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
    1·
    1 year 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
    1·
    1 year 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
      1·
      1 year 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.