An interesting deep-dive into how Google profiles and values different users.

It highlights that even though the service is “free”, the sheer value each user holds to Google from their data and ad-revenue. And with that, the impact you can have by leaving them.

If you haven’t already switched, you can check out the guide below to get started:

https://purchasewithpurpose.io/

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    That’s why Pichai tries to kill off anything that threatens its bottom line, such as ending Manifest V2 support for Chrome addons like uBlock Origin.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    “Proton analyzed 54,000 profiles…”

    “…We cannot scan emails, build a profile, or sell access to your attention.”

    How did they get the 54,000 profiles?

    • Daryl76679@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      Your personal data and your attention (advertisements). Those two things are the cornerstone of how big tech makes their money

        • FallenWalnut@lemmy.worldOPM
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          1 day ago

          Google doesn’t care if you spend money on what is advertised to you. They get paid just for showing you the advert.

        • HAL_9_TRILLION@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          It’s an average. Some people are going to bring it down, some people bring it up. I take a certain pride in doing my best to bring it down, but at the end of the day living in a capitalist hellscape, you have to concede it’s going to get you at least a little.

          Because it’s not just clicking on sponsored Google links. You may never directly buy something sponsored, but by giving them your data, you give them demographic information to find people like you that might be more prone to clicking links, and that helps.

        • Daryl76679@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          That does matter. It costs money for companies to place adds with Google. That money goes directly to them regardless of whether or not you make a purchase. They then make use of their vast data resources to target people with said ads, which may not affect you, but definitely pushes products (some business people have described a 3x on investment with Google and Facebook ads).

          Because Google ads are on nearly every website, and because Google owns such a large bevy of services including search, YouTube, Gmail, and maps, they can collect all of this data into a scarily accurate profile of your behavior, interests, and beliefs. Data that is shared with their partners and ends up all over the internet.

        • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I mean, you’re just wrong. An attitude like this makes you a great target for advertising and marketing.

          • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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            1 day ago

            I don’t even have that amount of money to spend, you can argue if it’s truly zero or not but I don’t remember buying anything on an advert so far. Sometimes seen adverts for things I already bought and have no intention to buy again as I already have it.

        • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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          1 day ago

          Exactly, and even if you bought a few, who the fuck is spending even close to that much a year. Advertisers would also have costs to the products they sell beyond just the marketing budget.

          • LostCarcosan@lemmy.today
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            3 hours ago

            You seem to be misunderstanding the entire premise, I just can’t tell if you’re doing it on purpose or not. They don’t make money from your purchases. To oversimplify everything, they make money when a company pays them to show you an ad. They also make money by watching everything you do and building a profile about you that they then sell to the companies so they can pay Google to show you ads that they think might tempt you the most. There are very complicated metrics running behind the screen that determines how likely the purchases you have made were affected by ads shown to you, whether you clicked on the ads or not. You might think you haven’t been affected by ads or made Google $16,000 because you didn’t spend $16,000, but that’s not how they make money from you.

    • Solrac@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      They’ll su they won’t track you. But offer you the entire suite, almost as if they want you in their ecosystem, while also lying about being non profit

      My point: dig deeper

  • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    What is the color code on that page supposed to convey?

    I just clicked on “browsers” and found no explanation nor pattern on the color code.

    And no: I won’t search for it, this is critique with a question mark not genuine need for answer.

    • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Are you talking about the banner for each subsection which is the same color as the product or platform’s primary branding color?

      • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        22 hours ago

        The “warning red” is supposed to mirror the brand color?

        Because then it would need to be the same color ass the icons. This way it looks like a signal color on top.

        I e. This one, informiak mail is something I clearly should not touch, without ever having heard of them.

        • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Yes, they’re all just the brands’ colors altered slightly to fit the style of the site. I really am struggling to understand what is confusing about this.

          • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 hours ago

            For me: paragraph shapes and colors convey meaning. It’s as if someone chose to have a red exclamation mark ‼️ as their logo and uses it inline.

            Without knowing what it is it looks like a call to action.

            Many of these comparison images and pages use color coding to quickly convey information. So I searched for meaning that wasn’t there … .

            In short l: my brain sees “red” and searched what I was warned against.