Defeating Google's Perpetual Search Logging

heretic108 writes "Google's policy of storing everyone's search histories forever is causing concern amongst many, especially since Google stores a cookie on everyone's PC expiring in 2038. But at least one user is fighting back. His short and simple guide tells you how to set up any decent web browser so that it routes Google requests through an anonymous proxy, while sending everything else direct to the net for full-speed surfing. Follow these steps and get Google's nose out of your business once and for all."

Comments

Pffff...

[Five Bucks!]

Using their service gives them the right to log your search... it's in their business model. Quite simply, if you want Google to keep their nose out of your business, you should keep your nose out of theirs.

Use MSN Search instead! Ha!

Re:Pffff...

[jasen666]

Troll? My ass.
He's absolutely right. Do you honestly beleive that other search engines do not save the searches you type into THEIR server? What just happened with AOL? At least Google is honest about it and made it publicly known that everything is saved, thus giving you the option to not use them if you don't like that.
They're providing a free servivce to you, if you don't want them to know what you're searching for, don't use the service. Or waste time setting up proxies and whatnot. But as has been mentioned, you better proxy everyone, because every web service you use probably saves some information about you.
Personally, I have too many other important things in my life to worry about other than the fact that google saved that search for "hentai porn" last week.

Re:Pffff...

[Rob the Bold]

Using their service gives them the right to log your search... it's in their business model.

What's with the "Pffff"? Pshaw right back atcha!

Anyway, the topic really isn't Google's right (or desire) to log your searches. It's about anonymizing your Google searches. They've still logged it, just not tied back to you in any way. If they're logging for purposes of statistical analysis, it's no problem for them, is it? Where's the agreement that I have to search under my own identity?

Re:Pffff...

[shawb]

Exactly. I believe that Google is at least ATTEMPTING to minimize any evil that may come from storing that data. They have shown some backbone in dealing with warrantless requests for that information from the DHS, unlike just about any other organization.

If you believe that storing the information is in and of itself evil, then you are free to attempt to set up competing services. If you aren't using the information garnered about users to deliver targetted advertising, you are likely going to have to charge a fee as internet search (and the other goodies that Google delivers) are fairly expensive to do. Very few people would be actually willing to pay for internet search when they can get it free (or advertising supported, to be more accurate) from many other places online, so your costs would be distributed among just a few people, meaning the per user fee will be quite high. Or you can simply not use Google, MSN search, Yahoo, etc. Good luck competing in today's society that way.

I haven't seen Google do anything major to break the trust that they have earned (besides going public, which does mean that choices are in some way no longer strictly under their control.) Untill such time as they show otherwise, my experience is that they are more concerned about my privacy than any other data amalgamating corporation out there. I have decided that for me, the benefit gained from using Google is worth the risk that the data gleaned from my use presents. There are going to be people in other fields with other... shall we say interests for whom this does not hold true. I this is the case, be careful what you search for, and assume that anything you search or allow Google to search on your computer if you use Google Desktop or similar can be used against you. Anonymizing proxies and others may help to some extent as long as you are careful not to give any link to yourself through the proxy. And remember, sometimes being TOO paranoid mades you stick out and "THEY" will start watching you simply because "THEY" think you have something to hide... then you have to go VERY deep under cover, which means you no longer have a personal life, only a cause.

Re:Pffff...

[mikiN]

Simple solution: use a meta search engine. That way Google will still log what you type in the search box, but it will be linked to the IP(s) of the meta search engine server(s).

(What meta search engines are and what their URLs are is left as an exercise for the reader)

Text before slashdotting

[Anonymous Coward]

Protect Your Privacy from Google

Abstract

A simple HOWTO for stopping Google from logging your search history.

The Problem

While Google.com is a brilliant search site, and while its proprieters claim to abide by their 'do no evil' motto, there is one practice that threatens to expose you to much evil down the track.

Google places a cookie on every user's computer, timed to expire in 2038. With this cookie, they can track you and log your entire search history. In fact, Google has recently indicated that they won't be deleting people's search histories.

While this cookie may not directly identify you by name, an analysis of your search history over time can definitely help an attacker (or abusive government authority) to identify you personally.

Many people fight back by setting up an anonymous proxy for all their web surfing, but this can slow down their accesses terribly. Such slowness sooner or later drives most people to revert to direct non-anonymous internet access.

A Solution

In summary, the solution is to clear all long-lasting cookies, set your browser to not keep cookies between restarts, and divert all google requests out through an anonymous proxy.

This will protect your privacy as far as google is concerned, but allow you to enjoy full-speed browsing with other sites.

Follow these simple steps:

Get access to an anonymous web proxy. A common favourite is the Tor network

Be using Mozilla Firefox.

Install the FoxyProxy extension for Firefox

Within FoxyProxy configuration, add an entry for your anonymous proxy. Within this proxy, add 2 whitelist wildcard rules, with the patterns:

http://.google.com/*

http://google.com/

Clear out all your browser cookies

Set Firefox so that it only keeps cookies till you close Firefox (Edit/Preferences/Privacy/Cookies)

If there are any other sites that may be unduly logging your activity, and don't have a refular log deletion policy, add some entries for these sites into your anonymous proxy matchlist in FoxyProxy.

With these measures in place, all your regular web requests will go out directly to the internet, while all requests for *.google.com will go via the Tor anonymity network. Also, since your cookies are getting deleted every time you close/restart Firefox, then Google will no longer be able to build a history of your web surfing.

I appreciate that for some amongst us, this is like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. But at least we can arrest the extent of the privacy violation which Google is perpetrating.

Conclusion
The searches you send out to Google are your business. You have the right to prevent Google from accumulating a perpetual history of your web searching. Use that right.

slow site

[gEvil (beta)]

The site seems to be slow. Anyone got a link to the google cache?

gmail?

[LiquidCoooled]

If you log into gmail then won't your search be linked anyway? (since mail.google.com would be proxied)

In the end, the simplest is to stop using google if you feel your privacy is compromised and try to find a company with a better policy.
I tend to trust google enough to keep my search history, so what that they know you search for killing your wife or drowning barbie dolls, let them assess all they want, because you cannot be found guilty of thinking about a crime.

Re:gmail?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

because you cannot be found guilty of thinking about a crime.

A group in Canada was arrested for thinking about bombing a Hudson tunnel. A group in Miami was arrested for thinking about bombing buildings in Chicago. Not only didn't they have bombs, they didn't have materials or knowledge of how to put one together. They didn't even have money or connections, just that, as sick as they were, they wanted to perform bombings, at the time of the arrests, they simply didn't have any capacity to carry it out. Given that these were effectively pre-crime, it's not much of a leap as you think.

Simple Solution

[rangeva]

Use Customize Google:

Customize Google For Internet Explorer
Customize Google For FireFox
Both will anonymize your google cookie, click tracking and much more.
Both are free open source projects.

RTFS: "for full-speed surfing"

[Jeff Molby]

The summary itself answers your question, and TFA goes even further to say

If there are any other sites that may be unduly logging your activity...add some entries for these sites into your anonymous proxy matchlist in FoxyProxy.

Next time spend atleast 30 seconds reading before you post.

clusty

[bcrowell]

Clusty has an excellent privacy policy. I'm going to try using them for a while and see if the results are comparable in quality to google's.

And before anyone says that you don't need to worry if you aren't doing anything illegal, try reading up on the history of the FBI. They had a massive file on Einstein, who, e.g., belonged to "communist front" organizations like the the American Crusade to End Lynching. Check out the Wikipedia article on COINTELPRO, especially the part about the murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo (by a carload of Klansman with an FBI agent riding along), and the FBI's subsequent smear campaign against Liuzzo.

No need for a Firefox extention

[DosBubba]

A Proxy AutoConfig (PAC) script is well suited for this task:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
if (shExpMatch(url, "*http://*.google.*"))
return "SOCKS 127.0.0.1:9050"; //Proxy here
else
return "DIRECT";
}

Place the above in a text file, and set it as the automatic proxy config file for your web browser (for Firefox users, Preferences>General>Connection Settings).
The matching string *http://*.google.*" should be used instead of http://.google.com/* as a foreign proxy will cause Google to redirect you to its respected cctld.

Re:Hilarious guide, using Tor....

[nmb3000]

Not only that, but I find it just so picturesquely Slashdot that the summary says "tells you how to set up any decent web browser" and the actual article explicitly only works with Firefox. IE/Safari/Opera users just laugh at the submitter and "editors".

That, and who thinks they are fooling anyone by doing this? If you have a Google account for other services like Gmail, then you must allow Google to set a cookie, and you are still identifying yourself. You're also giving up the ability to customize your searches (safesearch, number of results, languages, etc).

Depending on how your cookie settings are set, the only thing Google will know is what you're searching for. If you're really that worried about it, just delete the Google cookie when you're finished for the day/week/month. If all you use is Search, then just blacklist google.com in your cookie settings. That, or you can send all your traffic through an anonymous third party who has no accountability. If you're concerned about absolute privacy with regards to Google, it seems unlikely you'd give the same information to some anonymous others.

First they came for the Jews...

[Travoltus]

and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
- Pastor Martin Niemöller

The lesson? Speak out NOW, while someone else is being persecuted in violation of your Constitutional liberties. Eventually they always get around to coming after YOU.

In Germany, your neighbor typically turned you in because they didn't like you. Not because you were a Jew, a gay, or a commie.

Right now, today, someone you don't like - perhaps someone you don't even realize - can accuse you of being a terrorist - and at the very least there'll be a file on you. Good luck with flying after that... if you're lucky.

God, I hate apathetic people.....

Some suggestions...

[MBC1977]

There is a real easy solution (for those who have a problem with Google's practices)

1) Use a different search engine: Google (and most businesses) I'm sure will not care what you say until a critical mass
of users using other search engines (or any other product) lose customers. Of course, since they have not changed their
business model or practices since their inception, I don't think that is really going to happen anytime soon.

2) Execute a technological workaround: However that has the drawback of if (and I say if) Google decides to become nasty,
they just ban you from their system, which they could legally do, since you are violating their company policy (which again forces
you to use another search engine, but this time not by choice).

3) Complain: Perhaps they may listen, perhaps they may not, but as a soverign business unless it affects their revenue stream
(which I don't think will happen, as they happen to be one of the best at execution of both their software and business practices)
I don't personally see their revenue slowing down anytime soon.

Last thing about this subject, it is true there is no such thing as a totally secure system, but Google does a pretty good job at what they
do, why hassle them when nothing has happened (not that it won't), but for now let Google run its ship, and just be happy with the service they
provide.

As one reader said earlier... you could use MSN Search.

Regards,

MBC1977,
(US Marine, College Student, and Good Guy!)

Cookie myth

[megaditto]

'Deleting the cookie' does nothing to remove your stored search history crosslinked to your IP address

Having a dynamic IP does not help if you use your computer regularly to check email, log in to slashdot, or visit your unique collection of news sites: anything that can link your particular IP-of-the-day to your identity.