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Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

propublica.org

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Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#121

Post by toufka »

agentgt wrote: post #111

I'm curious what bothers people most about the privacy issues? Strangely I don't care that Google (and others) know about me. I probably should but I have just sorted have accepted the lack of privacy today. What really bothers me isn't the privacy its them using that data to create a completely unfair advantage to continue the oligopoly that is quickly consuming all markets. I used to be such a capitalist but as of…

At this moment, in your life, for most things you 'dont' care'. But can you conceive of a reasonable period in your life, in the life of another, or at some point when you would care, or when it would be valuable for another to care?

If you can conceive of such a moment, then you must care now as well. Once the switch is flipped it is always on. It will become increasingly difficult to turn off. Just for that moment in which you or someone you care about actually do value their privacy.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#122

Post by frabcus »

agentgt wrote: post #111

I'm curious what bothers people most about the privacy issues? Strangely I don't care that Google (and others) know about me. I probably should but I have just sorted have accepted the lack of privacy today. What really bothers me isn't the privacy its them using that data to create a completely unfair advantage to continue the oligopoly that is quickly consuming all markets. I used to be such a capitalist but as of…

I do too.

People tend to want decentralised alternatives partly for privacy, partly for competition, partly for resilience (hurricanes, wars).

Lots of arts people I speak too also talk about cultural diversity - the lack of competition is part of that.

Capitalism has always been regulated. More than 10% of any market used to mean a monopoly. It should still.

There's nothing wrong with capitalism. What's wrong is the weird idea that a democratic state shouldn't/doesn't regulate it to stop extreme outcomes.

I run Redecentralize which is where I've got the needs from http://redecentralize.org/about/

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#123

Post by RodericDay »

pyrophane wrote: post #90
pmyjavec wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, it's time to make a change and start educating family and friends about this issue and the alternatives. I always believed Google was successful because it was pushed and advocated for by geeks, I feel that those days are coming to an end. I use DDG and I think it's a pretty solid alternative, although it requires a little more effort when looking for certain things. Non-tech types have been curious about why I…

The two things I miss when using DDG: 1) The ability to easy filter results by date at 1 year 2) A last update date on the result. There may be a way to get these things from DDG, but I'm haven't had the time to look for them yet. Still DDG is pretty good, and obviously will get better the more we use it.

!year gets you some of the way there

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#124

Post by tdb7893 »

rndmind wrote: post #115
agentgt wrote: post #111

I'm curious what bothers people most about the privacy issues? Strangely I don't care that Google (and others) know about me. I probably should but I have just sorted have accepted the lack of privacy today. What really bothers me isn't the privacy its them using that data to create a completely unfair advantage to continue the oligopoly that is quickly consuming all markets. I used to be such a capitalist but as of…

If we accept the small invasion of privacy now, and accept it as the norm, what are the implications for the future?

It doesn't really bother me if the internet knows that I recently bought a nice soldering iron on Amazon or that I play D&D with my friends. I kinda view the internet as public and I don't really have huge privacy concerns about information I put in public.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#125

Post by dminor »

e40 wrote: post #84
runeb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To opt out, or "Pause" as Google is tellingly calling it, from the article: To opt-out of Google’s identified tracking, visit the Activity controls[1] on Google’s My Account page, and uncheck the box next to “Include Chrome browsing history and activity from websites and apps that use Google services." You can also delete past activity from your account. [1] https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols

Mine was already unchecked.

Mine was unchecked but the same settings on my phone were on.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#126

Post by jsingleton »

clydethefrog wrote: post #27
jsingleton wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use alternatives? For example, https://duckduckgo.com for search.

And if their search engine does not deliver what you're looking for, use the bang !sp to use Startpage, a search engine that fetches results from the Google search engine but does not give any personal user information to Google's servers. Startpage's servers are in the Netherlands.

Simply !s works too.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#127

Post by honkhonkpants »

vonklaus wrote: post #51

I expect google will experience outages >15 minutes for core services in the comung months. This is based on significant uptick in ddos sophistication, this has been referenced by Schneier-- although not in ref to Goog. If changes like this announcement convince people to move away; I am all for it. This just proves not only their power, but the danger of a single point of failure.

That is the opposite of my prediction. I predict that as ddos attacks become larger and more sophisticated, only Google and a handful of other huge operators will be left standing.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#128

Post by sambobeckingham »

grzm wrote: post #41
dredmorbius wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DDG has been my preferred search for years. I'd tried it pre-Snowden, off-and-on. Since Snowden or before it's been fully acceptible: 1. Results close to as good if not better than Google. 2. No tracking. 3. Bang searches. With the "too clever by half" search dialogs many sites are implementing (Wikipedia, Internet Archive, Google Ngram Viewer) it's often superior to the native on-site search as I don't have to set f…

> 6. Proxy bang searches, e.g., StartPage. Or even Google. I've seen comments online about DDG providing only an illusion of privacy. I haven't dug into this deeply. From what I've read this comes down to DDG (including bang searches like !g and !sp) stripping identifying information, which provides protection from tracking by entities like advertisers and social networks, but not law enforcement or agencies like the…

DDG don't track your IP or log activity against you. Bang searches are simply redirects as far as I'm aware and thus !g is equivalent to typing straight into Google.

But if you're using Google through DDG you're probably missing the point.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#129

Post by jsingleton »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #10
_nalply wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has DuckDuckGo email and an app suite?

Just switched to FastMail this past weekend, and I recommend it. For an app suite, I recommend Sandstorm.io.

I've heard good things about both https://www.fastmail.com and https://protonmail.com so would be good to hear your experiences after a bit more use.

Re: Google Has Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

#130

Post by dingus »

wincy wrote: post #23
atrilumen wrote: post #2

> “Some new features for your Google account.” Oh, yeah, I remember that. I totally clicked "Ok, whatever." How does one not be herded like cattle by the corporations, without making a full time job of resisting it?

Well, my wife and I just ordered dumb phones and an AWS 2FA key fob (remember those?) which will be here this weekend, we're selling all our screens except one family PC. I sold off my Oculus Rift and gaming PC a month ago. We're going to have to buy a flashlight, GPS or maybe just a map book, calculator, a CD player, a Blu-Ray burner, a day planner, a wristwatch, a kitchen timer, get a library card, a shared calenda…

I recently did this same thing as an experiment for a full year. No mobile phone actually, no music, no movies, no games, so a little more extreme.

The strangest feeling will come after you “reset” but everything and everyone else around you is still connected. That’s when you notice how different things have become.

Good luck. It’s a nice feeling actually, nothing to be nervous about. It gave me perspective and changed how I respect time and other people. I also appreciate technology a lot more, but it’s now in balance.

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