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submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Google Removes ‘Pirate’ URLs from Users’ Privately Saved Links::undefined

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[-] sebinspace@lemmy.world 248 points 11 months ago

Man, they really want you to use Firefox

[-] Throwaway4669332255@lemmy.world 146 points 11 months ago

I can't imagine depending on Google to store anything. They shouldn't be able to even see what links you save.

[-] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 66 points 11 months ago

Yeah, this is incredibly intrusive

[-] Dicska@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

As someone who just converted from Chrome to Firefox 1-2 months ago: what alternative can you recommend to Google Drive? I wouldn't miss everything from it, but being able to easily share data (so that they can play videos, audio files or documents without having to manually download them) is one of them.

EDIT: and maybe Google Photos. Mainly for syncing.

[-] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

Nextcloud has most, if not all, of the features of drive in my experience.

(Don't everyone hit me) the snap version of nextcloud is dead simple to stand up. But if you are adamantly opposed to snap, the docker version is semi-easy to get going. Or you could just spin up a linode instance with it on there for like $5/mo.

This is all a self-hosted/self-responsible option though. So back it up etc.

[-] Dicska@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the idea. I'm mainly looking for storage that I could access even if I blow up my house.

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[-] Saxoboneless@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 11 months ago

For storage, for free options I'd recommend filen.io, which gives you 10GB free. If you're open to other paid options, proton drive and infomaniak drive seem alright.

Just skimming the alternativeto entries for google photos, the open source alternatives to Google photos look like they tend to be either paid or self hosted. Stingle Photos has a free 1GB tier you could try out. Otherwise, paid options include Stingle, ente, and seafile, and self hosted options include immich and Nextcloud (which is also a drive alternative).

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[-] Throwaway4669332255@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Depends on how much effort you want to put into it. Nextcloud is the closest in terms of features but you'll need to set it up.

I have a ProtonDrive account and I like it but it doesn't have auto upload of photos. You need to manually upload them. I'm personally fine with this since 90% of my photos are receipts and junk.

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[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 119 points 11 months ago
[-] LinyosT@sopuli.xyz 39 points 11 months ago

And stop using chromium browsers too!

No point in ditching chrome just to use chrome with a different coat of paint.

[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yep! A few months ago I moved from Brave to Firefox since Brave can’t be trusted

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[-] Hildegarde@lemmy.world 64 points 11 months ago

This feels like a corporation complying with their obligations under the DMCA.

To maintain their safe harbor status, companies have to remove allegedly infringing content in response to a properly filed takedown notice. This does include links stored in google's search results. This is what a company like google has to do when storing user data on servers in any country that signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty.

They don't seem to be doing this in a malicious way. They have done their duty and removed the offending links from their service. But they quite kindly chose to notify the user by email, including the exact URL that was removed. The user can store that link elsewhere.

It would have been far easier to remove the link silently.

[-] RubberColby@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago

See, this is why I like reading comments. Cooler heads prevail. Thank you for the context.

[-] Grimy@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

They shouldnt be reading and playing with things privately stored. Are they going to go through all my documents to replace any swear words? It's completely inexcusable. Private doesn't mean private until some big company asks about it wtf.

[-] tomich@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago

It's not on bookmarks. Is on collections(a different thing) that are public, shareable and technically hosted by Google. This whole thing has been overblown by not fact checking.

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[-] AdmiralShat@programming.dev 51 points 11 months ago

And yet, I can still google torrent sites

[-] HessiaNerd@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Google search really has gone downhill. I'm using fence on my phone and it defaults to duckduckgo. Gotta say, it's just as good, occasionally a little better.

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 5 points 11 months ago
[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 50 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Don't rely on online service to save your stuff.

Edit: how can i exclude < and > from being interpreted?

[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Usually a backslash (the one under the backspace key, not the one that shares a key with ”?") before a character that would usually be treated as a formatting instruction will stop it from being interpreted as such. Could be different for other machine-interpreted languages but when used this way, the backslash is called an "escape character".

[-] VonReposti@feddit.dk 6 points 11 months ago

The \ key. And you might ask how I wrote that symbol without it gettting interpreted. Well, by writing \\.

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[-] NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 45 points 11 months ago

What excuse are they using if it turns out that the takedown request was false?

Would they undelete the private user's lists?

Would they reimburse anybody for the damage?

[-] 1984@lemmy.today 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Maybe it will make people see Google for what they are. So many are stuck in some kind of illusion.

[-] danielton@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

They did a lot of good for the FOSS community for many years. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 11 months ago

“You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain” — Harvey Dent

[-] Saneless@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

They're an advertising company that tries to collect information about targets through products those targets use. That's it

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[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 28 points 11 months ago

Honestly, the only useful Google service these days is gmail. And that’s only because I don’t want to deal with changing providers after 15 years.

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[-] otter@lemmy.ca 26 points 11 months ago

I don't use this (Google Saved?) and I'm unfamiliar with it, is it similar to Pocket?

Is it this: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9217379

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[-] johnyrocket@feddit.ch 23 points 11 months ago

It's wierd. 4 Days ago I got an email saying they removed a link from my saved websites. Only the link, in the email, was of a reddit post from 8 years ago on how to plug in speakers into a Motherboard I used to have??? How is that piracy? Its on the buildapc subreddit.

[-] BrownianMotion@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago

You should be asking how the fuck do these cunts still have a reputation that you are supporting?

Googles new, but not announced motto is, "We are the evil".

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[-] tym@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

I think the word private in "privately saved" should be in quotes, clearly.

Remember kids - firefox was built off the netscape navigator kernel. A download for FF is a vote for the right side of antitrust history (and therefore future)

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[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

it also removed all of my saved places from google maps. thanks i like it

[-] Audbol@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I don't think that's related

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 12 points 11 months ago

They had the pirate chests locations.

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[-] Aggravationstation@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

Oh boy, I'm feeling ultra smug now. Been using a Keepass database synced via Syncthing for about 3 years now

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[-] darkkite@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago

kinda makes sense. it's like if a youtube video or soundcloud track gets DCMA'd then they're going to remove the link.

if it was you actual browser bookmark i would understand the outrage.

im still on FF tho

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[-] asunaspersonalasst@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago
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this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
588 points (95.8% liked)

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