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Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

eff.org

111–120 of 162 posts

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#111

I'm pretty sure EFF is wrong here. Google's Web History is basically a public version of your search history. You can turn on or off whether you want Google to rub your face in its knowledge about you. But it retains that knowledge even if you turn off the rub-in-your-face personalization part. Google retains a complete history of your interactions with them, which is not subject to this Web History setting, not dele…

Sure made me "feel" better about removing it though!

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#112

I'm pretty sure EFF is wrong here. Google's Web History is basically a public version of your search history. You can turn on or off whether you want Google to rub your face in its knowledge about you. But it retains that knowledge even if you turn off the rub-in-your-face personalization part. Google retains a complete history of your interactions with them, which is not subject to this Web History setting, not dele…

Yeah, I've had this feature disabled since it launched and google still seems to return "personalized" search results. If you don't want google to track your behavior, you probably shouldn't be logged into google in the first place.

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"or you have specific privacy needs/concerns" With all due respect, this attitude really disturbs me. It's becoming very common these days: the implication that only deviants, criminals, off-the-grid wackos, and the anti-social have any real need for privacy. No. I reject that premise. We all have a right to privacy, and we shouldn't have to give our reasons. (That's why it's privacy, after all!). We're quickly turni…

Although I dont disagree with your point I took the phrase to refer to e.g. political dissidents and the like.

Fair. Whatever case you want to call it, the point is that privacy shouldn't have to be a conditional, special-case thing (a "specific" "concern" or "need").

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#114
post #95
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can specify the date to export, so could step back exporting batches until you've got everything. https://www.google.com/history/lookup?month=11&day=30&#3... It shouldn't be too hard to write a script to scrape you're whole history...

Hacked this together to do the job: https://gist.github.com/1884821

Doesn't work for me:

export.rb:1:in `require': no such file to load -- mechanize (LoadError) from export.rb:1

edit: nvm, installed libwww-mechanize-ruby and it's working fine.

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#115
The issue is not with start-ups or established players its with US Congress and the DOJ who have consistently used 911 to over-reach to control things so that they do not have to hear dissent. Sort of what the standard Russian citizen experiences on a daily basis, bbut they are not alone in that experience.

Thus, when did we become a less free 'Third World Country'?

My apologies to citizens in Third World countries as I lack the vocab early this morning to express it in a different way.

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#117
post #4

The official title of the article is "How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect", and the writing itself is much more neutral than this submission title. I'm still not sure why people are afraid of Google's new privacy policy. I understand that there are people who have specific privacy needs, but outside that scope I doubt you have anything to worry about. It's doubtful…

"or you have specific privacy needs/concerns" With all due respect, this attitude really disturbs me. It's becoming very common these days: the implication that only deviants, criminals, off-the-grid wackos, and the anti-social have any real need for privacy. No. I reject that premise. We all have a right to privacy, and we shouldn't have to give our reasons. (That's why it's privacy, after all!). We're quickly turni…

There is very relevant post on a webcomic for people who things that privacy is only for people who have something to hide: http://abstrusegoose.com/strips/missing_the_point.png and sometims images is worh thousand words, right?

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#118
I use three browsers. Firefox for general browsing (technology and theology), Chromium for Gmail and Facebook, and Opera for blogs.

I figure that keeping Google and Facebook in their own little prison should help greatly with privacy.

I use DDG for searching whenever possible.

Not so much to hide things (as a pastor I got used to being watched 24x7 years ago), but just to preserve what little privacy I have left.

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#119
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.googlesharing.net/

It sounds good in concept, but I'm concerned that somebody searching for child pornography or similar could be associated with myself. I have the same fear of running a TOR exit node.

I don't see how they would associate that with you. Only the exit node for the google queries would be suspect, and I'm pretty sure most don't keep logs.

Re: Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

#120
post #118

I use three browsers. Firefox for general browsing (technology and theology), Chromium for Gmail and Facebook, and Opera for blogs. I figure that keeping Google and Facebook in their own little prison should help greatly with privacy. I use DDG for searching whenever possible. Not so much to hide things (as a pastor I got used to being watched 24x7 years ago), but just to preserve what little privacy I have left.

I've tried this but find it to quite a pain to remember what browser I should be looking at what in.

What I want is a browser where I can be logged into Google, and any link I click will open that link in my "private" (not logged into Google) browser. Same with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

So I've started developing XUL apps to run each in their own sandbox.

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