On 2024-01-31 19:29, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> [...]
>
>> I know for certain that the spammers that bother me have not got my name
>> and data from the Google Address Book from me or others. It is obvious.
>> So I am not worried about having my address book backed up in the Google
>> cloud.
>
> Indeed. My contact details (including e-mail) are in my (Google)
> Contacts (<https://contacts.google.com>, but I do get no [1] spam on
> that - or any other - address. So one's Google Contacts are indeed *not*
> a source for spam.
>
> [1] Well, maybe one message per month, if that much.
>
>> They are getting them from other sources who sell them. It is visible in
>> the spelling errors or the amount of data they have, which is not in the
>> Google Contact List.
>
> Yes, and sometimes some of one's - somewhat - legit suppliers seem to
> share your e-mail address with their partners without asking/telling you
> and backtracking to the source is often not possible, so you don't know
> who to blame. But even those are included in my about one message per
> month, so nothing to get worked up about.

I get phone calls trying to sell me this or that, or to donate to this
or other charity or NGO. I must have said to one or two that I did not
have a job (something I have only told charities, because one is shamed
of not donating to them, so one tends to explain why), and now I'm
getting spam on one of my mail addresses about jobs. Not the address
that I have reserved for "jobs".

This is an address that since many years I only give to friends, but may
have used it initially for registration at some site or other or when
buying something. And this is the address they are using, and they use
my name with a peculiar spelling error.

This is not coming from Google sharing my contact book.

>
> [...]

--
Cheers, Carlos.

VanguardLH wrote on Tue, 30 Jan 2024 13:30:13 -0600 :

> Andrew's objective was to protect your contacts by not uploading them.
> Well, your contacts are also in the headers of your e-mails.

Frank was pretty clear that he was sure of the fact that a "contact"
typically contains a name & address & phone number(s). Email does not.

> I'm not concerned my e-mail provider will steal my contacts.

Unless that e-mail provider uploads your Android default contacts database
(or unless you upload it to them), how are they going to get phone numbers?

> My counter to Andrew was that protecting contact lists was insufficient as
> contacts can also be culled from e-mails, and anyone that hacked or
> breached the e-mail provider would have access to BOTH.

How are they going to get phone numbers from the header of your emails?

> Problem nowadays is getting a free e-mail certificate for SMIME.

The problem is you are vehemently arguing against not storing contacts in
the default contact database, but you don't understand a thing about it.

You don't even seem to realize the astounding difference between the data
that is in a typical contact entry and that of a typical email address.

You're never going to comprehend a word I've said until you understand
that an email address isn't the same thing (at all!) from a contact entry.

Carlos E.R. wrote on Wed, 31 Jan 2024 20:24:06 +0100 :

> This is not coming from Google sharing my contact book.

When you have people like Carlos arguing against something because he
ridiculed the use of Microsoft Office on a PC, that's a clear sign of a
cognitive impasse such that he'll never understand something complex.

When you have people like Vanguard arguing vehemently against something
when it's clear he thinks that an email address is exactly the same as
what's in a contact entry, then that cognitive impasse is unfathomable.

When you have people like Frank who make the claim that Google is spamming
people based on their contacts, again, there is no way to get thru to you.

None of you have even the slightest capacity to understand the situation.
And yet, you vehemently argue against what you can't possibly fathom.

Why?

Luckily Alan Baker & Joerg Lorenz didn't weigh in on the topic when the
three of you ridiculed what is a basic privacy measure for Android.

IMHO, the safest way to ensure no app is accessing your contacts without
your knowledge is simply to not store them in the default Android location.

What's different about my assessment and yours, is I understand the facts.
You do not.