Hi Mary, Yes, Google's business is to collect as much information about you as possible so they can use said information/data to target ads based on your habits and so on. The fact that this would always want access to my location is one reason for me not even to bother installing it. I have turned frequent locations off in iOS under Location Services > System Services because while I trust Apple a lot more than Google, I still don't think they need to keep track of everywhere I go, there is probably already enough of that simply by virtue your phone is constantly communicating with cell towers.
This is also one of the reasons why I haven't bothered yet with something ike the Echo or the Google Home. I am not paranoid about this sort of stuff or see a conspiracy in everything, but there is something that makes me uncomfortable aobut having a highly sensitive speaker in my home that listens to everything that goes on and is said unless you turn it off which defeats the purpose. Of course I have also not been tempted too much yet because neither Amazon nor Google so far have bothered to make their smart speakers officially available in Canada. There are places in the States where I could order one and they would ship to Canada, but why should I do this if the companies themselves don't seem to want my business. I must say that if Apple comes out with one which now seems more and more likely I will be much more tempted. For one it is more likely that it will be available here in Canada and as I said, I trust Apple more with my privacy than Amazon or Google. Microsoft of course is said to also get into this possibly via a partnership with Harman Kardon and down the road maybe other companies so we'll have to wait and see. I guess in a few years these things will be as common place as cell phones and most people will be talking to their virtual assistants at home via such devices. Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mary Otten Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2017 4:09 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com; mac4thebl...@freelists.org; macvisionar...@googlegroups.com Subject: Google assistant comes to the iPhone They much touted Google Assistant is now available in the Apple App Store. I downloaded it and opened it, and in order to work at all, you need to give it permission to access location even when you're not using it. This is so it can make a so-called private map of where you have been and where you are when you're using it. So I wonder how much of a toll that is going to take on Battery Life. And do I really trust Google that t it's private? Given that they sell data? I was looking forward to certain aspects of Google assistant. But it seems to be totally crippled unless you give them permission. I don't see why he couldn't do other things that are not location dependent. Mary Sent from my iPhone -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
