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Mission-Simple-5040 t1_jd2pzqk wrote

Reply to comment by Digital-Chupacabra in ELI5: Why does Google offer all these free services like Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Sites, Forms, etc. without any ads on them? How does Google benefit from this and why do they invest so much in creating and maintaining them? by Elena_Edie

What's metadata?

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allecher137 t1_jd2spmy wrote

Metadata is the data about the data. For example they might not read the numbers in your spreadsheet, but they know your IP, browser info, and times you are active online.

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Burstar1 t1_jd2u7uy wrote

All the information it is possible to glean or infer from a file outside its actual contents. Things like:

File type, size, time and frequency of use (importance), the IP address/location of the user and anyone it has been shared with, the language it uses, etc...

Without even a database of all your data, it is possible to look at a large spreadsheet file and make an educated guess whether or not it is an important file whose user is educated, Western (based on language preference) and likely middle-aged (Excel vs. Google Spreadsheet), who is using it for budgeting or database purposes (based on size and frequency of use).

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Vingdent t1_jd2tzuc wrote

the google analytics algorithms build a library of metadata on your content that tells them things like your income level, what your drive, places you visit, businesses you frequent, subscriptions and memberships you have, ailments you might suffer from, credit level, family size. basically anything it can glean from what you give it.

The data is stored in an “anonymized” state without your actual name or other personally identifiable info, but that’s a bit moot because they can usually identify you but your metadata fingerprint anyway and link it to you at will.

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MoogTheDuck t1_jd315dh wrote

What you're describing isn't really metadata, it's the outcomes/process by which google anaylzes data/metadata.

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Digital-Chupacabra t1_jd2srea wrote

Data about data. A simple example is with a photo, when it was taken, where it was taken, by what camera etc.

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BrunoBraunbart t1_jd2tmou wrote

Data about data. For example, when you make a survey, the actual answers are the data and the information about the person (gender, age, ...) could be considered metadata.

In this case they mean metadata in files. For example, when you take a picture, the actual pixel information is the data and other stuff (location, time the picture was taken, phone model, exposure time, ...) is the metadata.

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JCDU t1_jd32qc1 wrote

Data about what you do, who you communicate with, when & where you are, what devices you use, the sites you visit, it's a huge and terrifying list.

Also, since it's doing the rounds today:

https://www.bitestring.com/posts/2023-03-19-web-fingerprinting-is-worse-than-I-thought.html

How about identifying you even in incognito mode?

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BurtMacklin-FBl t1_jd36n6y wrote

It's only "terrifying" if you don't know what it actually is.

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JCDU t1_jd3clfj wrote

If you don't think the level of tracking & data collection online is terrifying you haven't understood the scale of the problem.

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