Slashdot Mirror
Hiding From Google
penguinrecorder writes "Google offers Web users a simple trade-off: Let the search giant track a substantial portion of your comings and goings around the Web, and it will offer you a free, superior online experience. Now independent security researcher Moxie Marlinspike is making Web users a counter-offer: take Google's giveaways and keep your privacy too. On Tuesday, Marlinspike launched a service he calls GoogleSharing, a plug-in for Firefox designed to give users access to Google's online offerings while cloaking their identity from the company's data collection tools. By hosting a proxy server with a collection of Google 'identities,' the privacy software will allow users temporarily to route their traffic through another computer that masks their identity by mixing their online actions with those of other users. The system is totally transparent, with no special 'alternative' websites to visit. Your normal work flow should be exactly the same." GoogleSharing only works for those services not requiring a Google login; for the latter, no proxying is done.
www.optimizegoogle.com Tick most stuff, especially remove click tracking.
There, now Google knows what I search for, but never which link I clicked.
Not really...Google just offers you a unified experience. Bing has better Travel and Maps search. Yahoo has a generally better mail UI/client, as well as a huge database of Q&A. Ask has better contextual search and a butler. 30 Boxes is a better calendar Flickr is far better than Picasa, and has a better community Zimbra is just plain better than pretty much anything that Google Docs has to offer (which isn't much) Wordpress is more advanced, feature-rich, and easier to use than Blogger Netvibes is a lot less buggy than Google Reader, and provides a better interface (Please note, these are the general consumer products. Many of the business services and tools are far better than the competition) But, most people are lazy and would rather just go to google.com.
Grammar Lesson: you're is a contraction of "you are"; your means you possess something; yore means days gone by.
Download, install, properly configure Tor:
https://www.torproject.org/
Certainly you should choose an open source and free operating system to
increase your security/privacy: http://www.distrowatch.com/
Use one of the many tools available to build your own Linux liveCD/DVD/USB
with Tor installed/configured and yank out all of your HDDs or unplug them
while using Tor via Linux liveCD/DVD/USB, then while running Tor:
Scroogle SSL:
https://ssl.scroogle.org/
and for mail:
Safe-Mail:
No cookies, no script, no java, no flash required!
https://www.safe-mail.net/
In the words of Woody Woodpecker:
Hah ha ha HAH ha, Hah ha ha HAH ha, HAHAHAHHAHAHHAAH!
Fuck you corporations, fuck you snoopers, I do it MY WAY.
And you wonder what the asterisk in my header line means?
Google is a proven risk, this guy's just a potential one.
This is misleading statement. Simple risk analysis: Google is a KNOWN risk with very substantial assets to lose if they screw up. This guy is an UNKNOWN risk with (presumably) a lot less to lose.
You dont have to pay, just have good enough Karma =)
A distributed service like has existed for years now, so there's not really a need for a replacement. It's called http://tor.eff.org/
Google offers you a choice. If one doesn't want to participate then fine, don't use Google. If one uses Google and expects them to keep their part of the bargain then they should hold up their end. Anything less is like saying: I like the yummy goodness of candy bars, but I don't like paying for them, but I am clever so I use stealth to eat them without paying for them. That "clever stealth" is, by any other name, still stealing.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
There is another web site providing the same service, the badly named: Scroogle.
"Unauthorized running of scripts on my computer"?
By visiting the site, you authorised it. If you don't want those scripts run, don't visit the site.
It's a bit like saying "unauthorised filming of me by CCTV when I walk into a branch of Sainsburys". If you don't like it, you can do the other thing.
So I'm supposed to install this Proxy add on, then put my google account details, that has my google docs and google checkout account?
Ummm .... no
you should check things before making false claims......
Its just a plugin no need to pass on your "Google account details"