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Google Toolbar Tracks Your Browsing, Even When Off
garg0yle writes "Google's Toolbar is supposed to allow the user to disable it. However, it was discovered by a researcher that it was still sending information even when disabled. A patch is now available, and Google claims this was just a bug, not a feature."
this was just a bug, not a feature....
Yea...right
It probably was a bug.
As far as I'm concerned toolbar == spy-ware. Google jumped the shark and joined the ranks of Yahoo, MSN and Happy-smiley-spy-ware-toolbar the day they created one and started shoving it down people's throat.
No techie I know installs any toolbar in IE or Firefox. The only poor souls that seems to be stuck with them are non-techies, who usually have at least 3-4 toolbars and they "don't know how it happened".
It's also amazing to watch them browse the web, they almost never use the address bar, it's either the Google or Yahoo toolbar's search box, and they seem to mix and match them in any given session. Basically whatever box is closest to the mouse pointer.
I would be surprised if this was actually a "bug" and not a feature, sounds like a great bug to have for a data mining company. I also wonder if the assertion that it only affects "versions 6.3.911.1819 through 6.4.1311.42" is true. How can anyone confirm that since "the company intends to automatically update users' toolbars sometime today". Who has an older version to check?
Google toolbar, analytics, ad sense, double click, chrome... My love for Google is diminishing faster than the DOW in 2008.
If you can't mod them join them.
Google Toolbar Tracks Your Browsing, Even When Off
At first I thought that this meant that Google was tracking my movements even when my computer was off. I wondered how they'd do this and then I remembered about Google Street View.
Sly bastards.
Summation 2
I've switched to using
It's a meta search engine that focusses on privacy by not logging your IP address and your searches. On the technical side, it's nearly as good as the big name search engine I used previously.
Here's a plugin for GNU IceCat / IceWeasel / Firefox: Ixquick, or the https version (which I haven't tried, but I guess is the same to users).
One hiccup: their ads system uses Google ads. Maybe they've implemented this in an anonymous way. I hope they have, but either way, at least with ixquick there a hope of privacy, unlike Google.
Please help publicise swpat.org - the software patents wiki
They'll do no evil, right? Google's our friend, right? right? guys...?
No techie I know installs any toolbar...
Same here, but most of my family and friends probably would :-/
I don't see any easy solutions, but maybe one good idea would be for browsers that exist for their users (i.e. free software web-browsers) should consider adding the functionality in an optional way with the best privacy possible.
Please help publicise swpat.org - the software patents wiki
Even if the company "does no evil"(tm), no system is perfect. I remember fiddling with Facebook's API a while back. I was astounded by by what I had access to. I could see friend ids/names that I am not so sure should have been accessible to me given the privacy options selected by those people.
So, even if a company's morality is perfect, this isn't to say that their software is. Don't expect anyone to protect your privacy except you.
I don't use any installable tool-bars. Like they say, nothing is truly free. I'm sure the sending of data when off was intentional. They just got busted.
I don't like mega-corporations that have way to much control. This is why I wish someone new would step up in the search world. The two best search engines are Google and Bing, both owned by mega-corps. Maybe an open source search engine powered by an open source charity. (donates to open source projects)
This is why I don't install toolbars. And you know who else likes to install toolbars? Yeah, Zynga. You trust them with your info?
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
Learn to cook again, just in case?
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
No one is surprised when Microsoft does this but it'a amazing that people are when Google does. As a publicly traded company Google's only obligation is to make a profit for shareholders. That means doing things like instituting business practices that are favorable to their business. Can you imagine a better situation? 80% of the search market and people love you. Once GOOG became publicly traded "Do no evil" is more of a guideline than a rule. Maybe they should change their motto to "We do less evil than everyone else©"
If you have Firefox, use Googlebar Lite instead. It has all the same goodies without the corporasity.
Unintentional irony is the best!
Google became a megacorp by doing it... so yes, clearly it is possible.
This new shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who has ever used a browser toolbar before.
. . . that should remove any responsibility of indemnity of the Foolbar vendor.
Corporate Defense Lawyer: "Your Honor, the plaintiff, Mr. Terry Fuckwit, who is suing for privacy violations, did knowingly install and use our product, appropriately named 'Foolbar'."
Judge: "Anyone who uses such a product is a dumb-ass and has shit for brains. Case dismissed."
Judge: "Now on to the next case, concerning another of your products, 'KieferSutherlandsCattlePonziScheme' for Windows 7 . . ."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
$542.42. That was GOOG's closing price yesterday. Just what do they have to support that price? Nothing. Nothing except your data, and they're going to sell it Buster, as much as they can, before investors begin to notice the markup on that $135.00 stock of theirs. Oh sure, The Market says it's worth $500+ and it's never wrong, right? Just like what The Market said about your house. Of course, your house didn't have hip coolness did it. Google Goggles! Google Goggles! Google Goggles! It's even fun to say!
And considering that it only continued sending information until you restarted the browser.
Pontiac: "We build excitement!" (bad brakes and steering)
Ford: "Quality us job one" (they have work to do on quality)
Chevy: "Like a rock" (damned thing won't start)
Google: "Don't be evil" (it's ok to DO evil though)
Maybe I see the past with rose colored glasses, but it doesn't seem like businesses were all run by liars and thieves when I was young. Maybe I was just naive in my youth.
Free Martian Whores!
El oh el you got modded down! Slashdot post FAIL!
Maybe I was just naive in my youth.
Better living through chemicals?
Whatever happened to HotBot?
Am I the only one that LIKES that they keep track of my searches?
I don't like getting a bunch of irrelevant results when I search. If tracking how I browse gets rid of those irrelevant results, then fine.
Google's ads are the least intrusive of any company I've ever seen, and if they want to take over the advertising business, I think that's a very good thing.
Also, I think a lot of you are flattering yourselves into thinking they are tracking you in some Nineteen Eighty-Four Big Brother way. They don't actually care about you, just how people browse the web so they can improve their business.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I wouldn't put it past google for this to be an honest "bug" concidering their recent "calling 911 crashes my phone" problems. QA? (Blank retarded stare) Why does a **marketing** company need QA?
Its hard to see this being an isolated instance. For example google updater isn't simply disabled by stopping and disabling the google updater service installed without your knowledge. You have to go into the fricking scheduler of all places and get rid of it there too. I suppose its better than hooking dispatch tables.
Schmidts infamous revelation "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" isn't particularly helpful either.
Their brand will continue to go the way of Apple and *cringe* MS if they keep acting evil.
Tor Browser Bundle
It's been this way in the USA since the Guilded Age, at least. Eisenhower was talking about the miltary-industrial complex half a century ago, remember?
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Actually, I believe I was more naive before the chemicals. And the chemicals that most adversely affected my life were prescribed by medical doctors, especially the ones they gave me in the USAF for arthritis that hadn't been approved by the FDA.
Free Martian Whores!
It's been that way, like forever.
Yes, rose colored glasses are handy.
No brain, no pain.
This is another great reason for pushing Google and other search providers to complete search log removal after a certain period of time. If bugs can violate privacy policies then software providers should minimize the potential effect of bad code. Unless you do not log any data, permanent removal of the logs is the only choice.
by the Russian Government.
Yours In Perm,
Kilgore Trout
Yes, but the Microsoft style of doing business is new. There were a few giant corporations acting like that (i.e., IBM) but now it's all of them.
Free Martian Whores!
Nah, corporations were as bad in the 1970s as they are now. The change is that the internet and Google are, every time an evil act happens, spreading the information to the entire world.
Really, I don't think so.
Maybe I see the past with rose colored glasses, but it doesn't seem like businesses were all run by liars and thieves when I was young.
Because not all business are run by them, but some are. Is Larry and Sergey and Eric "liars and thieves"? Gates and Ballmer? Rockefeller?
Well, shareholder value and agency theory actually made them worse unfortunately. I have a slashdot submission on it here: http://slashdot.org/submission/1159318/The-problems-of-the-shareholder-value-ideology Google is IMO one of the better big companies, and they don't believe in shareholder value or agency theory, which is part of why they IPOed with dual-class in the first place.
Pontiac: "We build excitement!" (bad brakes and steering)
for a moment i thought i read "we build excrement".