It’s been some years that I am not able to log in to my Google account, because I stopped using it for a very long time any Google product, and now even providing my password, they say they can not know if it is me or now…
They send me to this support page which seems like I have lost my account with all the data and stuff I had from when I was younger…
I don’t think this is normal or ethic to do (I know Google has been never ethic), but this makes me so angry because I never wanted to lose all that data…
Do they basically know every people networks? And if you don’t let them know… you lose access to Google? … 😠
I deleted and took out all my Google data back around many years ago. Never looked back. OP and dozens of testimonies here and on internet in general continue to reinforce my conclusion that I pulled out at the correct time.
Google knows just about every WiFi device and internet connected machine by IP address. Few years ago they announced that they track every possible WiFi SSID and you have to append
_nomapas suffix to SSID to opt out of this mass surveillance. This is also why they started back with Android 6.0 Marshmallow binding together WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS permissions, in the name of making it convenient for us with more “precise” GPS location detection. (GPS perms on Android have precise and coarse options with no WiFi/BT utilisation to assist GPS.)Well, in a way, they do provide accurate geolocalisation for indoor environments based on wifi networks. And it is right that having internet/bluethooth access also (more or less) reveals your location; but that doesn’t make it ethical.
Technically using multiple network devices increases accuracy of geolocation info fetching, but the side effect is clearly intentionally and unethically misused by Google and US govt criminal agencies. If this were some sort of global community entity with an open, transparent database (like OSM) fetching this data (think instead of Google’s we had an open community UnifiedNLP component for OS), it would be relatively somewhat okay, but its clear what is happening, and these things should be kept talked about IRL without fear or care.
You are thinking of https://opencellid.org and of Mozilla location services. You can contribute to them with the TowerCollector app.
UnifiedNLP is just one interface that can use many “backends” or “location services”, like the Mozilla one, an offline list, or even google itself via microG.
Its just the most relatable idea I commented, because dedicated privacy readers and Android modders usually have come across picking Mozilla’s backend over Google on their rooted phones. microg is used often as well.
Oh right, I forgot about the
_nomap… but I don’t want to name my SSID like that… it’s pretty ugly name. Or maybe I can make it shorter with the nameplease_nomap, that would look a nice name. hahahaSSIDs are not like Reddit usernames since some people know they are yours, otherwise a lot of creativity could be shown.
BTW, I was wrong. It is
_nomap_optout, so even uglier. Source: my own SSID is named like that since google let us know that.I never used Reddit… xD
And I always called my Wi-Fi networks as the same from years ago, this way my family always can get in without asking me the password. Now the permanent name will be something to make it cool with that ugly suffix… 🤮
EDIT:
_nomapis Google and_optoutfor Microsoft? WTF → https://superuser.com/questions/1005235/wi-fi-opt-out-microsoft-googleYeah… WTF indeed. Its not talked about a whole lot, and only the most active privacy folks (like me, shameless) took steps like that early.
Is is too late to add _nomap _output to my SSID these days?
Probably, if you have lent out your WiFi graciously to any Apple/Google device. But you could deny mapping now, better late than never.
I just hid and renamed the ssid for now. I’ve read somewhere that google now only maps ssids when you enable location awareness on your phone. This is from 2022 -> https://www.howtogeek.com/788837/your-wi-fi-info-is-in-google-and-microsofts-databases-should-you-care/
Wow I didn’t knew that. What about hided ssid? Can google still know about that? Do I need to put ssid nomap optout? Thanks
Undiscoverable SSID should not be scannable by Google. Format is how I put in monospace, it being appended to your SSID as suffix.