Google hijacked my phone's contacts...

timwinters

timwinters

Ejection Handle Pulled
Joined
Feb 23, 2008
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Conway, MO
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LTD
Phone: Motorola Droid Turbo, 64GB, running droid 5.1

So...

...of a sudden, all my gmail contacts started showing up in my phone's contact list.

I don't email from my phone and don't want email addresses intermingled with my phone numbers, so I deleted them. But they were back the next day. Worse, my contacts are organized by last name, first name, and all imported email are first name, last name so I'd never freakin' find them anyway.

So...

...I searched online for a solution and found (dated info) that a factory reset is the only way to unsync accounts.

Bite me.

Apparently I didn't look closely enough when giving permissions during an app update and I inadvertently allowed this sync.

Anyone know of a way to unsync without doing a factory reset?
 
Yeah, Google's spying scares the shiite out of me. I refuse to have a gmail account for that reason.
 
Maybe changing the password on the account, but not on the phone?

(I'd sooner not have a phone than use an Android, so I'm just guessing.)

Rich
 
Sorry that sucks. Jerkbook does similar. Bunch of stuff I won't do on a phone because of that. Not hiding from big data, I ain't that clever, hiding from annoying hijacking of my setups.
 
I *think* there's a way to turn off the sync feature, but you have to really search for it. Google defaults it to "sync" and uses their vacuum cleaner to suck all the data off your phone.

In the 4.x series of Android, you can turn off sync by going to Settings, Accounts, then selecting the gmail account that it's syncing with. When you do that, it should show a menu of what you want synced. Deselect the contacts - and most of the other stuff.

it is NOT intuitive and it IS hard to find. I'm not sure you can do it from the online/webpage dashboard.

When I went into my 4.2 version just now, I discovered that Google had installed a "Google Fit" program, and set it to sync. Off it went. They don't need to know about my exercise and other fitness data.... especially if it's autocollected using the accelerometer and GPS.
 
It sounds like Microsoft is not the only giant company that's gotten arrogant!
 
Palmpilot said:
It sounds like Microsoft is not the only giant company that's gotten arrogant!
Click to expand...

Not by any means. Google started this. Microsoft adopted it and took it to the N-th degree. "You will be assimilated". "We do it because we can".
 
wsuffa said:
I *think* there's a way to turn off the sync feature, but you have to really search for it. Google defaults it to "sync" and uses their vacuum cleaner to suck all the data off your phone.

In the 4.x series of Android, you can turn off sync by going to Settings, Accounts, then selecting the gmail account that it's syncing with. When you do that, it should show a menu of what you want synced. Deselect the contacts - and most of the other stuff.

it is NOT intuitive and it IS hard to find. I'm not sure you can do it from the online/webpage dashboard.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Bill, I think that was it sort of...

For documentation:

Settings

Accounts

Tap the menu in Accounts (three dots in the upper right corner)

An "Auto-Sync Data" window pops up with a checkbox.

Mine was checked.

It's now unchecked.

We'll see...

Edit: I went into my contacts to begin the process of deleting all the email addresses again and they were already gone. Sweet!

Thanks again, Bill...
 
Last edited:
Google has grown to dominate market share by offering "free" services that are only free if you don't look at the fine print. They make their money by using our preferences to efficiently send us ads focused on things we might actually care about and buy.

It's creepy, but I believe the data is used anonymously as stated. I also have far less concern about Google's use of my personal data than, say, the federal government's use of it. I know Google's motivation is to make money, and their whole business model could collapse if they violated their terms of service or got hacked. If I ever stop trusting Google, I can opt out.

The government HAS no terms of service (including the Fourth Amendment, apparently), collects my data in secret without a warrant or my permission, does not keep it secure, abuses it internally, and provides no opt-out. Millions of federal employees are among the latest to have their personal info lost to hackers through carelessness, in part because nobody will get fired for the screw-up.

We worry about the wrong things.
 
PW_Plack said:
Google has grown to dominate market share by offering "free" services that are only free if you don't look at the fine print. They make their money by using our preferences to efficiently send us ads focused on things we might actually care about and buy.

It's creepy, but I believe the data is used anonymously as stated. I also have far less concern about Google's use of my personal data than, say, the federal government's use of it. I know Google's motivation is to make money, and their whole business model could collapse if they violated their terms of service or got hacked. If I ever stop trusting Google, I can opt out.

The government HAS no terms of service (including the Fourth Amendment, apparently), collects my data in secret without a warrant or my permission, does not keep it secure, abuses it internally, and provides no opt-out. Millions of federal employees are among the latest to have their personal info lost to hackers through carelessness, in part because nobody will get fired for the screw-up.

We worry about the wrong things.
Click to expand...

You can opt out but they already have your data. Check who owns that data once they get it. And in some cases, they collect the data without you even knowing (no opt out). They can also change the TOS at will.
 
timwinters said:
Thanks, Bill, I think that was it sort of...

For documentation:

Settings

Accounts

Tap the menu in Accounts (three dots in the upper right corner)

An "Auto-Sync Data" window pops up with a checkbox.

Mine was checked.

It's now unchecked.

We'll see...

Edit: I went into my contacts to begin the process of deleting all the email addresses again and they were already gone. Sweet!

Thanks again, Bill...
Click to expand...

Hope that worked. There should also be a way to opt out of syncing certain things and not others. I allow G to sync my gmail only (but not personal accounts) but nothing else at all.
 
Here's another insidious thing with Android phones...

They automatically look up any phone number they receive during the Caller ID process on Google when data network is available.

And Google has mistakenly associated one of our *customers* names with one of our main phone numbers (because it's on their main webpage that we created for them)...

So how this all works is if I call any Android phone from certain phones at the office that give out that particular lead phone number, your Android phone will not only show the number but will also look up the other company's name from a Google search and display it as who's calling you.

Which is wrong.

We've been trying to get Google to delete the damned entry for a year.

All the time if we dial anyone from the conference room and they're on an Android device, they'll either answer and say "Who's this? Oh it came up as [customer's name] so I almost didn't answer it!" Or they'll let it roll to voicemail.

Frakking Google being "helpful".

By the way, yes, the number comes up as both companies if you actually Google search it. Guess which one is first alphabetically?
 
flhrci said:
I feel that Apple is also arrogant. But that's just me. No war starting over it please.

David
Click to expand...

No war from me. They pretty much all do it. Apple, Microsoft, Google, probably Amazon too.
 
Ever since the Chinese hijacked all my personal info from OPM, I really have nothing left to hide from anybody. :D

In fact when asked to refill out my information on a recent background check, I probably should have just sent back a note telling them to just ask the Chinese since I didn't have a copy.

Cheers
 
wsuffa said:
You can opt out but they already have your data. Check who owns that data once they get it. And in some cases, they collect the data without you even knowing (no opt out). They can also change the TOS at will.
Click to expand...

The opting out is nonsense, anyway. I'm opted out of Google tracking every way that they offer. I even have the stupid opt-out extensions and plugins (none of which do anything, by the way) installed on my browsers. They still track. I'm opted out of interest-based ads. I still get interest-based ads. I flush the cookies (other than the opt-outs) every time the browser opens. Doesn't do any good.

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came to visit not long ago. The nephew connected his tablet to my WiFi so he could play Minecraft. He also did some research on Minecraft servers because he wants to build one. For several weeks after his visit, I was getting ads related to Minecraft. I even got them when I used my BlackBerry to access the Web when I was away from home using the cell connection. I'd go to some Adsense-monetized site, and POW, there would be Minecraft ads.

Apparently, Google first associated my nephew's interest in Minecraft with my static IP, and then from there somehow associated it with my BlackBerry, even though I have ZERO Google services or accounts on that device. Best guess is that I logged on to some site with Google Analytics using the BB when I was at home and it planted a cookie on the BB browser, which caused me to get the ads even when I was away.

The irony is that I have zero interest in Minecraft, so whatever chance Google had of showing me an ad that I might actually have clicked was snuffed out by their obsession with tracking and targeting ads to me.

Rich
 
I love it when Google sends me a possible "friend" in google plus, and it's me with one of my other gmail accounts. Multiple accounts to keep certain activities separate.
 
flhrci said:
I feel that Apple is also arrogant. But that's just me. No war starting over it please.
Click to expand...

Apple may be arrogant in some ways, but they don't vacuum your data because that's not the business they're in. You choose what data you provide to them, and they've repeatedly and publicly pledged to protect it. Google is very much in the business of collecting and marketing your data, and they've gone from being rather cagey about it to being proud of it.

In my mind, respect for the privacy and security of the customer is the single biggest differentiator between Apple and Google.


JKG
 
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