Any privacy cons to using device protection on Pixel?

Questions
1

I see that turning on device protection is recommended in the new videos about smartphone privacy and in the New Oil. However, there are some aspects of device protection that seem to talk to Google. Ones that stand out to me are:

  • Intrusion Logging - Records some device activity in end to end encrypted storage on Google’s servers
  • Android Safe Browsing - Live thread protection blocks harmful webpages

And there are a few others.

One, are these not a concern actually even for folks who want to be more private from Google?

Two, is it recommended to enable device protection for someone like an activist even - someone who is doing advocacy or activism but still using a stock Pixel?

2 Likes
2

I guess you could ask him directly, cc @nateb

1 Like
3

Sorry, I’m in a situation where I can’t rewatch the video for a few hours. Are we talking about Stolen Device Protection?

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4

It’s regarding the device protection that is part of Google’s Advanced Protection. Part of what it does is enable theft protection.

Kind of confusing the way they chose to name all this stuff, lol.

But also looking for opinions from the community for anyone else who also has this enabled.

5

This should mostly be fine, since it is not nearly as bad as people make it seem. Overview  |  Google Safe Browsing  |  Google for Developers

6

How would this work if you’re not using Chrome? Is there an API that browsers would use to reference this list? Or does this not work if you’re not using Chrome?

7

That’s the thing. How would FF and Brave users benefit?

8

This allows apps to use Safe Browsing without having to implement it themselves.

Both Firefox and Brave already implement Safe Browsing themselves.

1 Like