Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

riverfreak

macrumors 68000
Jan 10, 2005
1,828
2,289
Thonglor, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
again and again and again. Google does not sell „your data“. They put you in a bucket of interests etc that companies can target. For example you may look up fish tanks a lot so you get ads for fish food but it’s not like google is handing „your data“ to companies. It’s not gonna be like „Mr XY Living in Street XY. Do you want to buy his data?

literally any postal service is worse cuz they actually do sell your data

again and again and again. „The data is aggregated and anonymized.“

Do you enjoy being targeted based on your cross-site browsing history, what you purchase, where you live, what streets you drive on, the contents of your emails, the affiliation of your political party and your voting history (maybe not relevant based on your use of quotes), the age of your children, your credit score?
 

Jimmy James

macrumors 603
Oct 26, 2008
5,488
4,067
Magicland
With all that is now known about illegal or misused government ties to tech companies and data usage, I don’t know why anyone would consider a data mining ad platform.
 

hot-gril

macrumors 68000
Jul 11, 2020
1,924
1,966
Northern California, USA
That's…

That's not how this works.

At all.

If testing bears out that the 4a lasts longer, that's fine. It lasts longer. But battery capacity doesn't translate to run time between different models, let alone entirely different manufacturers. A phone with a 2,000 mAh battery could easily outlast one with a 3,000 mAh battery if the phone with the 2,000 mAh battery drew less power!
That and amp-hours isn't even a measurement of energy. Do we know that they're measured at the same voltage?

Unrelated, it's funny how the "a" series of Pixel phones, despite being the low-end versions, are kinda better than the non-"a" ones. In part because they always come out later, in part because they have headphone jacks and fingerprint sensors.
 

hot-gril

macrumors 68000
Jul 11, 2020
1,924
1,966
Northern California, USA
OS is a preference and not a requirement. From using both ecosystems, arguing about OS is like arguing over what color of food tray to use when it's the food that matters which are the apps and services that are common on both ecosystems. As for the Dell XPS 15, smart consumers would hackintosh it and multiboot Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Hackintoshing a laptop is only smart if you have lots and lots of time on your hands. Even a desktop, but especially a laptop. First off, guaranteed to have problems with sleep, the trackpad, and/or the speakers. And in the end, you end up with something outdated and insecure, particularly lacking disk encryption.

The OS is really all that matters for most people anyway, especially on a phone. These days any hardware mid-range and up is good enough unless you have really particular needs.
 

msp3

Suspended
May 9, 2015
489
608
A gimmicky piece of plastic that spies on you or a quality product made of metal and glass. Hmmm...
 

derekamoss

macrumors 65816
Jul 18, 2002
1,487
1,130
Houston, TX
Arrived at a new bank today, with a lineup outside. The process was to scan a QR code that takes you to a website where you enter your information, and then text messages arrive telling you what your position is in line and when you can proceed to the next teller. This was a sweet tech-driven experience!

On my iPhone, the process was smooth and quick. No hoops to jump through, since the camera scans QR codes automatically.

The Android guy behind me fumbled around, and eventually they had to do a "manual" method of entering the guy into the lineup.

Hardware-wise, both of these phones are decent. Software-wise, nothing beats iOS in pure elegance and simplicity. iOS has continued to set the bar that Android reaches for.
Or you know, maybe the Android guy had never scanned a code in before, or just isn't tech literate. I have an Android and have scanned codes in without fuss but that was only because I knew how to do it already. If you gave me an iPhone now since I haven't used one in 6 years I would probably have a hard time figuring out how to scan qr code in, even if I could do it on my Android. You didn't mention his age either, but if he is like some of the 50+ year olds I know wouldn't have a clue what a qr code is or even know there is a scanner on their phone. I have used iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile and believe me when I tell you, iOS does NOT set the bar at all. My Nokia 1020 running windows 8 blew both iOS and Android out of the water when it came to the OS. The fact iOS is just now getting widgets on the home screen instead of the 4 x whatever square grid that it has had since iOS 1.0 should give you an indication of where iOS's bar is set.
 

44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,491
The key here, is not just the price point, it gives the option of {android or iOS.} The thing is, consumers do have the preference where their loyalty lies in terms of the platform. The fact now that there’s two phones that are highly competitive with affordability being the primary, you can’t go wrong with either one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jxdawg and BMox81

organic bond

Cancelled
May 5, 2007
226
192
Pixel 4a
+ modern design vs rehash
+ better hardware future proofing with 6GB DRAM and 128GB base storage vs iPhone SE 3GB/64GB
+ 1080p OLED vs iPhone SE 750p LCD
+ Night Mode vs none
+ Built in Titan M 2FA security key
+ better smarts and more advance features like Duplex AI, live transcription, split screen multitasking, etc.
+ longer battery life
Exactly, the iPhone 128GB is $449, that's $100 more expensive, not $50. Please MacRumors compare apples to apples. In my country the SE 128GB is only 549 €, which is $652. Yes, $652, $200 more than in the US. The 64GB version is 499 €, that's $592.
[automerge]1596690008[/automerge]
Why anyone would buy a mobile tracking device from a company whose business model is selling advertising is completely beyond my limited and stunted intellectual capacity.
Because they are much cheaper. Especially in Europe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: burgerrecords

burgerrecords

macrumors regular
Jun 21, 2020
222
106
Do you enjoy being targeted based on your cross-site browsing history, what you purchase, where you live, what streets you drive on, the contents of your emails, the affiliation of your political party and your voting history (maybe not relevant based on your use of quotes), the age of your children, your credit score?

I don’t. But I use google for search because it’s better enough than the alternatives to offset this cost. Since I use google for search already it really doesn’t matter if I use android or an iPhone.

YouTube is actually the most difficult google product to avoid and I can expect that within three videos or searches within the same session even if I use google or YouTube anonymously google is like “hello it’s bob smith” let’s add this activity to the dataset.

I also use a credit card, amazon, non-vpn internet, tesla 3, Siri, Facebook, and a Safeway card, Verizon mobile. I have not perceived adverse effects to companies tracking my behavior so far. Maybe because I’m on the right side of economic privilege.

The flip side is don’t think people are as homogeneous as marketers would lead people to believe. It’s also ironic to me that many Mac enthusiasts dislike google when it appears many Mac enthusiasts are perhaps a marketers dream target customer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Moyapilot

Manwe

macrumors newbie
Feb 26, 2020
6
2
A comparison. By Juli Clover. That ends with 'depends on your preference, both are ok...' Where have I seen this 1,829 times before?
 

itsmilo

Suspended
Sep 15, 2016
3,985
8,728
Berlin, Germany
again and again and again. „The data is aggregated and anonymized.“

Do you enjoy being targeted based on your cross-site browsing history, what you purchase, where you live, what streets you drive on, the contents of your emails, the affiliation of your political party and your voting history (maybe not relevant based on your use of quotes), the age of your children, your credit score?

i don’t mind it since I would rather see ads that I may be interested in than random stuff that has no value to me. However, I don’t see ads anyway cuz I am using AdGuard on all of my devices


Yeah NOTHING AT ALL wrong with Google's privacy policies



And the post office does not "sell your data."

Your link still says nothing about selling the data. Yes, GOOGLE knows what you are doing to do exactly what I said but they are not handing the data over to sell the „data itself“. It certainly would not even be allowed under EU law. For instance, Google Analytixs data has to be ANONYMIZED by law. In the EU, you are not allowed to track the IP because that is considered a direct identifier

„collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is against the Google Analytics Terms of Service.

Under the GDPR, an IP address is considered PII. Even though the IP address (by default) is never exposed in reporting, Google does use it to provide geo-location data.“

now do they give said data to governments? That’s a whole different story

Side note: I am not a fan boy either, I don’t think tracking people is right, even for their own usage but they do not sell your raw data itself

your second point: Well in my country (Germany) they do. I actually did it for work. You can be like „order package of addresses of zip codes located in 10+ km of Berlin“. Though the actual allowed usage has been limited by the EU laws over the years. Used to work well for direct marketing

and btw Apple Devices (which I use) aren’t much „better“ in the sense that 3rd party apps from the AppStore are filled with all kind of SDK tracking kits like CleverTap too. Those are far worse than Google.

for example, we have an app that allows routing etc. to the nearest car park. if we would track the email address to match it with the personal identifier in clevertap (which we don’t, again by law), I could potentially look up an „ex“ for example (knowing her email address) to know exactly where she drove at any time or where she clicked inside the app and how many times she parked etc. I could even be really creepy and send a push notification only to her like I SEE YOU when she drives her car to gps location XY. all on iOS
 
Last edited:

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,606
10,899
First of all, I want to throw this here: defending any company will bring you nothing. It will only make you more likely to be labeled as fanboy. It’s not like any of those companies will compensate your actions or something.

To me, I would prefer google pixel 4a if I don’t use Apple Watch, since iPad does almost everything I need to do except phone call and maybe text message. Sadly, I use Apple Watch, so iPhone SE is my only choice if I have to pick either one. I wish Apple can increase the base storage to 128GB like Google.

As for tracking, the best way to stop company from tracking you is not using internet at all IMO.
 

bobob

macrumors 68040
Jan 11, 2008
3,437
2,520
A budget shopper will choose Pixel 4a for the simple fact that it costs $100 less than a comparable iPhone SE with 128GB storage.
The Pixel actually costs more than twice as much as the iPhone.

Annual Cost of Ownership

iPhone SE 2 = $66.50 year
Pixel 4A = $139.60 year


(A budget shopper will not likely be upgrading from the base model, so the upfront savings remain at $50. Further, a true budget shopper looks at the annual cost of ownership. With the iPhone 6+ receiving 6 full years of system and security updates, the SE 2 with it's flagship A13 chip will likely receive 6 years too. The Pixel 4A will get 2 years of system updates and 3 years of security updates, so let's call it 2.5 years.)
 

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Apr 11, 2014
5,622
2,337
USA
I'd take the 4a. Let's be real: If Apple released the 4a and google the SE people would say google is inferior and should quit making smartphones all together and that apple is cutting edge, so sleek, with and edge to edge display and innovative cutout for the camera, all at a price so everyone is able to own and enjoy it.

don't forget the amazing camera.
 

Kostask

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2020
230
104
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I don’t. But I use google for search because it’s better enough than the alternatives to offset this cost. Since I use google for search already it really doesn’t matter if I use android or an iPhone.

YouTube is actually the most difficult google product to avoid and I can expect that within three videos or searches within the same session even if I use google or YouTube anonymously google is like “hello it’s bob smith” let’s add this activity to the dataset.

I also use a credit card, amazon, non-vpn internet, tesla 3, Siri, Facebook, and a Safeway card, Verizon mobile. I have not perceived adverse effects to companies tracking my behavior so far. Maybe because I’m on the right side of economic privilege.

The flip side is don’t think people are as homogeneous as marketers would lead people to believe. It’s also ironic to me that many Mac enthusiasts dislike google when it appears many Mac enthusiasts are perhaps a marketers dream target customer.

To address your points:

"But I use google for search because it’s better enough than the alternatives to offset this cost"

Exactly which other alternatives have you tried, because I can honestly state that I went from Google as my search engine to Duck Duck Go, and really haven't seen that it is in any way worse than Google.

"I also use a credit card, amazon, non-vpn internet, tesla 3, Siri, Facebook, and a Safeway card, Verizon mobile. I have not perceived adverse effects to companies tracking my behavior so far. Maybe because I’m on the right side of economic privilege"

You may be a billionaire, but if the companies you do business with ever have a data breach, then you may be in for a world of hurt. See the recent Twitter breach for recent examples. The hackers had no issue doing things under Elon Musk's, Bill Gates', or Barak Obama's names. This was not a data breach in the traditional sense, but the end result is pretty much the same. How were you impacted in the Equifax breach? Many people were subject to identity theft, and financial hardship. Not their fault, but the fact that there was personal data resident on the Equifax servers that were breached is what allowed that to happen.

To be honest, if you have a Facebook account, you are already beyond screwed. Your data is already being categorized into 1400 sections, and being sold to whoever can give Facebook money.

All of the above is why you should care about your data being sold, and you being tracked online. Sorry if this is coming off as rough, but you need to grow up.
 
Last edited:

Kostask

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2020
230
104
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
i don’t mind it since I would rather see ads that I may be interested in than random stuff that has no value to me. However, I don’t see ads anyway cuz I am using AdGuard on all of my devices




Your link still says nothing about selling the data. Yes, GOOGLE knows what you are doing to do exactly what I said but they are not handing the data over to sell the „data itself“. It certainly would not even be allowed under EU law. For instance, Google Analytixs data has to be ANONYMIZED by law. In the EU, you are not allowed to track the IP because that is considered a direct identifier

„collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is against the Google Analytics Terms of Service.

Under the GDPR, an IP address is considered PII. Even though the IP address (by default) is never exposed in reporting, Google does use it to provide geo-location data.“

now do they give said data to governments? That’s a whole different story

Side note: I am not a fan boy either, I don’t think tracking people is right, even for their own usage but they do not sell your raw data itself

your second point: Well in my country (Germany) they do. I actually did it for work. You can be like „order package of addresses of zip codes located in 10+ km of Berlin“. Though the actual allowed usage has been limited by the EU laws over the years. Used to work well for direct marketing

and btw Apple Devices (which I use) aren’t much „better“ in the sense that 3rd party apps from the AppStore are filled with all kind of SDK tracking kits like CleverTap too. Those are far worse than Google.

for example, we have an app that allows routing etc. to the nearest car park. if we would track the email address to match it with the personal identifier in clevertap (which we don’t, again by law), I could potentially look up an „ex“ for example (knowing her email address) to know exactly where she drove at any time or where she clicked inside the app and how many times she parked etc. I could even be really creepy and send a push notification only to her like I SEE YOU when she drives her car to gps location XY. all on iOS

Yes it is against European Union rules. That is why there is currently an EU investigation going on against Google.

What is in the Google Terms of Service, and what Google does is not always the same. There are many instances of Google collecting detailed data in North America that is requested by law enforcement, and they can find the location of a particular Android phone, with GPS coordinates, and time and date. That data is not anonymized, at least to the extent that people may think it is. It is not personally identifiable in that there is no name on the data, but the IMEI of the phone IS identifiable. Then the police go to the carriers and request the Name and Address associated with that IMEI (and you don't need a court order for that, either). It is called Google Vault, and that location information is logged whether you give Google permission or not. THERE IS NO WAY TO STOP THAT INFORMATION FROM GOING OUT. Google has been doing that for at least 10 years. Is it against the terms and service that Google puts out? I think it is, but seeing as I am not a lawyer, or a law professor, I can't say as I understand all of the nuances of the terms and conditions. Even if it is against the Google terms and conditions, what are you going to do about it? Sue Google (aka Alphabit)? Are you really going to go to court against a $1T company? FTC is already investigating, but who knows how long it will take. Took the FTC years to do anything about Facebook, and the $5B fine was a pin prick to a company the size of Facebook.

Still want to argue the point that Google is invasive of privacy to a far greater degree than Apple?

I fail to understand the logic involved when people continue to use Google and Facebook. Those companies major revenue source is advertising, plain and simple. Anything they can do to allow their customers (the advertisers, not the android phone users) better, faster, more precise targeting of the end user, they will do. Tracking, sure. Littering websearch results with sponsored links, sure. Why is this so difficult to understand? It is why they exist, literally.
 
Last edited:

Biu_miu

macrumors regular
Aug 29, 2016
179
288
I’m sure google will sell tens of them.

They officially sell Pixel only in 13 countries world wide, what kind of huge sales you can expect then? :) And I bet, that in those countries this also isn't top selling Android phone as well...
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.