Slashdot Mirror
How Do I Keep My Privacy While Using Google?
hubert.lepicki writes "I use Google all the time. I keep two GMail tabs open when I'm online (one is private, another is a corporate account), I use Google search, and recently I switched to the Chromium browser. Google's services are fast, easy to use and usually reliable. At the same time, I know Google is tracking everything I do; I can see it in search results or their ads on web pages, which tend to match my interests. After the recent post by Mozilla's community director suggesting Bing has a better privacy policy (a response to questionable comments from Google CEO Eric Schmidt), I started to... 'google' ways of keeping my private data safe while browsing and using Google services. The results weren't very helpful, so I ask you, Slashdotters: how do I stay anonymous to Google while using their services?"
TrackMeNot for Firefox is useful for masking your real search engine queries with randomised search terms. That's a start. Not sure if there's a Chrome equivalent. Is Chrome that much of a necessity? Firefox does the job (though it freezes far too often for me). Otherwise, why not exercise some self-constraint and try products from Yahoo, or even host your own? (First post? :P)
ilovegeorgebush
If you asked me I would say resistance is futile unless you are ready to commit illegal actions.
You could always use anonymous services like scroogle fro searching but if I was a intelligence gathering organization, I would run such "anonymous services" myself so there is a risk that you might be followed even more by using such services.
Hacking into 10 machines and forwarding your connections through all of them might be a solution that will get you into trouble but that can be an efficient way to stay anonymous. But then again, intelligence gathering organizations might set up honey pots that you will end up using and you will bring even more attention to yourself this way.
So anyway:
> how do I stay anonymous to Google while using their services
is a really hard to answer question: There might be solutions for anonymous services like searching but for gmail and all other services that require you to log in, I would say forget it.
Intelligence gathering organizations have come to fully realize the potential of the Internet to track people, in contrast to the situation in the early 90s. Maybe Google CEO knows all about this and that he was just saying; you will be tracked anyway so you may as well be tracked by us ! He kind of screwed up on this because he is now stuck, unable to further explain his point of view, he would have to admit that Google, Bing and many other track you for business and marketing reasons but that they also "share" information with security oriented intelligence gathering organizations.
So in the end, I would choose who I want to be tracked by for marketing purposes and forget about not being tracked for other purposes unless you want to risk getting into trouble. You may be safer just acting as a normal day to day user thus making the amount of traffic play into your advantage in order to stay anonymous.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Look up the TrackMeNot Firefox extension. It spams Google and the other search engines with randomly generated but plausible search queries, so there's no real way that any of these companies can build a profile on you. If you browse with ads, however, prepare for some really bizarre ones.
...ask google ?!?
Why not use Tor for search queries? Your gmail is obviously a different story, because using Tor wouldn't make much difference for Google. So set Opera or Chrome to use Tor, and you're set for that part.
Seriously.. despite all the controversy it has stirred up.. if you don't have anything to hide.. who cares
It's not that black and white.. but chances are unless you have some very disturbing fetish.. chances are "the stuff you don't want your boss to know" is fairly similar to 10 million other people.. to the point where you are just a tiny blip in a stats bucket. Your just search #234521 for "sex with staplers".
They arn't publishing your search history in the newspaper .. they are using it to increment a counter that you might be interested in office supply ads.
If you are really paranoid though.. use adblock.. route everything through tor.. disable cookies.. and be sure to encrypt your hard-drive with a 20 gazillion bit cypher.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/24/2210224/Google-Analytics-May-Be-Illegal-In-Germany?art_pos=1
check scroogle...
I guess in the end I fail to see what the big deal is.
As long as Google isn't selling my financial data to unscrupulous persons and having me get billed all kinds of money for things I don't want, or creating a dossier on all the weird shit I've searched for and forwarding it to my boss, what's the big deal?
So what if some marketers know everything about what I like to buy or look for? How, in the end, does that really affect my life? Yes, it's a bit creepy sometimes, but it makes no impact on my quality of life.
What *does* freak me out is how my credit card company can ask me to confirm my height and weight when I talk to them on the phone, and when I ask them how the f**k they found out how much I weigh, they tell me that by law they're allowed to download all the information from the Department of Transit and so they know everything that's on my drivers license. THAT's the kind of stuff that I find extremely scary, and that's the kind of thing you can't do anything at all to prevent other than living in a shack in the mountains somewhere.
ìì!
I don't know if there's anything you can do to stop them from tracking you when you're using their browser. If you're using a different browser though, you can avoid having your search queries associated with your gmail account by using a different country's google for the searches. I stay logged into my gmail all the time, and I use google.co.uk for all my searches.
Block Javascript, block all Google cookies, have no Google accounts. Occasionally permit scripts and cookies for long enough to look at a map (oh, and also block all advertising with Privoxy).
Works for me, but I don't think I'm quite Google's idea of an ideal user (that's *user*, not *customer*).
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
http://www.scroogle.org/ is a google screen scraper that doesn't pass google cookies or IP data on searches. It sends search requests as from itself and strips out cookies and ads and forwards results to your browser. They have a firefox plugin to set it as a search engine in the search bar.
If you are logged into gmail you cannot possibly retain your privacy.
Short of deleting all google cookies and changing your ip after using gmail you cannot retain your privacy.
# cat > /etc/hosts ...
> google.com 127.0.0.1
> doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1
> youtube.com 127.0.0.1
> google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1
> #
> EOF
Well, first thing would be to disable cookies for Google. I've done this long time ago because I got a bit scared of how much Google knows about me (search works fine without cookies, you can pass search preferences as URL parameters). Then I use a VPN that provides a random IP every time. I believe this should be enough to prevent them from identifying me and/or linking my searches. Right?
Thanks to 9/11 there arent anywhere on the world you can expect any privacy. Not online, not offline, not your medical records, your purchases, your bills or anything else thats in electronic form are private.
Weather you use Bing, Hotmail, Gmail, Google doesnt matter the least bit since ALL of them logs everything and have to keep it and release it at any governments whim. The differences between them are highly superficial and has zero importance in reality. The terms of service from the different vendors are worth about, not a damn thing. They have to log everything and have to release whatever a court or intelligence agency wants released.
If you dont want it read and scrutinized, dont put it online. Period.
HTTP/1.1 400
Slashdotters: how do I stay anonymous to Google while using their services?
TANSTAAFL
If you don't want to pay the price for using their services, don't use their services.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
I use my butler Jeeves for everything. He arranges my travel, does my bills, and picks up anything I need from the store. He is fast, courteous and usually reliable. At the same time I know that he is aware of everything I do; I can see it in the way he can often provide suggestions which tend to match my interests. Do to some misplaced comments of his, I am now suspicious that he may not respect my privacy. How do I remain anonymous from my butler while still having him provide all the personal services that I am accustomed to?
Use adblock plus to block google analytics, don't use any social networking sites...
Honestly, your best bet would be to get off the internet at this point.
Use Scroogle scraper. Your searches should then not be cross-referenceable against your use of other google services.
http://scroogle.org/
Why should you be receiving their services without you giving something of value to them?
Using proxy services is not going to help as Google has access to your emails, which have a lot of data specific only to you.
Also if you keep Gmail open all day, you are almost certainly logged into the search page with cookies which make the proxies useless.
Your best bet is to use Google dashboard ( https://www.google.com/dashboard/ ) to delete your search history until you can find a better solution.
I use the cool firefox addon at: scroogle.org and obviously adblock plus that gets rid of those annoying ads. If you ask me I still try to figure out WHO on earth clicks on them, but this aside...
I've using the thing at scroogle.org for a few years now and a part from not being traceable by google while logged on gmail you get the first 100 results for a query that's a distinctive plus to me.
HTH
No one will pay any attention.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
Justs Google it....oops!
the person or persons who figure how to get the same value of all these services while protecting users' privacy is going to make a fortune.
Ned: Phil? Hey, Phil? Phil! Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!
Phil: Hi, how you doing? Thanks for watching.
[Starts to walk away]
Ned: Hey, hey! Now, don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you.
Phil: Not a chance.
Ned: Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson: I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing! Ned Ryerson: got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson: I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
Phil: Ned Ryerson?
Ned: Bing!
Phil: Bing.
You shouldn't The beauty of how good results are, is because it knows stuff about you. Not personally, but it knows your searching habbits (or in the case of Chrome, browsing habbits too).
Google is not giving you all this goodness, truly for free. Gmail and Search, and Maps (including what appears to be the best GPS navigation service around), and Docs, etc. are not simply an act of benevolence on the part of Google. They want something for all they are giving you and it's demographics. They want to be the most successful company in advertising to you and to do that they have to profile you.
If you want to be anonymous to Google, stop using all their "free" services.
I used to work for an ISP. Theoretically we could have tracked what people did on the net. (Disregarding issues of legality and ethics of course).
But guess what: you people are not that interesting. You think your life is so brilliant that large corporations want to spend lots of money tracking your pr0n surfing and whatnot. But you just aren't that interesting. Get off your ego trip, it is warping your understanding of reality.
First of all... for corporate/business stuff, you should use your corporate/business mail servers and other services, that are dedicated to that business. Using public services for business doesn't make much sense.
Private stuff.. well, don't use public services for stuff that you consider sensitive. I mean.. I chat with my gf via gtalk.. even if they read it, i don't care. They could as well sit next to me in a coffee shop and hear what we talk about. I certainly won't disclose anything 'sensitive' in public, and using public services like gtalk/gmail.
For some sensitive stuff, I tend to use my own services, which aren't that hard to install and customize. There are some basic mail server softwares, dynamic dns, etc. So in about max 2 hours, you can set up your own system for communication, and possibly configure SSL for all those services.
Gmail/Gtalk has it's purpose, but using them for business and or sensitive private stuff, is insane to me, so this question doesn't make much sense also.
IMPORTANT: You have to disable cookies on google to make sure that they can't build a history of all your searches. Otherwise you can be easily pinpointed if you ever search for your own name or that of someone close to you. Preferably also use a dynamic IP address.
It seems to me you have two options. 1) Accept the trade off of having Google uses your information for targeted advertising in exchange for their service. 2) Stop using Google's services.
Use Bing instead of Google search. Switch to Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or use an email client. Use Bing's maps instead of Google Maps. etc. I don't think any of these options really ensure your privacy any better than using Google does but if your fear is of Google specifically (sort of irrational IMO) then these are options.
Personally I don't mind the first option because honestly I'm not that interesting. I don't do anything with Google services that would be very interesting to anyone at Google or an intelligence service. There seems to be very little risk for a decent reward.
I do my searches using clusty.com rather than google, for exactly this reason. In most cases, the search results are exactly the same quality as google's. It doesn't have certain specialized features that google has, e.g., book search and image search.
A simple way of enhancing your privacy is to set your firefox preferences so that it deletes all cookies when you exit the browser, except for cookies from a specified whitelist. Edit : Preferences : privacy. Uncheck "accept third-party cookies." Firefox will: Use custom settings for history. Keep until: I close Firefox. Exceptions: [set your list of exceptions]
But basically, if you completely hitch your wagon to gmail, google docs, etc., then I don't see how you can expect to preserve your privacy from being invaded by google. Google is an advertising company, and their whole business model revolves around selling your eyeballs.
Find free books.
Nothing is free and if you use their services, your privacy, at least in part, is the cost. If the price is too high, go somewhere else.
I may have gone to the extreme, but last Friday I moved away from GMail and started the process of erasing my google-held data (check the "dashboard" in account.google.com, it is pretty scary to see how much they know of you.) I'll be deleting my google.com account in a couple of weeks, as my friends start writing to my new Email account. I did the same with Facebook (also last Friday), whose new privacy settings are truly horrendous. With Bing and Hotmail, I know precisely where my privacy stands. Up to me if I choose to useBing/ Hotmail or not. With Google, I know my privacy is worth squat. Up to me if I use Google/GMail or not. I chose to close accounts in companies whose privacy policies I disagree with. Interestingly, erasing oneself from Facebook and Google is not an easy task (although migrating is, see trueswitch.com). they will hold my data and personal information forever. But at least they won't be getting any new data from now on.
Something like:
import random, time, os
t = 300
while 1:
time.sleep(t)
t = random.randrange(800)
dictfile = open('dictionary','r')
dictlines = d.readlines()
line = dl[random.randrange(len(dl))]
x = "wget -0 - http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=" + line
c = os.popen(x)
p = c.read()
i'm not sure if it really takes the data off of googles servers, but you can google "google dashboard" and see what is going on there. also go to "web history" and you can remove searches and sites etc. again, not sure if it takes data off of their servers, but its doing something
not using google and using ecosia?
the privacy is much better and you also serve a good cause
or if you do use gmail, encrypt everything you send with an external app, have all your emails forwarded to another non-gmail account.
Running your own email server isn't exactly hard as long as your ISP is willing to change your PTR record and give you a static IP. Well worth it even just for the gains in privacy.
For google search i would use an anonimisng proxy, run a http proxy (bandwidth limited) to muddle your searches in between other people's but you will get the much hated 'sorry, your computer is generating automated queries screen' and will sometimes have to enter a capcha in order to use google search the odd time
Objectively you can't remain anonymous. But what you can do is subjectively poison the collected data to make it at least questionable, or at the extreme, overtly and obviously so polluted with intentional misdirection that no authority, agency, employer or person would dare try to take any portion of it seriously for fear of choosing the wrong portion, thus making a serious error in judgement. Random BS won't work. Complete fabrication is too time consuming and prone to errors. Mixing every real action with more or less of a plausible false action with some but incomplete consistency is best, especially if some of your real action is hidden via encryption, proxy, back channel transmission and so forth. Outright misstatements aren't good enough. Being 'seen' doing other than what you want being seen doing is the key. Look into OPSEC (operational security).
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Try OptimizeGoogle (based on CustomizeGoogle). It has a great number of features, such as anonymizing your Google Cookie UID, blocking ads, removing click tracking, stopping cookies being sent to Google Analytics etc.
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
I stopped using Google's desktop gadgets because they crash Plasma when they fail to reach analytics (I discovered this using strace on Plasma.) The outright crash might be a KDE bug, but there's absolutely absolutely no reason a moon phase gadget should need access to the internet.
I work for a company that supplies a specific unique service(Laboratory Service). I use a work gmail account for testing/backup. My personal email is not gmail. To my surprise after using gmail I starting getting spam to my personal account to do with Lab stuff. And some ads in gmail clearly are oriented to my personal stuff. As far as I know I have never crossed the two and strickly keep personal matters out of Gmail.
As with a comment above, "if you have nothing to hide", I don't have anything to hide. But it is somewhat unsettling.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Seriously.. despite all the controversy it has stirred up.. if you don't have anything to hide.. who cares
Kinda sad that I have to post this for the second time in a week. Disclaimer: from Slashdot, not originally mine.
Please help metamoderate.
Here are some addons I use in Firefox that might be of use for some: CookieSafe, permanently ban google in specific from setting cookies (for example): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2497 Ghostery, See who's tracking your web browsing and block them automaticly. (trackers like google analytics, quantcast, etc) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9609 Torbutton,Provides a button to securely and easily enable or disable the browser's use of Tor. It is currently the only addon that will safely manage your Tor browsing to prevent IP address leakage, cookie leakage, and general privacy attacks. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275
There's no way you can use Google all day from your own computer and have your searches remain anonymous; you're going to, in the normal course of doing things, do searches which can be traced back to you. And there's no way to type "how to blow goats" into any google search box without google knowing that someone is interested in blowing goats. The only way to keep stuff private from Google is not to search for it (or use other Google services). The only way to keep stuff anonymous is to completely separate that stuff from other things you do. Which means at the least not doing it from your computer or any computer or network traceable to you.
Honestly, while Schmidt's comments seem scary, they are right. If you are highly concerned about privacy, maybe you should not use a free online mail service that is payed for by the advertising and marketing information it provides to it's operator. Maybe for the stuff you are really concerned about, you should use hushmail.
That being said, realize that most of Slashdotter's are paranoid as fuck. Honestly, if Google ever gave out access to my data, it would be bad news for me. Same thing goes for Facebook chat and many other activities. Also, if any of those servers I played with in my script kiddy days turned out to be a honeypot.
Honestly, get over it: you are a bunch of paranoid crazies.
Use separate browsers for all your activities.
My current set up is all firefox, using profiles (-P profile on the commandline):
-1 browser for normal usage. Adblock plus with cookiesafe and noscript.
-1 browser for gmail. Adblock plus with cookiesafe and noscript. Never used for anything but gmail. Also uses --no-remote so no clicks from other windows can open a tab on this browser.
-1 browser for facebook. Adblock plus with cookiesafe and noscript. Never used for anything but facebook. Also uses --no-remote so no clicks from other windows can open a tab on this browser.
Do not click on links from your emails or facebook, copy and paste them to the "normal" browsesr.
By doing this, you'll be a lot harder (not impossible!) to track.
Cuil was mentioned on /. a while back in a story about Google. They claim to not retain any information about searches you run... wikipedia says the site was set up by ex-Google employees. I've been using it for a few days and it seems okay. YMMV.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
In the other hand, your "privacy" could be the line that separates a world of noise and spam to the real info you need. And Google services, specially when used in integrated form, could be pretty practical
If all google services run on ipv6 now, just use a tunnel broker. If you have a public ip address, get a tunnelbroker.net account; you can create and tear down tunnels on demand. Otherwise, use gogo6.com and its client, or even better, log in anonymously. Both ways will hide your real ipv4 ip behind the tunnel broker service, and also give you paranoid IP hopping capability.
Also, rfc4941 "privacy extensions" produce an ipv6 address with a randomized suffix, and the system can prefer this addres when making outgoing connections. It's enabled on vista and above by default. This should confuse IP tracking code that is unaware of this feature.
...a web developer "friend" of mine recently logged into a client's Google account from his home workstation to set up a Gcalendar for their site. Unfortunately, and I...er, he should have known better, he forgot to log out after completing the task. He was then unpleasantly surprised to go in a day or two later and find his entire search history for that period (searches, images, etc.) logged and displayed right there in *the client's* Google account, as they had enabled Google Search History for their account.
Lesson learned.
Your statements clearly show how absolutely clueless you are. Just because you can't think of any use for the data, doesn't mean there isn't any use or some future use.
Privacy was important enough to be written into the US Constitution. That's good enough for me to want to protect it furiously. Not just for my desires, but for the needs of people how may not have a choice but to stay hidden to avoid persecution by others.
Shame on you.
Apart from shopping transactions and your "home" ISP, there's no need for any website to know the name that's on your passport or birth certificate. Not even the same nationality (there's a reason why Afghanistan is the first country on country selection dropdowns - use it) or gender. After all a name is merely a tag, there's no reason to go through your whole life with just one.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
First invent a name so that you can set up an email account with the false name. Then go through an anonymous proxy server using the phoney email account. These two steps should offer you a reasonable level of safety. Obviously you do not want to use charge cards with your real identity on the computer that you use to surf the net. Setting up a firewall is always a good idea and running a fully encrypted hard disk can also help.
This makes it really clear.
The Google Toilet Service:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrontojPWEE
If you want privacy don't use services or purchase anything on the Internet.
Never buy anything online.
Never use a service that requires that you get an account.
Even then use anonymizing techniques or services like Tor for those few sites that you do visit via random WiFi connections you find by driving randomly around after purging all the cookies in the browser you are using.
But while you are doing that make sure that you always pay for everything in cash.
Do not use a library card.
Avoid all areas that use video surveillance.
Do not get healthcare or have a medical record.
You really don't have any privacy anywhere anymore. If the info is on a network connected computer somewhere, there is someone you have not authorized that can get access to it and copy it. There may be laws against that, but they won't be enforced... because its way too much effort.
Before networked computers held info of all kinds there was the illusion of privacy, but even then it didn't exist. It was just harder to get at the data.
The internet is a public forum. The only privacy that exists is what you set up with other parties BEFORE you use the Internet.
Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
There are way to many people posting, "I don't see what the big deal is with Google's lack of privacy..", and not enough people actually supplying possible solutions to this problem.
Google has gotten a lot of support from the Slashdot community over the years, and we definitely helped them grow. We, obviously, didn't do it alone, but we were certainly a factor. We are the people that other people ask about such things. The Tech Nerds. Google originally offered products with ideas and philosophies we all liked. We, in turn, helped spread the word about them.
Now I don't care so much for a lot of their new ideas and philosophies. What alternatives are truly out there? And I'm sorry, but Microsoft and Bing are not an option. Microsoft's new whipping boy, Yahoo, is right out, also. (Yahoo turned to garbage years ago any way. It's just that now, there is nothing to stop their fall.)
What are good alternatives to Google Search and GMail?
For years, I have used one browser (Safari) for nothing but online banking. I now use Chrome for all google related browsing (GMail+Google Apps, Blogger, Reader).
I do all other browsing on Firefox, blocking Google and most other cookies.
This is slightly inconvenient because if someone emails me a link, I need to copy and paste it into Firefox - probably copy/paste links between Chrome and Firefox about 5 to 10 times a day so this is a small overhead.
I usually use Google Search (on Firefox), but I also use Clusty and Bing.
...read the summary.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You can also use other search engine proxies, like Blackle or Znout where the data that is stored is not stored on Google servers, and is pruned regularly rather than stored indefinitely.
The best solution is not to use Google at all. They are indexing your email and will figure out who you are and who youtalk to about what. Use the calendar and they know where you are. Add the 6 months of browser history and you're screwed.
I hope this has already been suggested in the 120-something posts so far, but if not, here's my simplistic suggestion. Go ahead and use Chrome (or Chromium if you want) for your gMail tabs. But only use that browser for Google mail and apps. Do all of your other browsing/searching/whatever with Firefox or Safari or Opera or IE. And maybe switch your default search engine for that browser to Bing or one of those Bing/Google comparison engines or something. And have it either not keep cookies or auto-clear them on exit. Is it 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. But it's a reasonable step away from having them able to figure out every single thing you do.
This guy's the limit!
What I was planning on doing was logging out of google services, and blocking all google cookies....
Any other suggestions would be welcome.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
you can all get over yourselves, nobody gives a shit about you or the "private" details of your life. the list of people that the "Man" is profiling does not include you, your mother, or your mother's basement where you currently live.
Don't keep a Google account. Use Google on a public computer at the library. While there, read their newspapers and other periodicals to keep current. Don't get a library card; don't check anything out. Wear gloves and a disguise if you really don't want to be ID'ed, or street clothes if you don't want to be noticed.
Tracking HTTP by IP is extremely unreliable for Google and everyone else -- many corporations and other firewalled institutions run big proxy servers and funnel all their requests from that machine.
I'm surprised that no-one mentioned http://www.scroogle.org/ which carries out Google searches on your behalf.
"I use Microsoft Windows all the time. I keep two Hotmail tabs open when I'm online (one is private, another is a corporate account), I use Bing search, and recently I switched to the Firefox browser. Microsoft's services are fast, easy to use and usually reliable. At the same time, I know Microsoft is tracking everything I do; I can see it in search results or their ads on web pages, which tend to match my interests. After the recent post by Just Another Human suggesting A Microsoft Competitor has a better privacy policy (a response to questionable comments from Just Another Human), I started to... 'bing' ways of keeping my private data safe while browsing and using Microsoft services. The results weren't very helpful, so I ask you, Slashdotters: how do I stay anonymous to Microsoft while using their services?" (fixed that for you!)
I store my photos, banking information and other private data within Windows, which is a proprietary Operating System. I don't know what the source code may say, it could contain a green colored scrolling ascii monkey in a red dress laughing as it sends my private data to Microsoft's servers for all I know. How is my privacy respected when I have no idea what may be going on "behind the scenes" in the code, especially with the long EULAs tied to most proprietary software today. Someone told me Microsoft has the ability to add or remove any software on MY computer running Windows whenever they want, is this true? What else are they capable of? Why shouldn't I listen to Richard Stallman and and consider switching entirely to open source software to house my private, personal data?
im in the same situation as described. i like their services (along with the speed-of-light browser chrome) and use them a lot. and am willing to give away a part of my privacy for that. but meanwhile i am concerned as well about all the data, they collect.
recently i found an interesting article (originally in german) giving a few simple tricks and settings, how to regain a little privacy.
for sure, these wont make you anonymous, but its something you can do without a lot effort, that sure will help a little.
http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.manager-magazin.de/it/artikel/0,2828,665690,00.html
It's pronounced "Boorgle."
Kinda like FaceBorg.
You simply opt out
Proxies, Adblock plus, deleting cookies and such in fact do very little. It is easy to match you up to your profile by considering only your browser version, operating system, browsing habits (do you use google.com, google.somethingelse, the Google search in the default Firefox homepage, or the Firefox google search bar? Do you click on "search" or press enter? Do you block googleanalytics via Adblock plus? Which IP addresses do you browse/proxy from? How did you set the web page localization preferences?). Remember, it only takes 33 yes-no bits of information to uniquely identify you among all human beings. How many are you already handing over to dear Google?
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
GMail has supported IMAP and POP3 for a while now, just use an email client and you won't have to actually log in to google in your web browser.
Many other's provide data in the non web world of your purchases and other non web transactions. These affect credit scores insurance rates medical and car. So providing information to data mining companies such as google will have detrimental impacts of your life in the future that you do not even know about. There is a large analytical group of companies that look for information that will provide incite as to what your future decisions may be. For example looking for car repair may increase your car insurance automatically. Searching for information about safe driving for teenagers may also prompt a premium increase just to of set any future expected claims. This is a path that will be detrimental not helpful to you. It's all about companies better understanding the risk and the sonner they can charge you more the better they manage their risk. I see no benefit at all to me so I do not use google I use Ixquick for my search engine. Good luck with that gmail thing!
How about this, write Google a big fat check in exchange for a no tracking cookie. Wait you want it free too bad.
You have no right to ask Google to give you anything if you're not willing to pay for it.
Is this your advice? Don't anonymize and you shall be anonymous. What a load of BS. It's like saying don't use encryption for your data, because if I was the NSA, I would introduce backdoors into ciphers...
1) Use different browser profiles for different web applications.
If you start firefox with these options: -no-remote -ProfileManager it will allow you to run multiple copies simultaneously, each with a separate profile (different set of cookies, different set of plugins, different skins, different bookmarks, different histories, etc).
I create a specific profile for each major web app - I have one for IMDB, one for google searches, one for google mail, one for google voice, etc. And one for generic browsing.
Each profile has a couple of add-ons:
Adblock Plus - general catch-all to block things like doubleclick and the million other trackers
CookieSafe Lite - for fine-grained control of what sites can set cookies
NoScript - for fine-grained control of what sites can use javascript and flash
Redirect Cleaner - for removing those "bounce links" that a lot of sites use to track you when you follow a URL off their site, with the cleaner you go directly to the destination URL
RefControl - for clearing out or rewriting the referrer URL - prevents sites from knowing where you came from when you clicked a URL to their site, sometimes helpful in accessing poorly 'restricted' content
Targetted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out - sets special cookies that sites may choose to obey to say "don't profile me" since these TACOs are not unique-per-user, I figure it can't hurt although it probably doesn't do anything
User Agent Switcher - Lets your browser identify itself as a different browser - this is very important
Ghostery - Informational Only - tells you what tracking sites may be tracking you on any given page (does not block them, and you get false alarms on sites where NoScript blocks javascript, but it is still good for situational awareness)
Better Privacy - Blocks new stealth "super cookies" in Flash and DOM Storage Objects. VERY IMPORTANT
Using the above plugins, I do the following in each profile:
1) Set NoScript to only allow javascript from the one website the profile is intended for - and block flash as much as possible regardless due to cross-profile flash cookies
2) Set CookieSafe that same way and then only for per-session cookies
3) Block and/or auto-delete Flash and DOM Storage cookies with Better Privacy - note flash cookies tend to be shared across all profiles because they go in a folder under "Documents & Settings" on MS Windows and ~/.macromedia/ on Linux. I am still looking at ways to force each profile to use a different directory for flash cookies - until then, block flash as much as possible and auto-delete cookies frequently
4) Set the User Agent to be different in each profile - this gives the appearance of multiple users behind a firewall which is key
5) Load a different theme or skin for each profile to make it easy to visually distinguish between windows so you don't accidentally start browsing the web from your gmail window or vice-versa
All that is a little bit of a pain to set up, an hour or two total. But once in place, I think it is a reasonable compromise for reducing the risk of having your personally identifiable information gleaned in services like Google Mail from being automatically cross-referenced with your browsing habits. I am considering taking it a step further with FoxyProxy configurations to use
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I use ixquick.com which claims to be the only search engine which does not collect your IP address. They have also recently started going by the alternative name name of startpage.com. You can access them by either name or URL.
http://ixquick.com/
http://startpage.com/eng/protect-privacy.html
Surely they could see that you're coming from a residential connection and compensate.
Its not the Goolge of today that you need to worry about; its the Google (and any other like company or internet service) of tomorrow that's in question. Today's Google has a track record of and a public stated policy of *trying to do the *right thing*, but should the Google founders, Schmidt, or the board decided otherwise or should Google decided to sell off some assets for whatever reasons -- all bets are off!
1) Have a clean computer, by this - I mean a 100% random-data-erased harddisk & computer that is completely UNTOUCHED.
2) Download a LIVE CD (Linux) eg. ubuntu, QNX..etc.. from a DIFFERENT computer in eg. a netcafe. Burn it.
3) Purchase a small 40-50 cm satellite dish.
4) Purchase a USB WiFi dongle, preferably one where you can re-flash the MAC address. (If you don't know - google!)
5) Purchase some 1mm copper, a 10x10cm copper clad board, and get yourself a soldering iron bolt + some solder.
6) Follow the internet instructions on making a Double Bi Quad WiFi antenna.
7) Rig the antenna up on a camera-stand so you can aim & scan houses accurately.
8) Now you should be able to get 50-1000 WiFi connections i a heartbeat in a city, even pretty far away, depending on your "focussing" center.
Some of them, are bound to be free from encryption.
9 Insert your live cd, let it do it's job.
10 You're not home free yet, you want to protect your "host" as well, so use a program to find free proxies (scan for proxies)
11 Hook your firefox up to a series of proxies, change regularly.
Enjoy the worlds most paranoid - but safe - surfing.
Too hardcore for ya? Here's the basics.
Use a LIVE CD for safe surfing, make sure to overwrite the Linux Swap memory after each use (that's your swap partition), change your mac address regularly, and use proxies, you should be fairly safe - at least - they can't prove a damn thing.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Your ISP knows much, much more about you than Google does.
GOOG is not law enforcement nor corporate security. A bigger question is how far these entities can pressure GOOG into keeping logs "their way", rather than aggregated in ways that help sell ads.
By using Firefox with Noscript, Adblock Plus en Ghostery I think Google do not get that much of my habits.
http://www.scroogle.org/
Google scraper. No cookies, no search-term records, access log deleted within 48 hours. There are search addons for it for various browsers too.
Just like site SEO, Google can store stuff on you, but they have difficulty vetting it for relevancy and/or scoring it. Make a few bogus searches, from time to time each month, about really weird, embarrassing things that have nothing to do with you, and also very mundane but specific things that have nothing to do with you. You can learn all sorts of interesting things in the process. If they're going to have a data file on you, make sure it contains everything and then you have plausible deniability regarding anything specific. Make sure the information stored about you is often wildly inaccurate and then have a laugh at the ad results for genital herpes cream and whatnot.
--
Toro
There is no Bing, only a front-end to Wolfram Alpha. Use it directly and speed up your searches. Deal with one privacy policy instead of two, by using it directly.
meh, they're coming to get us all anyways, so why not embrace the inevitable!
I use NoScript and AdBlock Plus. All the trackers I've ever encountered (for Google that's googlesyndication, google-analytics, etc etc) are blocked.
It's very simple -- when I visit a page all the 3rd party sites that I've not voted on appear in a list. If I don't know them and explicitly trust them they get blocked. Very very occasionally I have to unblock one temporarily -- and even more occasionally I have to unblock one permanently.
Even if I could see the ads I have never noticed any directed at me or with content based on my interests or browsing habits (other than the current site/page -- if I'm on a cooking site I might see ads for cooking etc).
Thank god for IPv6 ?
New things are always on the horizon
As mentioned in John Dvorak's Second Opinion this excerpt sums it up quite well:
Our privacy rights have been eroding for years and just accelerated with the Bush administration. President Barack Obama has been on board since day one.
What sort of society wants to tap the phone calls of all its citizens? What sort of society wants to rifle through your personal belongings after busting into your house? These notions are promoted on TV with shows like "24" and other cop shows, where warrantless searches are common. (Even the actual mechanisms are revealed: "Did you hear a scream for help in there?" "YES! Let's bust in.")
It ironic Eric Schmidt seems to feel differently about his own personal information that that of others.
Schmidt, it should be noted, had a few personal details of his life revealed a few years ago by CNet in an exercise to show the power of Google's /quotes/comstock/15*!goog/quotes/nls/goog (GOOG 590.51, -0.99, -0.17%) search engine. Schmidt was incensed that, for instance, his home address was unearthed, and the company then banned CNet from its press events. Read the CNet article at issue.
Using Schmidt's logic, one has to ask: Why did he care if he wasn't doing anything wrong?
Don't log in to google on the web: download your gmail into an IMAP/POP client like Thunderbird, and do searches in your browser without logging in, and block cookies or clear them frequently(*). Use NoScript or similar in your browser to block the google-analytics.com domain. (Really if you care about privacy at all you should have /all/ cookies and scripts off by default and only ever enable them when you need them.)
(*) Of course your searches and IMAP downloads come from the same IP address, but if you're behind a NAT gateway that could be any number of different people anyway, so they can't draw strong links from the association.
If you care about your privacy, try Startpage.com. They don't keep permanent records of your searches or record IP addresses.
I notice several posts have been made regarding the current Slashdot con census regarding privacy. When some people say that they aren't worried about any privacy issues because they're too insignifant to care about as far as Google's concerned, some others pipe up and comment that in the "old days" of Slashdot, they'd be in the extreme minority, whereas nowadays it's fairly common to see this opinion.
Here's the problem - there IS no privacy on the Internet anymore. Compared to the old days of Slashdot, surveillance and logging has become so commonplace and pervasive, that even if you don't put your particulars on the Internet yourself, someone else might do it themselves. A good example would be a friend who uploads a picture on Facebook which has you tagged, even if you don't use Facebook. Heck, if you don't use it, you may not even know the picture exists until it's brought to your attention. At the very least, it's hard to remain isolated from the privacy issues of the Internet, short of becoming a hermit and avoiding any social contact.
So the reason privacy is being given up, as seen by some people, is because it's frigging tiring to have to check, double-check, workaround and in the end, give-up the fun and useful services and technologies available to us on the Internet, because very little of them respect total privacy. It's also hard to justify such extreme paranoia when it's highly unlikely you'll encounter any actual problems, so long as you use common sense.
In the end, we're all gonna die anyway, so freaking RELAX. Whatever privacy issues you were concerned about won't matter an iota regardless of whether you get buried, cremated or shot out of a canon into the sun.
PS. There's also the tiny fact that you WON'T CONVINCE EVERYONE about the importance of privacy anymore. That boat has sailed, given how much Facebook is used as a benchmark. So don't fret about worried how how you think privacy is becoming extinct. If you want to live in the modern digital age, it already has...
If you're searching something sensitive, use yauba.com or another anonymous search engine. Use Tor to hide your trail. Regularly delete cookies you don't need to keep. Use a different email provider if you are sending sensitive information and use IRC private channels for chatting. In Chrome, uncheck the box that says "send usage statistics" and disable web history at www.google.com/history/ and opt-out of the advertising tracing cookie. If privacy is really what you're most worried about, I'd be more concerned about your ISP, since they can see all your packets at the start point.
"BFilter" does a fair job of removing so of the things people have listed above. For example: ads, google analytics, etc. I have been using it for 6 months, and it does work well.
Search engine plug-in for Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12506
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
If you've got nothing to hide you've....
Define Privacy for goodness sake! If you are worried about targetted advertising, stay off the damn net. If you care if someone knows your favorite color don't fill in questionairres. The amount of useful information someone - (conspiracy theorists enter your preferred bogeyman here) can deduce from online search queries and your browsing habits is about as significant as the initial letter of your mothers maiden name - jack sh*t - unless they already have a huge amount of collateral information. On the other hand if you are really paranoid you could spend all day building a false web identity... or you could get a life. If you are of interest to 'those people' they can find out what they want to know with minimal effort, so chill and accept the trade-off. Google finds you info and maybe sets you up for advertisers, spooks etc. Is it worth the price - You decide - just like a grown up, you pays your money and takes your chances.
If you have a Google account, you can see what search data they have collected about you. Go to iGoogle, click on My Account link, then Web History. You can request the data collection to stop, or remove the existing data. This of course assumes, that this really is all the web history they kept about you.
... by doing searches through various open web proxies, and Tor. Now the Google Ads are for stuff I have no interest in. So does that make it better?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Then configure CookieSafe to "Deny Cookies Globally" (you can easily make exceptions for some sites). BetterPrivacy and TrackMeNot come with suitable defaults.
With this set-up, no cookies will be created. DOM Storage (super-cookies) and flash cookies will be wiped whenever you close your browser. And you will gently spam Google and other search engines with random searches, just in case they do tracking by IP addresses.
You may also want to throw in:
*I have no financial affiliation with packetflip other than using their service.
I'm sure Google doesn't care about the "inaccuracy" and tracks groups of users on the same IP anyway because of the extra information this gives them. Surprise! They just figured out that all the people logged in through that same IP work at the same company/live at the same house/go to the same coffee house and they didn't even need to use social networking to figure it out. Scary stuff when you think about it.
Nope -- IPv6 has 128!bit addresses. Some of these are very likely to be your MAC or otherwise persistant. Very traceable, especially in logs.
Just use Mystery Google!
I'm paralysed by choice. I want to use all these products and services this company offers, but they don't want money, they just want to make a record when I use them. Please help.
Yay me!
I use Google all the time. -> Checked
I keep two GMail tabs open when I'm online (one is private, another is a corporate account) -> Checked, Google for your domains + downloads POP3
I use Google search, and recently I switched to the Chromium browser. -> Checked, few days ago
Google's services are fast, easy to use and usually reliable. -> Agreed
How do I deal with it? I embrace it. And I keep 2 browsers open. 2nd one goes out through a proxy. 4chan and other undesirable browsing habits go there. I previously did this with 2 instances of firefox with different configs. Now I use Chrome for Public + Firefox for Private.
Problem solved.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
To paraphrase Schmidt, YOU DON'T.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
about the only thing that i can get to work is "Try your search on Yahoo, Ask, TheWeb, Live, etc, etc", and that only works for web searches, not news or image.
i'd love to know if all or any of the other goodies are working for you or others. thanks
Switch back to Firefox / Thunderbird, setup your Gmail accounts as IMAP accounts on Thunderbird, install NoScript, and block all scripts and cookies form Google. If you want even more anonymity, use Tor.
Finally, go to about:config, type "referer" (yes, with a single R) in the Filter bar and change the value (which is 2 by default) to 0, which disables the "Referer" HTTP header (Google feeds its crawlers with information from this header too).
Google is now so ubiquitous you are likely going to end up in their database one whether you actively subscribe to their services or not.
How many among us don't have at least a few close friends or colleagues who are heavy Gmail users?
Any correspondence you make with Gmail users is logged eternally in Google's vast databases and can be used to build a profile of you at some point in the future, if it serves the purposes of the owners of that information.
Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wrote one addon for Firefox, beefree, that is useful to help you to keep a bit more of your privacy online!!!!!!!
If you want to look at it, it's here:
http://honeybeenet.altervista.org/beefree/
http://honeybeenet.phpbb3now.com/viewforum.php?f=14
bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bee!!!!!!!!!
use bookmarks
Alternatively, you can support https://us2.ixquick.com/eng/ which has fairly acceptable search results and they do not keep any logs of searches and IP addresses.
Queries Google using random IPs. Your IP and queries deleted in 48 hours.
Well, we don't know which data of your requests they really use. Of course there is googles own privacy information, then there is the stuff they may not tell you about. And finally there is stuff third parties might do with your google data, these may include your provider, using traffic inspection and your government using the patriot act or something.
Third parties usually know even more about you than google, your real name, banking informaiton and such.
About your privacy regarding google itself:
I'd advise on using multiple browsers, or profiles, so you can divide your gmail stuff from the search cookies. Firefox has an option to keep cookies until closed, you'll get a fresh cookie from google on every browser start.
In firefox there are also seach suggestion and 'safebrowsing' queries to google.
But to be honest I don't expect google to keep an (ip, cookie, account) database and I don't expect them to cross relate too much data between their services. Adwords aren't that complicated, you don't need that much information to target ads.
Realize that Eric Schmidt was among the attendees at the Bilderberg Group's meeting last year.
Google is the biggest knowledge engine of our age, and the power elite are no fools. Knowledge is power, and they are fully aware of the potential for Google's data aggregation technologies to help them secure and maintain their positions at the top of the heap.
Google is a public company, but the members of the public who have the ability to buy controlling share are the people who have the most to gain by maintaining the status quo.
As for Gmail -- no thanks, I'll run my own server. Unfortunately, that declaration of independence loses its teeth when you consider the fact that Google will still be able to build a profile of me by putting together my Gmail-using friends' and coworkers' email. You can choose not to use Gmail, but you can't prevent people you correspond with from using it. Gmail is so ubiquitous now it would be socially and professionally disastrous to begin refusing to email anyone with a Gmail address.
The thing about privacy options offered by the system is that they're completely untrustworthy. You're essentially hoping that AskJeeves will do what you want despite the fact that AskJeeves has all the information they need to tell people details of your search(es). You are trusting a corporation with your privacy for no good reason. Even if everyone at AskJeeves honors those settings they could inadvertently spill details about your queries. Just because they say "When AskEraser is enabled your search activity will be deleted from Ask.com (not third-party) servers..." doesn't mean they'll erase anything. Maybe they'll tag the information you want erased and keep it around, then interpret that tag with a different meaning than what you intended: you want this erased, but they'll consider that more important to keep because now they know you want it erased.
When Google bought DejaNews' Usenet database Google didn't initially honor the "X-no-archive: yes" header/first-line-of-post setting (which was intended to tell Usenet archivists something about tagged posts; a foolish approach to be sure but fun to play with just to see what happens). At first it was possible to retrieve Usenet posts from Google's database which had this header/body-line set. Later Google honored the setting and the posts were no longer searchable by people outside Google HQ. But this was enough to show that x-no-archive wasn't being used as a signal not to store/index these posts (DejaNews and Google obviously did just that), nor did x-no-archive mean not to convey the posts to others (DejaNews obviously conveyed them to Google). One can safely assume that if one initiates a search from a trusted place (say, from machines inside Google HQ), one can pull up these posts today.
The only way to preserve your privacy is to think about what information is important and not distribute secret information in the first place.
Digital Citizen
"Google is tracking everything I do; I can see it in search results or their ads on web pages, which tend to match my interests."
just google "how to keep privacy while using google" until the ads start reflecting this, then click one of the ads
Some people won't believe you (and it's argued in the replies also), but yes any sort of identification by IP is pretty much useless, and it has been for years. It wasn't so bad for geolocating, but even then it ran into serious problems. Even Google, the behemoth datamining company, would sometimes send me off to google.ca, even though I was happily sitting in the US.
They *CAN* use that information to associate you to a group of users. Some people have mentioned NAT on residential connections. Residential lines sometimes show up at small business sites, so even with some regex matching, it wouldn't identify if it's a single user house, or a 10+ user business. Then again, they can guess based on browser usage.
A long time ago, at a company I worked for, we tried to use IP's as part (not all) of the user identification. It's all fine and dandy, until you find out that some places (namely AOL) are obnoxious about their proxies, and some users have multiple lines. One of my original problem was the users with multiple dialup accounts. They'd get annoyed at the speed with one, and switch.
Even a user with a whole collection of dialup and broadband accounts won't be protected if they're searching for "bad" things. The IP is still identifiable to someone. If the feds start subpoenaing records, it won't matter which line you were on, they're still your line. If you're at work and doing it, don't believe for a second that your employer won't be compelled to hand over every machine in the place if necessary. And, no, stealing a WiFi connection from your neighbor isn't enough to protect you. If you've done something bad enough, and the feds show up, they'll figure out soon enough that grandma wasn't really looking for bomb making materials online, and they'll figure out who the rogue user is attached to her access point.
The larger your organization is, the less likely you'll know they're on to you before there's a nice man with handcuffs and a badge standing at your cube saying "We need to talk. Come with us."
So, the question then becomes, how much are you worried about what you're searching for online, and should you really be doing it? The IP may not be any good for positive identification, but it leads them down the trail right to you.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
...because you're even asking the question. This is about people who can't, or don't care, to take any trouble to change defaults -- in other words, the vast majority of computer users. This is exactly the same principle Microsoft has employed over the years: "We'll just do whatever we want and the people who understand it, will find a way to stay out of our clutches. Everyone else we own." Same principle behind Facebook's recent "Privacy enhancements" and all the software that takes over every option of your PC when you install it (Microsoft, Adobe, AOL, Apple, Real....).
As H.L. Mencken pointed out, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," and that thought extends perfectly to the computing public. Unfortunately the bad guys understand this.
I'm looking over the wall, and they're looking at me!
I know it's trendy not to trust the government, and I don't trust them all that much either, but if they really want information on me they're going to get it one way or another, and the outlet switch for getting rid of people who abuse that information is an election. Here in Australia we even have instant run off voting so I've been able to vote for a third party and still transition my vote to the lesser of two evils when said third party doesn't win. We've got pretty vibrant politics down here most of the time, and we can usually get rid of whichever set of idiots is going too far. This isn't usually the case in the US, but to be honest, trying to deal with problems getting fair election results by complaining about what the people you didn't want to vote for did isn't really the right way to solve the problem.
Google on the other hand is a private enterprise. I can't vote for new management of google, I can't vote for them to change their policies, I can't even find out what those policies are unless they're public, or how often they're actually following them.
The fact that google will roll over for the feds is really not that much of a big deal, everyone rolls over for the feds if they come with a warrant, that's the law. Admitedly some folks roll over without a warrant, and that's a problem, but outside the scope of this.
The big problem with google is that they horde so much information in the first place. The feds can't get what isn't logged. That's my big problem with google these days. They seem to be more and more intent on gathering more and more information about everyone. Search queries, e-mails, written documents, now DNS queries. Who the hell knows what the binary distribution of Chrome actually reports and to whom. Personally I trust the government a lot more than I trust google, I have at least some control over my government, and none at all over Google.
YOu don't have to use Google services for them to track you. You can be tracked indirectly. For example, if CNN web site embeds Google Analytic and you visit it, then Google and their Advertisers know you were there. Okay, you think that Google only knows your IP address right? You think that that you're safe. No big deal! Wrong. Let says later on that day, you sign into Gmail. There! Google knows who you are.
If you're naughty and go to some porn sites that have Google Analytic or Google Ads, you are being watched.
The best way to avoid being tracked, don't use any of Google services or softwares, e.g. Chrome, Android, etc. or you can just disable javascript feature in your web browser.
Just listen to the radio and riff on random words you hear...
I think my current profile must be for a pro-abortion conservative seeking vegetarian recopies for well aged beef, who is also looking for gun rights for married homosexuals who want to club baby seals to cut down on green house gasses, so that they can drive their Hummers as much as they like to anti-tax Tea Parties where they can dump their toxic CFL bulbs by the eco-friendly re-usable shopping bag-full. And, I may or may not have breast cancer, prostate cancer, alcoholism, feminine hygiene needs and or ED, PE, weight loss or weight gain issues. Surely I can get cures for all of the above cheaper from Canada...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
whoosh?
Does anyone remember Anonym.OS from a few short years ago? Whatever happened there?
What if you use a POP mail program, and have your gmail from both private and corporate addresses forwarded to a third non-gmail address? Then there would be no need to keep two browser windows open to gmail all the time. Wouldn't that solve half the OP's problem?
The second half could be addressed by using an anonymizer when doing Google searches. Or the Scroogle app.
See http://scroogle.org./ Don't go to the .com site. Different owners.
Right here http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
Subject says all.
That means of course no webmail in most cases. But webmail is an abomination anyway, right?
And that's why I'm Anonymous Coward here. With no Javascript and no cookies I can't subscribe.
I would otherwise.
As a Firefox plugin it allows you to submit Google searches while logged into Google services but not affiliate the search with your Google account.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10354nn.com/
How do you keep your privacy while using Google? You don't.
If you want your actions on the internet to be completely untraceable, then you should probably consider Tor. Obviously not a 100% solution, but it solves the problems you discuss.
At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious: why not put anything you care about through an anonymous proxy service? There are zillions of these, ranging from totally-free-but-overloaded to expensive-luxury-model. Just search for "anonymous proxy service".
At the risk of stating something else obvious: an anonymous proxy will not help if you use a service that requires you to log in. It is only good for search queries and general surfing.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I just use a virtual machine to do my surfing. When I shut it down all changes are removed. That means cookies, etc.
The way to do it, is of course with a Linux Laptop and Aircrack. Also change your MAC address.
Do it from an Internet hotspot far away enough from your domicile. Avoid any cameras. As an extra, you can also use anonymous HTTPS proxies and the Onion Router network amongst other techniques.
The government should stop snooping around and do what it is supposed to do. To protect and serve.
If Google knew anything about me, they wouldn't serve gross weight-loss and hideous teeth-whitening ads alongside respectable web sources. Nor would those sources allow it alongside their brand. Hypothesis: is this nastiness being quietly encouraged so that we actively PREFER them to know more?
Not all of us browse at home using a residential connection. I have a FiOS Business Connection at my home.
I even advertise as a Wireless ISP on my main page so I could be serving thousands of different people at any given moment
when in reality it's mostly just me and my wife playing DDO and a couple of www/dns/mail servers running.
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than have to have a frontal lobotomy."
Thank god for IPv6 ?
I had no part in that, and I resent the accusation.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
IE8 has InPrivate browsing (aka Porn Mode) which blocks all cookies/history/etc. Other than IP tracking, this will stop Google keeping your history.
I use Google's services, but not their products. Why? Because I avoid using any products that behave like and carry ToS like services. I avoid using products that introduce new classes of security holes.
I have watched Google Update's Firefox extensions launch remotely provided software and install it without my approval, for example... the same kind of behavior in Microsoft's HTML control that led me to ban IE and Outlook at our site over ten years ago. My doubts over Microsoft's security were well-founded then: shortly after I did this the first "cross zone" exploits and associated worms and other malware that took advantage of them came out.
As for the ToS...
That kind of restriction is fine for a service that's running on their computers, but if your software is running on my computer I reserve the right to keep using an older version or NOT apply a patch if I believe that's in my best interest. A web browser running on my computer isn't a service. I'm sure this boilerplate comes from Google's services side, and their legal beagles just copied and pasted it over from that side, and I'm sure they'll fix it... but until they do, I'm not going to agree to it.
..don't read Slashdot. "Ads by Google"
If your really paranoid then you know that everything written in the privacy policy is a lie and all your personal data is given to aliens who are planning on taking over the world. And everyone registered to slashdot is a national threat and followed by cia and nsa, using google or not.
Have you googled "Sex with staplers"
OMG!
Therefore it isn't safe to assume that just because one browser is in privacy mode and the other isn't that Google has no way of associating those two windows. Furthermore, these browsers could inadvertently expose themselves as running from the same account. For example Flash player stores shared objects (glorified cookies) in just one place no matter what browser you ran it through. If you loaded the same domain in two browsers it may be possible for the flash app running on that domain to link both browsers together. Google doesn't use a huge amount of flash controls but it has some (e.g. in the financials) that would certainly allow them to do this if they were feeling particularly evil. It doesn't have to be a Google domain either of course since lots of sites run Google originated advertising.
You'd probably have to use two computers (or a VM) with one browser running Tor and preferably all plugins disabled to remove all chance of browsing behaviour from being associated.
Am I doing it right?
Otherwise, why not exercise some self-constraint and try products from Yahoo, or even host your own?
I'm sort of in the same position as the question asker; I use a huge range of Google services (my personal pictures are on Picasa, I use Latitude and MyTracks on my Android phone. I even use Google DNS). Google knows virtually everything about me - including things I wouldn't share with my best friend. But...
Yahoo knows virtually nothing about me. Microsoft knows virtually nothing about me.... EBay/PayPal/Skype also know, collectively, more about me than I'm strictly comfortable with, but that's a slightly different matter (and I'm moving from Skype to Google Chat for just this reason)
If we are to use the Web as it currently exists to the fullest we have to share information. You can either use a scattergun approach which spreads your data across a range of potentially unscrupulous companies, or you can pick one company which you hope will remain moderately honest. If Google turn out to have a bad security breach, or suddenly decide to sell my information to the highest bidder, I'm in trouble. But if you spread your information around then a security breach at any of the big search engine companies puts you in trouble.
Even if you trust Microsoft to be honest, do you trust them to be competent?
In summary: relax, Lintilla, and enjoy your shoes.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
The Firefox Add-on, CustomizeGoogle has Privacy checkboxes that:
1) Anonymize the Google cookie UID, and
2) Prevents sending any cookies to Google Analytics
Don't surf the Internet without it!
You think you have any privacy? Are you using Windows Vista or "7", well your every key stroke on and off line are recorded and sent to the NSA!. Do you use a cell phone? Same thing. You are tapped, bugged, tracked, labeled and directed every minute of every day. Google tracking is the least of your worries. Now, pull the blinders over your eyes, claim this as the rambling of a paranoid fool and go back to sleep!
It is uneconomic to track 1%. Why track someone who does not want to be?
Because if you can track people who aren't being tracked by anyone else, then you gain demographic information about people who avoid tracking, useful for advertisers (exactly what they are usually trying to avoid).
These people are probably technically savvy, and well off, so from the advertisers point of view, worth hassling. They probably avoid or block adverts, but if you can get an advert in their face then that advert will be facing less competition from other adverts.
Even if the direct targeting of privacy nuts isn't worth much, then trying to track them might still be worth it as you can gain a more complete picture of web users. This could give another competitive advantage over the other spammers^Wadvertisers.
I count myself as a privacy nut, and of course I reject all sorts of tracking on line with browser options and extensions. TOR for googling, falsified referrers for nearly everywhere, extensive adblock filters, cookies allowed for 1st party when necessary for functionality only (and still forced to be session cookies), and NoScript to reign in the really aggressive tracking.
Car analogies break down.
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt /dev/null | md5sum | sed 's/\(..\)/:\1/g' | cut -b1-9`
ifconfig eth0 down hw ether `cat oui.txt | grep \(base\ 16\) | sed 's/\(..\)/:\1/g' | cut -b2-9 | shuf | tail -1``dd if=/dev/urandom bs=$RANDOM count=1 2>
Car analogies break down.
Google Scroogle then paste in the scroogle search terms into your browser. Works with FF, Opera, IE, and can be adapted I reckon to other browsers. Scroogle is designed to anonymise use of google
This "feature" just recently came to google search, and it behaves just like viruses did it some years ago. If you point your mouse on any search results, your browser shows unaltered link location, but as far as you click on it - it gets highjacked and real address becomes another one. This behaviur of webpage was discussed several years ago and it was in the roots of famous phishing technology about what you was warned by anti-virus companies and by microsoft and google itself. But this is only one side of coin ! In order to get "protected" against phishing you have settings in your browser "against it". All these settings do: they report what you are browsing to the google servers ! Just surf the search - and you will find: people reports about silent connections of their browsers to the googles "anti-phishing" centre reporting links they are browsing. The same with microsoft explorer "anti-phishing". It reports to microsoft - what you are browsing! Of course - this information should be used to warn you against phishing sites, bu who have guaranty of it ? Private company with information can do whatever they like to do. For example yahoo search sends every your click on the results first to their server even without click-highjacking. The result is similar. - All most stupid things in the world are done with wize expression in the face.
Hassling people does backfire on some -- "all publicity is good publicity" is a bulk assessment, it obviously does not hold for every individual.
Paranoia is egotism -- why are you worth tracking? Who (names) are your enemies, and why would they spend that much effort/money on you?
I always remember thinking it was very strange how the subjects not only reluctively put up with the Big Brother but how they actually loved him. People love Google...
Quote From The Article:
" "I use Google all the time. I keep two GMail tabs open when I'm online (one is private, another is a corporate account), "
The first thing I find myself asking is....
Your using Webmail for Corporate Business? Wow, Good thing I am not your CEO.
Second, thing.. It's a Free Service on servers someone else owns, the short answer is you can't keep your privacy!
But here's the fun answer. Gotta have fun...
Ever hear of pop 3? (okay okay technically Google sets up different ports and settings)
even grandpa (RIP) used to use Eudora in dos/win 3.1 with HTML turned off
POP 3/SMTP your mail (on whatever ports the service uses)
ban all forms of webmail, Turn Off html in your mail client /webmail mail who hasn't gotten hit by worms. If you use stupid settings like these, you will get hit too. It might not matter when all you have is a browser and 10 apps, but if it takes you 4 months to build a workstation, such nonsense as webmail or html on wouldn't be tolerated by myself, not to mention the question of how your managing all your passwords, anyway, it sounds like you need to just sit down, and design a security / backup plan, cause the road your headed on is going to have bumps. Your not going to look smart when you need to print an invoice but your workstations are down cause you have a webmail virus to clean up. LOL
Or eventually get hit by worms . I know of "nobody" who uses html on or
Quote From The Article:
"how do I stay anonymous to Google while using their services?"
A Wireless Connection going through TOR and Seven Proxies might help, oops we forgot your DNS leak...Se La Vie
Let me see, your getting a "free service" and you have applied some of that freeness to a "corporate account", and now your just finding out your going to pay for it with your ip address and statistics. I have to say, this isn't a problem with Google, it's a problem with your basic understanding of TCPIP, and business in general, if not an outright gap in reality. I'll bite the last assumption since I don't know ya, but not the others..
It won't solve everything, but you might want to try SRWare's Iron browser instead of Chrome. It's based on Chromium but it has Chrome's privacy-related functions removed - it doesn't contact Google about everything you do. It also has an adblocker.
Have a look
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&um=1&sa=1&q=CEO+Eric+Schmidt+&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0
http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#eric
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_E._Schmidt
Not sure where he lives or how to contact him tho.
Anybody have anything to add?
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Scroogle (scroogle.org)
"An ad-free Google search proxy which prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google, a Firefox plugin, and tools for webmasters."
Nuff said.
I had the same thoughts about google, and then I stumbled upon this:
https://ssl.scroogle.org/
Just a thought experiment, here.
Why not rent rackspace in some well-connected country not friendly to the one in which you reside? Is it that difficult to set up your own personal proxy with encypted tunnel to and from?
I'm surprised there isn't some entrepeneur out there selling "The "ProxyBox(TM), Your Internet Privacy Solution!" or some such little appliance-box for people to mail off to the bulletproof hosting and colo company of their choice. Venezuala, maybe?
I'm starting to collect MACs from dead devices for my "disguise wardrobe." Hostnames are another issue, even average consumer routers often log them. Changing them can be a PITA in certain situations though.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I gladly trade my privacy for the convenience Google provides me. I use a lot of their services, and I get two benefits. I get to use their services for free, and, on the rare case that my eye wanders over to an ad, it's usually something I might want to buy.
It's good to be concerned about protecting your privacy. But that doesn't mean that you have to keep your browsing habits, email conversations, etc. from everyone just for its own sake. Google proposes trading that information for lots of convenience. I gladly make that trade. I feel that the services they provide me are worth more than keeping my internet life a secret from them. So Google wins, and I win. I couldn't be happier.
When does this happen in the movie?
Honestly why does it really matter that google tracks how we search? Privacy is an illusion we create for our selves in order to feel secure. Only people who have something to hide have a real need to stay hidden so to speak. This almost Schizophrenic need to keep ones privacy is loosing battle. There are steps to keep you self safer online and more private like proxy servers and not signing up for every internet fad that comes along. I personally don't give a rats hind quarters who views my search history. I like Google and don't plan on changing search engines any time soon. All this hoopla about Big Brother and stuff like that is paranoia. I once did a search for plans to a low yield nuclear device for a friend to prove a point that they (Big Brother and the powers that be) have better things to do with their time than to worry about us poor little peons. I didn't actually find the plans but I did find what appeared to be part of a Memo from the Manhattan Project. I searched for more than two hours and the FBI never showed up. If you truly want privacy then unplug your network adapter, turn off your cell phone and unplug your land line; chop your credit and debit cards; close your bank accounts and go out into the woods to live. Privacy is truly an illusion, if you don't care for the illusion then it really isn't that big of a deal.
Ixquick deletes logged data within 48 hours and does not record your IP address.
I also found this link interesting (from 2007).
call me FOSS im the boss with the sauce and the source
Privacy is like masturbation,
There are those with something to hide, and those who lie about it.
No one wants their whole life on the net. Period
Next year it will be a google/bing/nsa/freedom toast web cam to record your home, guests and your home habits, auto identifying every product, person, all the while serving up custom adverts to your Big Brother monitor all for the monthly low price of .. Wait wait, its Free? Well SIGN ME UP!!!!1!
We are human beings, not numbers or product profiles. Please treat us as such, and INSIST that you are treated as such, by those you give money/time/mental focus to.
Search places like Delicious, Wikipedia, Digg, and Twitter for links. There is no ranking algorithm, but these links are, why do I feel dirty for using this term, "crowd-sourced."
Use https://ssl.scroogle.org/index.html - it searches google AND uses ssl to keep your isp out of the loop. There are even firefox search addons for it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Could be wrong but I think many people can get a little paranoid when it comes to privacy concerns such extreme views harm the sensible middle ground of suggesting a moderate response I feel. It seems to many to be a black and white issue, people, all my friends and family included, tend toward either having no privacy concerns what so ever and completely devaluing privacy or going to the extreme of verging on paranoid about their details. I am not overly concerned about such things myself, but this doesn't mean I have no concerns. I don't use social networking sites of any kind and don't throw many of my details from name and dob to place of residence around unintentionally and only use when needed. Privacy should be a concern though, I have nothing to hide but that doesn't mean I don't value privacy despite invasions of it would just turn up I'm a pretty regular boring person. In fact with harsh honesty I'm probably statistically more interesting and unique in that I'm more boring than your average person. I'd agree there is little complete privacy left where internet and shared data is concerned. Even if you never use a computer and work for cash in hand alone there is still medical records, police and other records etc etc. Short of opting out of the system completely and not functioning in regular society you can't avoid it and becoming invisible in that way actually brings attention that would be deemed more sinister by many that hiding in plain sight would avoid. I do use google for some things including 2 gmail accounts but the extent of my use and manner in which I use it just means it works for me and the info I've shared in the process makes it worth it for me I feel. I am not so black and white and sit more in the middle, there should be educated choice though and not blantant disregard for what details we share with the world. For the record I do use 2 gmail accounts for some (not all) things and shop online etc etc but adblock and script blocking is common sense to me since evn though I have nothing to hide I don't see any reason of value to me why I should unwittingly share my details with everyone.