This New Demo App Can Notify You Whenever Google Gets Data From Your Device

Many of the most popular services on the internet are free to use, but in spite of the fact that this is the case they still earn a lot of money by mining your data. Many users find this to be concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up infringing on their right to privacy, but it can be hard to traverse the internet without handing over at least some of your personal information.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that privacy advocate Bert Hubert just made a new demo app that can help users to get notified whenever their device sends Google some of their data. This app is called Googerteller, and the way it works is that it has a list of publicized IP addresses owned by Google and it will send you a notification whenever your device connects to these IPs.  

I made a very very simple tool that makes some noise every time your computer sends data to Google. Here a demo on the official Dutch government jobs site. The noise starts while typing the domain name already. Code, currently Linux only: https://t.co/ZjKeOSfYff pic.twitter.com/dEr8ktIGdo

— Bert Hubert 🇺🇦 (@bert_hu_bert) August 21, 2022

The app is currently only compatible with web browsers, and it can reveal the shocking extent of Google’s data mining with all things having been considered and taken into account. For example, when you are typing something out in the address bar in Chrome, you might notice each stroke causing a notifying beep. That’s because Google monitors your keystrokes to improve the efficiency of this algorithm, and most search engine users might not be aware that this is the case.

Google advocates might suggest that these beeps are not being caused by data being sent to Google, but rather because Chrome is very thoroughly integrated with the rest of Google’s network. Regardless, Google clearly keeps a close eye on all of its users, and the fact that this app is currently only available on Linux is even more concerning since Linux based operating systems offer a lot more privacy than Windows or Mac. It will be interesting to see if this impacts Google users since they might not want to use the services of such a data hungry company that violates their privacy.