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Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

donttrack.us

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Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#111

Post by jsrfded »

edw519 wrote: post #55
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truly sorry about that -- of course not the intention. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, and didn't iterate much on the design. I'm open to design changes if anyone has any concrete ideas. Personally I hate disgusting images, and didn't think those two rose to that level. If anyone has suggestions for equally good replacements, I'm fine with that too.

Truly sorry about that... Whenever anyone begins with "That site turned me off," it may be a good idea to hear their feedback, but it does not necessarily follow that they deserve an apology or that you need to act upon that feedback. I think you're dealing with an outlier, and we already know what trying to please them can lead to. If anyone has suggestions for equally good replacements, I'm fine with that too. Don'…

I thought it was hilarious. Agree that the poster is an outlier.

Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#112

Post by gst »

tonfa wrote: post #99
rayvega wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but I don't think so. What law would that be? If I walk into any retail store and pay with cash, is the store owner required by law to get my personal info? No, they are not. Perhaps in heavily regulated industries such as banking that might be different but search engines are not government regulated (for now).

There are data retention laws in other parts of the world (many european countries for example).

But unless you do business in one of those countries you can pretty much ignore these laws.

Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#113

Post by axod »

extension wrote: post #102
axod wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The average person doesn't know it exists" Is there any evidence to suggest the average person really cares about privacy online to such an extent?

The average person can't decide if they care about it until they understand it. Until they do, I'm glad people like Gabriel are being paranoid on their behalf.

Reminds me of stallmans endless ranting about freedom and software.

The evidence is that the masses don't care. They just want stuff that works and solves problems for them. Is it open source? Why would anyone (apart from a geek) care?

Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#114

Post by redrobot5050 »

gyardley wrote: post #46
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really tried hard with this not to perpetrate any FUD. I re-read all the recent WSJ reporting many times and ran this by a bunch of critical eyes. Tracking down to the individual level is certainly real.

The 'F' in FUD stands for fear. While tracking down to the individual level is certainly real, it certainly isn't anything a typical user needs to be concerned about - at least not to the extent that the WSJ's encouraging. (Many people in the ad industry assume the WSJ's spreading such FUD because the WSJ as a premium brand benefits disproportionately in a world with dumbed-down ad targeting. I don't have any evidenc…

In this case, the 'F' stands for Facts.

I know of at least two start-ups that are currently building advertising revenue streams on facebook apps and twitter that are also data mining like crazy. The goal is to replicate your "facebook friends" data and have it accessible on-demand without needing facebook. They also plan on extracting all your likes and interests. Then, if your friend (who is uniquely identifiable) buys something and its within your "liked" interests, you get a micro-targeted ad telling you your friend has bought it.

So, sometime soon, the Beacon-scandal from facebook (a few years ago, if people can remember -- users said that facebook "ruined christmas") is going to play out again on the greater web. And there will likely be no opt-out.

The company Gabe is afraid will come to be is already in the process of an alpha test. Consumers are largely ignorant of how powerful data mining software can be, and will continue to be until its "too late".

Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#115

Post by JoshCole »

BrandonM wrote: post #96
zackola wrote: post #25

I've been using Duck Duck Go as my primary search for the last month - it's pretty great! And if you need to fallback to google because you want a map or something else there are a bunch of ! shortcuts to go right there. (!map is most frequently used by me)

I'm forever confused by technical users who laud DDG's ! support. I love DDG and use it as my primary search engine, but Firefox has featured keyword searches for years now. Any search box anywhere can be turned into a URL keyword search. I use "m" for searching Google Maps, "im" for Google Images, "w" for Wikipedia, "dict" and "thes" for dictionary.com, "bt" for searching torrents, and the list goes on. Just yesterd…

I second this post and want to mention that support for this exists in Chrome as well. You don't even need to grab an addon. The searchable bookmarks site, trunkly, turned me on to this feature. I nearly posted a Tell HN when I realized what I had been shown.

Add Keyword Search In Chrome: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95...

Add Keyword Search In Firefox: http://lifehacker.com/397071/easily-manage-firefox-3-keyword...

Enjoy!

Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#118

Post by Mithrandir »

axod wrote: post #113
extension wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average person can't decide if they care about it until they understand it. Until they do, I'm glad people like Gabriel are being paranoid on their behalf.

Reminds me of stallmans endless ranting about freedom and software. The evidence is that the masses don't care. They just want stuff that works and solves problems for them. Is it open source? Why would anyone (apart from a geek) care?

Disagree. People usually aren't aware of these privacy problems, and would care if they did know. Result: this page.

Same goes for free software: more casual users (probably) would use more free software if they knew about it. And the bit about it just working is mostly FUD.

Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide

#119

Post by [deleted] »

16s wrote: post #66
motters wrote: post #62

I've been using DDG for a while, and have been very happy with it. IMHO they should focus on this privacy aspect, trying to be the most privacy respecting search engine, because it's a key product differentiator and it's also an issue which is only likely to grow in importance.

How will they make money? I agree with you. I like privacy, but ad supported search seems to be the only viable business model. Advertisers won't pay DDG b/c there's no one to target.

[deleted]
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