Joe :fedora: :debian: :ferris: (@Joe_0237@fosstodon.org)
fosstodon.org
Today I found out that google docs infects html exports with spyware, no scripts, but links in your document are replaced with invisible google tracking redirects. I was using their software because a friend wanted me to work with him on a google doc, he is a pretty big fan of their software, but we were both somehow absolutely shocked that they would go that far.

Title says it all. Somewhat interesting if true. I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

  • @Moonrise2473@feddit.it
    14•2 years ago

    The idea didn’t have an evil origin.

    There are scammers that are sending phishing links inside a Google docs drive as in this way it’s less likely to get blocked by spam filters. Like “your statement is ready and you’re eligible for a refund, click here to check”

    By mass replacing all the links with a Google redirect, (it shows the original one but when you click it changes), Google now can block those scam domains

    The side effect is that now the system can be used to collect all the visit stats. But maybe they’re not tracking visits as they can already get full browser histories from Google chrome users with account sync, and that’s enough data

  • @sculd@beehaw.org
    10•2 years ago

    Not surprised at all and proved that Degoogle is not only a choice but necessity. I used have a lot of documents saved as Google docs. Feels much better now just using LibreOffice.

    • @Karlos_Cantana@sopuli.xyz
      5•2 years ago

      Do you have shared spreadsheets? I’ve been trying to find an alternative to Google Sheets, but I’ve not found one yet. Someone had suggested Disroot, but the spreadsheet doesn’t work well with Android.

      • @sculd@beehaw.org
        2•2 years ago

        Spreadsheet is a difficult one. I do not have an alternative of a spreadsheet that can be actively edited by multiple people.

        Instead I just go back to sending files which works well for most of the use cases. That is a trade off that I decided to make but understand that not everyone can make that trade off.

    • ɔiƚoxɘupOPEnglish
      1•2 years ago

      Neat. I wonder how that would run on my potato computer.

        • ɔiƚoxɘupOPEnglish
          1•2 years ago

          My server is an old precision. Very old. New SSD though, so it could maybe pull it off.

            • ɔiƚoxɘupOPEnglish
              1•2 years ago

              Yeah, I don’t run it much because of the power cost. I can’t find a pi at retail though, and now that I have kids, don’t have time to mess with that anyhow. I do have a zero w that I got for $10 though and it’s a fun little toy.