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FFH5
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join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

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FFH5

Premium Member

Google switches search history to opt-out from opt-in

»www.eweek.com/c/a/Search ··· -623612/
Google risked drawing the ire of privacy advocates Dec. 4 by making its personalized search results available to all of its users, whether they are signed in or not. Personalized results were previously served only to users who were signed into their Google account and had opted in to let Google track their Web History, or log of search queries and results. Going forward, personalized results will be offered to users whether they are signed in or not. By hedging the privacy quotient in Web search, Google is setting itself up for some loud barking by privacy watchdogs who already feel Google takes too many liberties with users' info.
And much more details here:
»searchengineland.com/goo ··· ts-31195

At one time you could avoid Google tracking & saving your searches by not signing in to a Google account. That is no longer possible. You have to take extra steps to opt-out of this tracking, which can be seen at above link.

nwrickert
Mod
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL

nwrickert

Mod

LOL.

It's hard to get excited about this, as some privacy advocates do.

I admit I was taken aback a few days ago, when I did a google search on an acronym, just wanting to find out what it stood for. And about half of the search results were businesses in my local community. I'm not sure where google found the community information. But, after restarting the browser and deleting google cookies, I got a more normal looking search result on the same query.

As long as they are only tracking based on browser session info and browser cookies, I'm not going to be much concerned about this.

My current practice: restart the browser at least once per day;
delete cookies, except from a few sites, at least once per day (I automate that with a script that runs when I start firefox);
use a different browser profile when logging in to google (or other similar sites) to separate that from regular browsing.
SUMware2
Premium Member
join:2002-05-21

1 edit

1 recommendation

SUMware2 to FFH5

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»www.eweek.com/c/a/Search ··· -623612/
quote:
Even when users are not signed in, Google will customize their search results based on past search information linked to users' computer Web browser using an anonymous cookie. Google stores up to 180 days of signed-out search activity linked to the browser's cookie, including queries and results that are clicked.
Delete cookies when closing browser.

Firefox users can install the CustomizeGoogle addon.

Run Proxomitron.

Not a big deal.

EGeezer
Premium Member
join:2002-08-04
Midwest

3 recommendations

EGeezer

Premium Member

It looks like customizegoogle add-on hasn't been updated for some time. Another Mozilla-listed add-on with a beta that's current as of 1 DEC 2009 is OptimizeGoogle; at »addons.mozilla.org/en-US ··· on/52498

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

said by EGeezer:

It looks like customizegoogle add-on hasn't been updated for some time. Another Mozilla-listed add-on with a beta that's current as of 1 DEC 2009 is OptimizeGoogle; at »addons.mozilla.org/en-US ··· on/52498
Looks like an interesting add-on. I'll have to give it a look.
SUMware2
Premium Member
join:2002-05-21

1 recommendation

SUMware2 to EGeezer

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to EGeezer
Didn't know about that. Thanks!

siljaline
I'm lovin' that double wide
Premium Member
join:2002-10-12
Montreal, QC

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»Re: How Secure/BigBrotherish is Google Chrome?

La Luna
Fly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris
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join:2001-07-12
New Port Richey, FL

La Luna to FFH5

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I tried to go to the area to disable (according to the OP's link), I couldn't even do that after signing in as I hadn't signed up for web history and the google toolbar.

Nothing here for me.

caffeinator
Coming soon to a cup near you..
Premium Member
join:2005-01-16
00000

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Yeah...not a biggie here.

I have the Hosts file blocking their ads and stuff, plus the browser gets either "delete private data" button or shutdown at least once a day...everything is cleaned on exit.

Also run CCleaner about once a week just for fun and to clean out Flash leftovers and such.
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

19579823 (banned) to FFH5

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quote:
At one time you could avoid Google tracking & saving your searches by not signing in to a Google account. That is no longer possible. You have to take extra steps to opt-out of this tracking, which can be seen at above link.
Just CLEAR YOUR COOKIES,how hard is that??

THEN THEY ARE LIMITED TO WHAT THEY CAN DO!!

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

said by 19579823:
quote:
At one time you could avoid Google tracking & saving your searches by not signing in to a Google account. That is no longer possible. You have to take extra steps to opt-out of this tracking, which can be seen at above link.
Just CLEAR YOUR COOKIES,how hard is that??

THEN THEY ARE LIMITED TO WHAT THEY CAN DO!!
Of course you can clear cookies or not even turn them on. Just 1 small problem - a cookie is needed to use much of the functionality of Google products.

caffeinator
Coming soon to a cup near you..
Premium Member
join:2005-01-16
00000

1 edit

caffeinator

Premium Member

If I search for anything I might not want Google to know about, I just use this:

»www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin ··· aper.htm

I defined it as a custom search in Opera, so it's one click different from the normal search.

Otherwise, I don't care much.
mysec
Premium Member
join:2005-11-29

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said by FFH5:

Of course you can clear cookies or not even turn them on. Just 1 small problem - a cookie is needed to use much of the functionality of Google products.

Which products?

----
rich
mike31mets1
join:2004-10-30
Bronx, NY

mike31mets1 to FFH5

Member

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said by FFH5:

said by 19579823:
quote:
At one time you could avoid Google tracking & saving your searches by not signing in to a Google account. That is no longer possible. You have to take extra steps to opt-out of this tracking, which can be seen at above link.
Just CLEAR YOUR COOKIES,how hard is that??

THEN THEY ARE LIMITED TO WHAT THEY CAN DO!!
Of course you can clear cookies or not even turn them on. Just 1 small problem - a cookie is needed to use much of the functionality of Google products.
I always clear everything from FireFox when my web browser closes - set that option by default. And I use Gmail and browse on Google and YouTube. I haven't had any problem thus far.
SUMware2
Premium Member
join:2002-05-21

SUMware2

Premium Member

said by mike31mets1:

I use Gmail
Google automatically scans e-mails to add context-sensitive advertisements to them. Privacy advocates raised concerns that the plan involved scanning their personal, assumed private, e-mails, and that this was a security problem. Allowing e-mail content to be read, even by a computer, raises the risk that the expectation of privacy in e-mail will be reduced. Furthermore, e-mail that non-subscribers choose to send to Gmail accounts is scanned by Gmail as well, even though those senders never agreed to Gmail's terms of service or privacy policy. Google can change its privacy policy unilaterally and Google is technically able to cross-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers on individuals. However, most e-mail systems make use of server-side content scanning in order to check for spam.

Privacy advocates also regard the lack of disclosed data retention and correlation policies as problematic. Google has the ability to combine information contained in a person's e-mail messages with information from Internet searches. Google has not confirmed how long such information is kept or how it can be used. One of the concerns is that it could be of interest to law enforcement agencies. More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organizations have urged Google to suspend Gmail service until these issues are resolved.

Gmail's privacy policy contains the clause: "residual copies of deleted messages and accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our offline backup systems". Google points out that Gmail adheres to most industry-wide practices. Google has stated that they will "make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical."

Google defends its position by citing their use of email-scanning to the user's benefit. Google states that Gmail refrains from displaying ads next to potentially sensitive messages such as those that mention tragedy, catastrophe, or death.
Marsman
join:2004-11-10
Kelowna, BC

1 recommendation

Marsman to EGeezer

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Thanks EGeezer for this extension tip!
nonymous (banned)
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ

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said by caffeinator:

If I search for anything I might not want Google to know about, I just use this:

»www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin ··· aper.htm

I defined it as a custom search in Opera, so it's one click different from the normal search.

Otherwise, I don't care much.
Who is scroogle and what makes them any safer? They say they are safe but are they. Maybe they track by IP not cookies.

swhx7
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join:2006-07-23
Elbonia

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This is a minor threat to privacy, but not in the obvious way.

Google touts the personalization as a benefit, but in fact it can just as easily make search results less useful. Suppose I've been looking up rodents all week, but now my search on "mole" is aimed at chemistry, espionage, tunnel-digging or dermatology. But Google will bias the results to the rodents, if I've been keeping their cookies and/or allowing their Javascript.

Ah, but Google offers to save us from this problem - just take a different Google cookie! Very clever.