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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?"
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.
Open two different browsers, say Chrome and Firefox. Use one to log in to your email, but nothing else. In the other, never log in to Google services. It certainly doesn't solve the whole problem, but it is trivially easy and has no serious drawbacks.
Same IP address at the same time...
You can't take the sky from me...
It's funny you should mention Jeeves, since the site formerly known as Ask Jeeves actually has better options for privacy (see the "AskEraser" feature in the upper right).
"If you browse with ads, however, prepare for some really bizarre ones."
No problem. I Googled "blocking Google Ads" then set Firefox accordingly. :)
http://www.lancelhoff.com/blocking-google-adsense-ads/
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
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
SRWare Iron is a solution to your Chrome privacy concerns - http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
It's a build of Chrome without all the privacy-infringing "features."
are you prepared to move out into the jungle and live outside civilization? I assume no, since you're sitting in front of a computer? then you're going to have to compromise.
Ah yes, my favorite recurring Slashdot fallacy. I'll put it this way:
<sarcasm>Right, because we all know that you must either voluntarily submit to having your every last move logged and recorded, or, live in the jungle as a hermit and give up all civilization and all technology. Yup, no middle ground anywhere.</sarcasm>
Look, just because Google wants me to load their redirection links and accept their cookies and execute their JS doesn't mean that my browser must do those things. To the degree that obtaining my private data requires my participation, I choose not to participate. The only Google service I ever use is their search engine, so for me a reasonable level of privacy is quite easy to achieve. I wonder what you thought you were telling me that was non-trivial, as I can't find anything.
Now, can you guys maybe study argumentation and a little logic so you can stop committing these easily-refuted fallacies? It would make your contributions much more interesting and meaningful. Although, the bright side is that people like you have given me a great deal of practice at exposing and rejecting such erroneous techniques.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/EU_social_network_spy_system_brief%2C_INDECT_Work_Package_4%2C_2009 .coms. :)
Is just what IP tracking is for. You can have all the IM and browsers you want, over time the database logs 'you' and your friends once a set of "dictionary" words are tripped.
Every search and IM is now "Signals intelligence" to the gov and marketing to the
Or you can sell the 'data' to the gov too while running a marketing front
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
They do have extra info - flash cookies. I can safely bet 99% of you never remember to clear them, and for example Gmail/Google's services explicitly uses them to match IP changes (or use of proxies) with a single computer.
Funny thing is their ToS "Google may store cookies" probably covers flash cookies too, even if everybody would think they wouldn't use such tactics. And who said Google is not evil?
Blocking Flash should be the default for anyone concerned about privacy, anyway. And with the BetterPrivacy Firefox add-on can in addition clear your Flash cookies between browser sessions, so even for things like YouTube where you absolutely need Flash the tracking ability is at least reduced (of course you'll have to regularly close the browser for it to be effective).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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.
Congratulations, you just ran whois on a porn site instead of scroogle.org. Thanks for offering your authoritative opinion.
Scroogle.org, which is the actual search-engine proxy in question, has been operated by Daniel Brandt for the last 6 years or so.
(of course you'll have to regularly close the browser for it to be effective).
FYI, the Better Privacy plugin can delete flash cookies based on age so you do not have to restart the browser to get the benefit - I have mine set to delete any that are over 1 hour old.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.