Remove Your Google Searches Before Its Too Late

[Arrowwind]

I just did this. Don't know if its worth a hoot but considering what they are about to pull you may want to give it a try.


Quote:
There is just a week to go until Google controversially changes its privacy policy to allow it to gather, store and use personal information about its users.
But there is one way to stymie the web giant's attempts to build a permanent profile of you that could include personal information including age, gender, locality and even sexuality.
From March 1, you won't be able to opt out of the new policy, which has been criticised by privacy campaigners who have filed a complaint to U.S. regulators.

But before that date you can delete your browsing history and, which will limit the extent to which Google records your every move - including your embarrasing secrets. Here's how:
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz1nGAPtD00 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2105435/Three-simple-steps-delete-Google-browsing-history--late.html#ixzz1nGAPtD00)

[Realeyes]

Thanks for this Arrowind,
I don't have a google account, but do use google search. I have just read the link and not sure what to do. I would have to sign up to then do the process of not being tagged, that only works if one signs in each time - otherwise, just doing searches like I normally do will still be tagged.

I am starting to get so fed up with the internet, around every corner something is popping up on my screen with adverts and such, or microsoft do an update that effects other programs not to work; I feel like my computer is being constantly invaded by the outside without my permission! Sometimes the old typewriter and filing systems seems such a peaceful way - data wasn't lost, unless one was terrible at indexing.

[Kindred]

You don't need to use the google search engine... there are a number of others... Yahoo, Bing, Dogpile, Webcrawler.... etc. Here's a list:
http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/

In Unity and Peace

[TWINCANS]

Alex Jones promised to put his tech people onto the task of coming up with a few good alternatives to Google. Does anyone know if he has issued their list or has talked about it again on his radio show?

[shadowbox]

DuckDuckGo.com

[Playdo of Ataraxas]

What about alternatives to GMail? Does anyone have alternate suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[STATIC]

DuckDuckGo.com

Yes, this one is currently at the top of the list.
I would also urge people to start learning how to use http://www.peerblock.com/
This is one of the few proactive ways of stopping unwanted communication with your computer.

[Alekahn]

www.ixquick.com is a great meta search engine, hailed as the 'world's most private search engine'. It doesn't record user's IP addresses, no cookies, no collection of data...
Dogpile is good as well.

[ThePythonicCow]

Here's a list of "more secure" alternative search engines: http://www.brighthub.com/internet/google/articles/123719.aspx

Duckduckgo.com and ixquick.com are my favorite two.

[Curt]

This is great. Thanks for these alternative resources.

[toad]

DuckDuckGo.com

yz I love duckducks syntax options you can search within google but via duckduck so it doesnt track your IP, using the !g tag before your search, or !w for wiki, !translate etc..etc..

[Carmody]

I still like the Russian method.

A touch of being 'over the top' ...but.... what exactly is spamming and advertising, and data collecting...if not that?

Vardan Kushnir was found dead Sunday in his Moscow apartment. Somebody had beaten his head in. Kushnir was the head of English learning centers called the Center for American English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English. Together, they churned out millions of spam emails every day, literally to every citizen of Russia with an email address and beyond. The fury of his addressees did not deter him. Kushnir said spam is what email was made for. Russian law does not consider spamming a crime, which is why it is spamming heaven and a haven for other Internet crimes. It appears somebody decided that beatings are what spammer's heads were made for.

[conk]

It is futile to try and hide. With cell phones, GPS devices, PCs, laptops, iPads, smart phones, smart TVs, etc. it is vitually impossible to maintain any real semblance of privacy. I believe there is technology that does not even require the aforementioned devices. The eye sees all.

I still try anyway.

[Unicorn]

What about alternatives to GMail? Does anyone have alternate suggestions? Thanks in advance!

I've been recommended GMX.

[Douglass]

I deleted my history and google account. Thanks for the thread and all the info from posts :)

[GlassSteagallfan]

Using Internet Explorer 7, I followed the directions per the link above, and there is no 'Services' section. It says my current browser is outdated.

Is it possible that using the older brower does not allow the same tracking as the newer ones? It encourages me to upgrade to IE8 - amongst others.

[TargeT]

You don't need to use the google search engine... there are a number of others... Yahoo, Bing, Dogpile, Webcrawler.... etc. Here's a list:
http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/

In Unity and Peace

www.startpage.com is what you wan't to met the concerns of this thread. it still uses google's algorithms but doesnt store anything

[Turcurulin]

My web history in my account is not 'turned-on.' When prompted to turn it on, I declined. Does this make any difference? Will be using another search-engine going forward.

But, my browser is Google Chrome... :faint2:

[TargeT]

oh,,, just an FYI... (US ONLY... though I wouldn't be supprized if this was globally appicable)

google the term "nexus centers" I've been to the one in alaska... it doesn't matter what you do, everything "on line" is being watched unless you are heavily encrypting your traffic (which is easy)...

best way to get the attention of the 3 letter agencies is use encryption on your cell phone or internet... so really,,, either way your under scrutiny.... but really, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[atlantianferret]

Use private browsing. Keeps cookies out. Also if you have a static IP, use an anonomizing site. If you use some of there srevices, log out before you travel around the Web. Same with Facebook.

Sent from my ADR8995 using Tapatalk

[Phoenix]

oh,,, just an FYI... (US ONLY... though I wouldn't be supprized if this was globally appicable)

google the term "nexus centers" I've been to the one in alaska... it doesn't matter what you do, everything "on line" is being watched unless you are heavily encrypting your traffic (which is easy)...

best way to get the attention of the 3 letter agencies is use encryption on your cell phone or internet... so really,,, either way your under scrutiny.... but really, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Awesome, can you show us how to do these encryption tactics? I'd love to encrypt my phone.

[math330]

Been mentioned already, but www.duckduckgo.com is a non-tracking search engine, also www.startingpage.com

When you're online, turn on private browsing via your browser, turn cookies and java off if you want to.

Be very careful what you comment on on youtube (delete all Gmal and youtube accounts), what you send or publish on facebook. For the overly cautious, look into Tor Browsing and proxy servers. Though I can imagine using those now puts you onto a list of suspicious users ;)

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Also - remove flash cookies (cookies that track you and your data) with this little gem.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32994/flush

[TargeT]

Awesome, can you show us how to do these encryption tactics? I'd love to encrypt my phone.

thinigs like this:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/cellcrypt-releases-encrypted-voice-call-app-iphone-473

there's a few options out there but really, you will pull the kind of attention you DO NOT WANT by doing this.. right now your a face in the crowd, encrypt your phone or internet and you'll be a face in the crowd with a huge spot light shining on you.

[ThePythonicCow]

But before that date you can delete your browsing history and, which will limit the extent to which Google records your every move - including your embarrasing secrets.
My (cynical) guess is that what this means is that "deleting your browsing history" means removing your access to it (actually your Google searching history, not your browsing history), but continuing to allow the NSA to access it.

I chose not to delete my browsing history. I find it useful to have Google recommend searches while I am entering a new search, based on my prior searches.

I figure that the NSA is going to see it anyway ... unless I take fairly careful steps to hide from them.

[Laurel]

Firefox offers a "do not track" option. So far, I haven't had any issues with it.


Most major websites track their visitors' behavior and then sell or provide that information to other companies (like advertisers). Firefox has a Do-not-track feature that lets you tell websites you don't want your browsing behavior tracked. This article explains what tracking is, how the Do-not-track feature works and how to turn it on.
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-turn-do-not-track-feature

[Ilie Pandia]

Firefox offers a "do not track" option. So far, I haven't had any issues with it.


Most major websites track their visitors' behavior and then sell or provide that information to other companies (like advertisers). Firefox has a Do-not-track feature that lets you tell websites you don't want your browsing behavior tracked. This article explains what tracking is, how the Do-not-track feature works and how to turn it on.
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-turn-do-not-track-feature

That "Do-not-track" is advisory only. You are just saying "would you pretty please not track my activities on this website?" You have no way of knowing what the server actually does.

Because of how the web works today:

- you can have medium privacy to protect you from stalkers or un-wanted people
- you canNOT have privacy when it comes to huge companies. Yes, taken one at a time they do not have enough data to profile you, but when (not if) they get together and sync the data they have, they can easily build a complete profile on anyone. Facebook and Picassa allow other people to tag you in photos in other accounts you have no control over, so not having an account on Google or Facebook does not help much.
- having a single sign on thing like using your Facebook ID to log in virtually everywhere, or using your Google ID or the Open ID helps a lot with tracking you. And it does not matter if you clear your history, cache or cookies. Tracking now days is much more complex than that. (Not even something like Tor (https://www.torproject.org/) can completely anonymize you if you use single sing on)

Having a web business it's all about tracking your customers and providing what they are looking for. That should be OK if the tracking data stays on one website alone and is not aggregated with the data from other sites, but unfortunately you cannot prevent that from happening.

The "new web" has changed a lot and is still changing. From simple service or information oriented sites we now have huge corporations controlling virtually every service you expect to have online: mail, blogging, social networking, news and searching.

I don't see any way to stop this "evolution of the web". The only thing to do is to become aware that this is happening and then decide how to respond to it? Alternatives will only get you so far...