DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco) • Hacker News Board

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#41

Post by patio11 » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:23 AM UTC

coderdude wrote: post #2

More FUD from DuckDuckGo about Google and privacy issues. Didn't we come to the conclusion that the things they are railing against Google for are applicable to any and every Website? Matt Cutts stole the comment show on this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2063619 The worst thing about this is how blindly news about DDG gets upvoted around here. Edit: To my down-voters: It doesn't make what I said not true…

Matt's comment is, basically, no fair for criticizing us for incontestably true things which are intrinsic to our business model. That was only fair when w were the scrappy underdog taking on the uncaring megacorp with the unassailable market position.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#42

Post by stoney » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:24 AM UTC

joakin wrote: post #21

truebosko wrote: post #6

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results. I had a scenario like this a few days ago when I googled for "fabric" -- Being a Python developer I was looking for http://fabfile.org and it shows up as the second result while logged in. If I'm not, it won't show up. This may be the outlier state of mind on HN, but I…

I would prefer the web to be better classified and less "guessing". For my queries google has been guessing wrong most of the time and putting results of things i didnt search for in the top results page. With the bangs and the zero-click duck aproaches what I think is a really good solution, for 'fabric' you get : http://duckduckgo.com/?q=fabric Which has in the zero click info all the meanings (including the python…

I agree, when I search for "fabric" I want to see the same results (more or less) on whichever computer I'm on - logged in to Google or not.

If I want information on the fabric python library I just search for "python fabric" - works on DuckDuckGo as noted above and also works just fine on Google.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#43

Post by mahmud » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:24 AM UTC

truebosko wrote: post #6

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results. I had a scenario like this a few days ago when I googled for "fabric" -- Being a Python developer I was looking for http://fabfile.org and it shows up as the second result while logged in. If I'm not, it won't show up. This may be the outlier state of mind on HN, but I…

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue?

Yes it is, if you're a political activist. Both Yahoo and Google have a proven history spying on people on behalf of government.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#44

Post by seabee » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:30 AM UTC

sorbus wrote: post #29

klochner wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a slightly different case - google passing on your search terms to the website that you click through to. You may trust google with knowing that you searched for "naked bieber pics", but you may not want other websites also knowing your search habits.

I am fairly sure that the issue is the browser passing on the referrer, not that Google is making websites aware of any additional information. I might be wrong, of course; there's a lot of FUD about this floating around.

The browser does it, and did it long before Google existed.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#45

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:31 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #41

coderdude wrote: post #2

More FUD from DuckDuckGo about Google and privacy issues. Didn't we come to the conclusion that the things they are railing against Google for are applicable to any and every Website? Matt Cutts stole the comment show on this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2063619 The worst thing about this is how blindly news about DDG gets upvoted around here. Edit: To my down-voters: It doesn't make what I said not true…

Matt's comment is, basically, no fair for criticizing us for incontestably true things which are intrinsic to our business model. That was only fair when w were the scrappy underdog taking on the uncaring megacorp with the unassailable market position.

[deleted]

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#46

Post by ezalor » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:32 AM UTC

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35

citricsquid wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression you can opt-out of all that, is that not the case?

No, you cannot opt-out of the referrer header. However, you can use the SSL version, which doesn't send it in most cases (still sends it for HTTPS->HTTPS traffic). Edit: sorry, I meant you cannot opt-out using http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/ or other HTTP (regular Google) settings.

So it's really just a time-limited solution, a temporary chance.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#47

Post by moultano » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:32 AM UTC

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35

citricsquid wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression you can opt-out of all that, is that not the case?

No, you cannot opt-out of the referrer header. However, you can use the SSL version, which doesn't send it in most cases (still sends it for HTTPS->HTTPS traffic). Edit: sorry, I meant you cannot opt-out using http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/ or other HTTP (regular Google) settings.

Of course you can. That's a setting in your browser.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#48

Post by seabee » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:32 AM UTC

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #30

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're free to opt out at any time: http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/

AFAIK this doesn't shut off the search leakage in the referrer header.

Actually, with Google Instant, the search terms aren't in the URL anymore - does it still leak?

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#49

Post by Pewpewarrows » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:33 AM UTC

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #30

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're free to opt out at any time: http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/

AFAIK this doesn't shut off the search leakage in the referrer header.

That's a feature of how the internet works at an architectural level. How exactly is that Google's fault?

If you don't want referral headers to be sent from one website to another, use HTTPS, or turn it off in your browser.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#50

Post by pedanticfreak » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 2:33 AM UTC

Anyone else think there should be a DuckDuckGo of browsers that is similarly proactive about privacy? There way more ways than just cookies to track people nowadays and it's about time we implemented default behavior in the browser to block them. There's no reason to wait for Google or Mozilla to do it for us either.