09-22-2016, 04:55 PM
Back when Google first announced its brand-new chat app Allo, the company said that it would only store messages “transiently,” not indefinitely. But since May, when the app was first announced at Google I/O, things have changed a bit in that regard. It now appears that Google won’t be doing that after all. Instead, it will keep hold of all conversations.
Google will use that data to improve parts of the app, such as its smart replies feature. That will allow the app to read through conversations and try and work out how people talk – it can then use that data to suggest what they might want to say to their friends. There’s nothing inherently evil about a messaging app that stores your chats or makes end-to-end encryption an option, rather than the default.
And users of Google services like Gmail should be familiar with the tradeoffs involved in letting the company store and scan your personal communications. But Google’s backtracking was a big strategic blunder, because the big story of the day of Allo’s launch was not its “intelligence” but its privacy risks.
For those concerned about privacy, the app allows you to switch to incognito mode, which is end-to-end encrypted. An expiration feature allows users to set a time limit, after which messages disappear from the sender and the recipient’s devices. However, smart replies won’t be available in incognito, stripping the app of it’s special features.
Google will use that data to improve parts of the app, such as its smart replies feature. That will allow the app to read through conversations and try and work out how people talk – it can then use that data to suggest what they might want to say to their friends. There’s nothing inherently evil about a messaging app that stores your chats or makes end-to-end encryption an option, rather than the default.
And users of Google services like Gmail should be familiar with the tradeoffs involved in letting the company store and scan your personal communications. But Google’s backtracking was a big strategic blunder, because the big story of the day of Allo’s launch was not its “intelligence” but its privacy risks.
Quote:Users still have transparency and control over their data in Google Allo. Your chat history is saved for you until you choose to delete it. – Google
For those concerned about privacy, the app allows you to switch to incognito mode, which is end-to-end encrypted. An expiration feature allows users to set a time limit, after which messages disappear from the sender and the recipient’s devices. However, smart replies won’t be available in incognito, stripping the app of it’s special features.