[nmglug] Fwd: Google Contacts (from Re: Will curiosity kill my cat? What is this?)

[Ted Pomeroy]

Tom. In fact I keep a pdf in external memory on a phone. You must create a
file to begin with, but I had one on a computer which I exported to the
phone. And w/ a little practice can talk on phone and view the file at the
same time. It does not auto dial, but is handy for the odd old number I've
not put into my contacts. Just a thought, Ted P.

On Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:34 PM Tom Ashcraft <trailerdog234 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> On 1/10/19 10:37 AM, Akkana Peck wrote:
>
> > Tom Ashcraft writes:
> >> I am hooked but not enthusiastic about the new device (Moto G6,
> >> Ting). Google
> >> and Android totally creep me out, but I think I've got that aspect as
> >> constrained as is reasonably possible. (Synced Contacts being the really
> >> horrible, notable exception.)
> > You don't need to sync your contacts either, if you don't want to;
> > Android still works with local/only contacts. Though of course, *we
> > shouldn't assume that means Google doesn't know our contacts.*
> > Thanks for the response, Akkana,
> Though I've tried, I've yet figure out how to actually get the
> local-contacts-only thing to work.  Perhaps you have something specific
> in mind that due to lack of skill or experience I've yet to discover.
>
> My concerns with Google Contacts are:
>
> 1) that everything that I could find and try from Google PlayStore,
> including apps  returned when I placed 'F-Droid' in the search fields,
> all linked back to requiring permissions to access Google Contacts
>
> 2) that other people who place my phone number in their own Google
> Contacts (most people who use Android phones) are already building a map
> of all my personal associations for Google without my knowledge or
> permission.
>
> Even if I happen to find some way to be stubborn, ornery, or smart
> enough to get around the situation, there still remains the "tyranny of
> the default" to which most people will necessarily acquiesce, wittingly
> or not:  Google contacts and PlayStore apps sync automatically if you
> have an Android phone and a Gmail account.
>
> So far, no functional app or strategy I can find *anywhere* (other than
> memorizing phone numbers) provides a dialer that will work without a
> Google-associated contacts list.
>
> But perhaps transfer of information between Google and independent apps
> really does only go one way; that is, for some unknown innocuous reason
> all the apps consistently just have to know what information of mine
> Google happens to have if I am to be afforded the privilege of using any
> of them.  Really?
>
> Why should the functionality of an app have to be conditioned on whether
> or not I give it permission to access Google Contacts? Why should the
> app need that if I don't?  What is the problem with having separate
> groups of contacts?  Why should the developer of an independent app care?
>
> I think for the most part the answers are that Google simply doesn't
> want such things to happen, that Google is looking at everything I have
> whether I like it or not.
>
> Possibly I could find some way to split-view the screen with both a
> phone dialer and a .txt file of names and numbers.  If that can be done,
> I don't yet know how.
>
> The situation as I currently understand it strikes me as being analogous
> being able to pull the shades on your living room windows but having no
> curtains and a ladder outside your bathroom window.
>
> Another analogy is that if someone goes on the plaza of the Taos Pueblo
> with a camera that person will typically be told they can't take any
> pictures of anyone, but then the person hides behind a bush or something
> and takes pictures anyway.
>
> All of which sucks.
>
> Please, someone, tell me how I'm wrong, that I'm making stupid mistakes,
> that you know things I don't.
>
> Tom
>
>
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