Google has decided to rename Lake Ontario in the US. Please uninstall Google Maps.

While I understand they’re pulling data from the US government, they have no actual legal obligation to comply. This is entirely a choice an executive at Google made.

Did you know: When you click a link on Google and then go there Google tracks your location and links it to all your ads. This feature is called Local Search Ads, and you can hit Google’s pocketbook directly in protest by not having Google Maps installed.

When you have Google Maps installed Google is always tracking you. That tracking data feeds into a lot of products: things like mapping cell and wifi networks to geolocations, ads, recaptcha, search, and more. Google stores a profile of who you are, where you live, where you work, who you visit, etc.

If uninstalling is too much for you go to your Google account and disable Location History in privacy settings. Alternatively, click your user profile icon and turn on incognito mode, which disabled tracking and other features.

This will reduce the data linked to your profile (though, in reality, there’s no assurance this does anything, like when that disabled Nest camera was used by the FBI last year).

Browsing without an account does not have the effect. If you simply log out you have no privacy limitations enabled.

  • katy ✨@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    6 days ago

    why doesn’t china just make an official proclamation declaring taiwan and hong kong are chinese territories? by this logic, google would have to rename it.

    • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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      6 days ago

      In what way is Hong Kong not a Chinese territory? Did someone sleep through the 1997 handover?

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      I mean Taiwan is much more complicated then people want to admit, cause they like simple black and white situations. And the China Taiwan issue is anything but that.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Most of the world recognizes that China already owns Taiwan.

      The main countries that don’t are USA and Israel