    • pop@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      It’s likely now your device does the initial processing of your data (store, categorize, and disseminate) and the aggregate is sent through as telemetry. They save on processing costs and users think it’s privacy friendly.

      But it’s Google we’re talking about here and smartphones are more than capable these days.

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        It is privacy friendly.

        They don’t want any more headlines of governments using their data to victimize people receiving abortions than they need to. I’d be shocked if that continued trend isn’t the instigator of this.

        That tracking is super invasive and gross, and not having it tied to an ad profile is a good thing, regardless of their motivations.