hey guys this is Austin Apple has made a
lot of noise around privacy lately they
even bought a giant billboard in front
of sea yes
counting the iPhone is the only secure
option and you know what they kind of
have a point but before we get started
this video is sponsored by LastPass I've
use LastPass for years and years at this
point before I had just a couple of
passwords that used everywhere between
Twitter bank account you name it with
LastPass you don't have to write
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and if you're using an iOS or Android
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now that's all available for free but
you can also upgrade to LastPass premium
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be able to share out your logins to
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basically all of your devices including
different browsers laptops desktops
tablets phones you name it I
legitimately use LastPass every single
day so if you need to upgrade your
password game definitely be sure to
check out LastPass at the link in the
description and of course huge shout to
the LastPass for sponsoring this part of
the video now on to the main event so I
want to start out by getting something
out of the way I've either been
sponsored by pretty much every single
one of these companies or at least I
have a current active relationship with
them although based on how this video
goes maybe some of those relationships
might not last I totally get it right
privacy is not the sexiest topic but I
do believe that we live in an era where
most people don't understand the level
of data and privacy that they're giving
up now if you choose to do so more power
to you but really do you think it's very
much in your own interest to at least
understand what you're trading off in
exchange for all the wonderful things we
experience on our phones and tablets and
computers every day it is easy to point
a finger at Facebook for the general
lack of privacy security or well many
other things however actually want to
start this video by discussing Google
it's kind of incredible at just how
thoroughly Google has spread across the
entire Internet of course there's things
like Google search and YouTube but most
even other web pages have at least some
kind of Google service bolted on if
Google decided to just disappear
tomorrow the Internet as we know it
would largely be broken don't get me
wrong I rely on Google for a lot as I'm
sure many of you do as well I mean I
wrote up this video
using Google Docs inside the Google
Chrome browser I use Google search to do
a lot of my research and of course you
wouldn't be able to watch this video
without Google's good old YouTube it
should be no surprise that all this data
is stored to help serve ads to you
unless you specifically opted out and
that actually brings us to the Google
dashboard now there is a lot of stuff in
here I mean of course we have our web
and app history where at tracks you
pretty much everywhere location which
we'll get into in a second but there's a
lot of other information that they're
always collecting now I mean this
shouldn't really be a big surprise right
we've all noticed that we've searched
for say a random thing on Instagram and
suddenly we have a deluge of ads all
across the internet tracking us but a
lot of this is just because of how
thoroughly we're being tracked by
companies such as Google as well as
Facebook their ad networks are
absolutely massive combined these
companies have a near monopoly on the
online ad market which means that every
single bit of data they can get is a
serious amount of actual cash to these
companies can provide I mean for example
a Google search ad especially some of
the really premium ones on the top they
can pay upwards of $10 per click if they
get a little bit of information on
exactly what you're interested in to
kind of make that click just a little
bit more enticing it can be really
really big bucks
nearly every site on the internet has
some kind of tracker embedded so whether
that's an invisible one pixel by one
pixel gift or maybe it's something
innocuous like a facebook like button
all of these things are absolutely there
to help keep analytics and keep data
flowing to these giant companies now I
know this all sounds kind of paranoid
like oh no those sky is falling it's all
terrible but this is real stuff and
while it might be worth the trip for a
lot of people I think there's a ton of
people who also just don't even realize
that any of this stuff even exists
now all this tracking talk brings us
straight back to Apple who are doing
something that is pretty much
undoubtedly good for everyone well at
least everyone who uses Apple products
inside Safari they have some very strong
anti tracking policies intelligent
tracking protection does a pretty decent
job of blocking unwanted cookies
deleting old stuff that you're not using
anymore and importantly trying to keep
third-party websites from tracking you
all across the internet now it is
certainly not perfect however it is a
good first step toward giving you a
little bit more privacy when you're
browsing the Internet
now Apple are by no means the only
company who are heavily investing in
privacy
Mozilla the makers of Firefox have long
had this been one of their major core
tenants however Apple has the unique
advantage
creating not only the software but also
the hardware and that gives them a lot
more freedom to not have to worry about
things like an advertiser pulling out
and ruining your entire company unlike
its companies such as Google who funds
Android as well as Chrome OS through
services such as search as well as Gmail
Apple primarily makes their money
through selling devices and all the
things that go along with that such as
selling apps as well as subscriptions to
things like Apple music and iCloud now
might sound like a small thing but this
makes all the difference in how these
companies work take Maps for example if
you enable location history in Google
Maps which it is constantly bugging you
to do you do get a lot of very
legitimately useful features you might
give you a notification when it's time
to head to the airport
maybe when traffic is bad maybe when
it's time to go and check out that new
waifu convention that Ken's always
talking about but the problem is all
this information is stored on Google
services so I turned off my location
history on Google a couple years ago
when I first actually started thinking
about doing this video but there's still
a ton of information that's still saved
in here so you can see I used to spend a
lot of time in Alabama you still live in
Missouri if we actually zoom in to where
I am now you'll see there are a ton of
different little pop-ups of various
places that I've been in the area for
example you can actually zoom all the
way in and pretty much see where I used
to live in Pasadena look at that that's
like hope is everywhere so November 20th
2016 you can see that I walked 24-hour
Fitness I walked to Whole Foods
apparently I drove back and then I went
to arc light theaters later that day all
this stuff is super super granular and
this is just a single day all this data
is absolutely searchable for the entire
time that you had this turned on and I
bet that if you like the majority of
people you've had to turn on for a while
it's not maybe even realizing it now all
this stuff is private to you however it
is also of course stored on Google
services and there were multiple cases
where the police have asked for a copy
of this data which Google of course has
to provide if you don't save it in the
first place you don't have to worry
about being tracked the last time you
went to the Roxy Hotel in New York City
which apparently was October 26 2016 I
hate how this video makes me sound
paranoid but this is weird right it
should I shouldn't be able to look up
exactly what I was doing on October 26th
of 2016 see from minute to minute when I
walked somewhere and I got into a car I
got into a plane like that just to me
feels like it's a little bit more than
I'm comfortable with in comparison
actually
do leave Apple Maps tracking turned on
and that's her a couple of key reasons
first of all is that while Google just
stores all the stuff behind your
password Apple actually doesn't even
have access to it so a lot of the heavy
lifting is actually being done on your
device which is maybe not the fastest
way of doing it but it is a whole lot
more secure and the other stuff that
actually is sent in to Apple servers is
sort of all randomized through a process
known as differential privacy this is a
very very secure way of making sure that
no one has access to your data and yet
things like sort of location services
and everything for traffic is still
actually up and running it's some really
clever stuff and especially considering
how much they do on device I've got to
give them props now generally speaking
the result with Apple location actually
isn't as good as what Google offers but
I'm happy to make that compromise
because I know that my data is on my
device and inside of my control this
same concept explains a lot of the
differences between Apple and Google for
example Syria as we all know is well
just not quite as good as what Google
offers hell over a big part of that
because again you're not keeping all
that data stored in the cloud whereas
with Google as well as Amazon echo it
absolutely is and this is actually kind
of creepy part so if you go into your
data and personality page you open up
voice and audio activity you can pull up
an active log of every single time
you've ever spoken to your Google home
to your phone anything like that so I
pull on say last night
[Music]
that's creepy that's creepy I can
literally pull up so let's see here
every single time you've ever spoken to
your Google home it is recorded exactly
what you have to say now I understand
why they do this right I mean in theory
it's to help sort of train the algorithm
to better listen for your voice I mean
some of the stuff is just creepy
now all of these Google assistants and
Amazon echoes and even the home pod
theoretically only turn on their mics
and start sending recordings as soon as
they hear their trigger words but you
can very easily imagine that the Google
says oh I think I heard okay Google and
it starts listening in on a very
important conversation but I feel like
if I search through here now I'll
probably see something that's a little
sketchy agree like this is creepy man
and don't think that Google is the only
one who does this as far as I'm aware
Amazon does the exact same thing with
the Alexa but on the other hand I don't
believe that any of the stuff is stored
by Apple and the home pod because well
first of all no one's ever bought a home
pause but also because they don't keep
any of this stuff stored it's all
differential eyes dand kind of privacy
protected and sort of all anonymized if
this is not a good example of why
privacy is important I don't really know
what is right now there's totally
reasons to give up this kind of stuff I
mean as you can tell even knowing all
this stuff I still keep Google home in
my house but it is super creepy
especially you don't understand what all
this stuff is doing there are dozens and
dozens of other examples when it comes
to privacy but the way I like to think
about it is like this if you're using
something for free you are not the
customer you're the product now I want
to be super super clear this is OK tons
and tons of services that we use on a
daily basis strength would not exist
without this core tenant but the thing
is you have to be mindful of what you're
trading off in exchange well it's mostly
focused on Apple and specifically giving
Google a pretty hard time this issue
applies to a wide range of companies of
course Facebook is about the bottom of
the barrel when it comes to privacy and
companies such as Apple as well as
Microsoft have had their fair share of
issues as well I really do believe that
privacy is important and whether or not
Apple is investing in this for marketing
purposes or for a legitimate good cause
doesn't really matter to me you know I
choose to trade some privacy for
convenience and I'll bet that the vast
majority of you guys do as well but I do
think it's worth considering exactly how
much you're giving up and
when is the time to draw the line