> and don't want Google to know about me when I use my Gmail, Google Voice, Google Transit, Google Maps, or just plain Google If it requires you to be logged in (such as Gmail), GoogleSharing doesn't help you. This is intended for Google services that can track you without an account, such as search.
Why not use Anonymizer or any other anonymizing proxy service?
General purpose anonymizing proxies are designed for something else.
1. Most will mask your IP address, but not the identifying information in your HTTP headers. Google will still know who you are based on your Cookies, User Agent, etc...
2. If the proxy does attempt to anonymize HTTP headers, they will do it by completely stripping cookies from your request. Google does not like this, and will tag you as a SPAM bot (how convient for them to do), which will force you to type in a CAPTCHA every time you issue a Google search, and will prevent you from issuing Maps requests at all.
3. These types of proxies can be slow. It's not necessary to proxy all of your internet traffic if you're just trying to protect yourself from Google. Since GoogleSharing only proxies Google traffic, our bandwidth needs are much lower and thus our performance is much greater.
>...they can't FORCE anyone to buy stuff. No, but organizations like the RIAA are perfectly capable of generating revenue from people who don't buy their products. Case in point: Canada, and the blank media tax that Canadians pay to the recording industry when they buy blank CDs, regardless of what those CDs are used for. They pay the tax because those CDs 'might' be used for piracy.
Slashdot Mirror
They also have no idea who those people are, so that information in their archives is worthless.
I'm probably earning a "whoosh" here, tho.
> and don't want Google to know about me when I use my Gmail, Google Voice, Google Transit, Google Maps, or just plain Google
If it requires you to be logged in (such as Gmail), GoogleSharing doesn't help you. This is intended for Google services that can track you without an account, such as search.
From GoogleSharing's FAQ:
Why not use Anonymizer or any other anonymizing proxy service?
General purpose anonymizing proxies are designed for something else.
1. Most will mask your IP address, but not the identifying information in your HTTP headers. Google will still know who you are based on your Cookies, User Agent, etc...
2. If the proxy does attempt to anonymize HTTP headers, they will do it by completely stripping cookies from your request. Google does not like this, and will tag you as a SPAM bot (how convient for them to do), which will force you to type in a CAPTCHA every time you issue a Google search, and will prevent you from issuing Maps requests at all.
3. These types of proxies can be slow. It's not necessary to proxy all of your internet traffic if you're just trying to protect yourself from Google. Since GoogleSharing only proxies Google traffic, our bandwidth needs are much lower and thus our performance is much greater.
I imagine you're still tracked by your IP address, by cookies, and/or any other methods I don't know about.
a search engine that specifically advertised privacy
You mean like startpage, a search engine powered by Ixquick that doesn't record your IP address?
> ...they can't FORCE anyone to buy stuff.
No, but organizations like the RIAA are perfectly capable of generating revenue from people who don't buy their products. Case in point: Canada, and the blank media tax that Canadians pay to the recording industry when they buy blank CDs, regardless of what those CDs are used for. They pay the tax because those CDs 'might' be used for piracy.