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Remove Google Search History Before New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

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

#151

Post by coderdude »

joelhaus wrote: post #148
coderdude wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I can see now why it would give off that impression. That feature is going to give them so many issues in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about its removal one day.

> "Google maintains a separate logs system" Could the difference be that Google associates data with your Google account if you have Web History turned on, but only uses IP addresses in their "logs system"? If this was the case, IMHO, it would be consistent enough with expectations.

Based on Google's "What Google knows about you" page[1] I would have to conclude that their logs associate your search behavior with your account either way.

[1] https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/

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

#153

Post by drunkenmasta »

jacquesm wrote: post #130
jellicle wrote: post #110

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…

Interesting. Can you prove that? If so, this could be a very hot potato. If google states "Your web history is currently empty" and "web history is paused" but they continue to track your searches in a way that is tied to your identity then I think they're in breach of several laws. They could chose to withold the ability to disable tracking. But by giving you the impression that they're not tracking you I think they…

This is an interesting point and something worth digging around for (the answer). Though the "super users" may know the difference between this and that, the average user, and even above average user may not. The "reasonable expectation" of an average user might be that turning off web history would cause Google to stop tracking.

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

#154

Post by andymurd »

__alexs wrote: post #39
rpedroso wrote: 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…

It's not that I'm worried about Google doing evil things with my data, I'm worried about it increasing the complexity of the identity management I already have to do. I don't want Google targeting ads at me while I'm at work, based on searches I did at home. I don't want to have to worry about the carefully targeted adverts displayed on random webpages I show people on my screen. I don't want my hypothetical future c…

You make excellent points, and I'd like to add one more:

Google's personalized search is just not as good as their unpersonalized search.

The time I was Googling for suitable Xmas presents for my Grandma should not influence my searches for valentines gifts.

Incidentally, am I the only one to mentally filter out search results that have the avatar of an online "friend" recommending them? Is that link was ranked highly just because someone I've never met tweeted it?

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

#155

Post by magicalist »

jellicle wrote: post #133
jacquesm wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Can you prove that? If so, this could be a very hot potato. If google states "Your web history is currently empty" and "web history is paused" but they continue to track your searches in a way that is tied to your identity then I think they're in breach of several laws. They could chose to withold the ability to disable tracking. But by giving you the impression that they're not tracking you I think they…

Uh, this is not a secret. Google says specifically that web history is a way to personalize your search results, nothing more. Web history is an add-on to Google's normal tracking. "You can delete information from Web History using the remove feature, and it will be removed from the service. However, as is common practice in the industry, and as outlined in the Google Privacy Policy, Google maintains a separate logs…

I don't believe this is quite correct. The EFF article clarifies this in an update:

> [UPDATE 2/22/2012]: Note that disabling Web History in your Google account will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes. It also does not change the fact that any information gathered and stored by Google could be sought by law enforcement.

> With Web History enabled, Google will keep these records indefinitely; with it disabled, they will be partially anonymized after 18 months, and certain kinds of uses, including sending you customized search results, will be prevented. If you want to do more to reduce the records Google keeps, the advice in EFF's Six Tips to Protect Your Search Privacy white paper remains relevant.

I found this link in google's privacy FAQ, but there may be a better one out there:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/faq/#...

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/faq/#...

Of course, they unhelpfully don't enumerate all the uses of that log data, but it seems pretty clear that it isn't for personalization and (as far as I can tell) it isn't even changed at all by the new privacy policy anyway.

edit: it also appears that they log by a cookie ID that isn't tied to the account. You could probably still reconstruct account information for many users (and even after anonymization a lot is revealable (see the AOL search logs debacle)), but, again, this is quite different than logging data associated with an account and using it to target advertising.

> We strike a reasonable balance between the competing pressures we face, such as the privacy of our users, the security of our systems and the need for innovation. We believe anonymizing IP addresses after 9 months and cookies in our search engine logs after 18 months strikes the right balance.

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

#156

Post by magicalist »

coderdude wrote: post #151
joelhaus wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Google maintains a separate logs system" Could the difference be that Google associates data with your Google account if you have Web History turned on, but only uses IP addresses in their "logs system"? If this was the case, IMHO, it would be consistent enough with expectations.

Based on Google's "What Google knows about you" page[1] I would have to conclude that their logs associate your search behavior with your account either way. [1] https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/

That's the doubleclick cookie personalization, which they aren't allowed to tie to your account based on the doubleclick acquisition agreement (which is why "on the web" and "on search and gmail" are separate and why if you go in an incognito window or block doubleclick cookies it will say it has nothing on you).

http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/

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

#157

Post by jsz0 »

There are probably better ways of doing this but I just use Chrome now exclusively for Google services. I don't login to Google on my primary browser anymore. I'm hoping this will limit their stalking a bit. I don't mind if they read my mail since that's the price I pay for using the service but I'm getting a little paranoid about the other things they might be doing. Better to keep it sandboxed away from the rest of my browsing.

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

#158

Post by wladimir »

SquareWheel wrote: post #48
dhbanes wrote: 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.

As I understand it, the client plugin and the proxy are different programs. I don't think you have to run an "exit node" to use it. Though it obviously wouldn't work if no one would be running one, but that's a different issue.

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

#159

Post by ordinary »

dredmorbius wrote: post #54
dhbanes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.googlesharing.net/

Is there a version that works with FF8?

I've manually edited install.rdf to make it compatible with recent versions of Firefox. I've been running GS for 3 months now, no issues.

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

#160

Post by ordinary »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #63

I'm not convinced this works as it should. I turned of history a while back and have since repeated "remove all history". But I still get these ads related to searches and email that is too obscure to be co-incidence - e.g. Lately I get shown ads (sometimes multiple times daily) for "Foreign SIM cards" as I googled this about a month ago. Especially on Youtube. Anyone else notice this who has turned off their web his…

Quote from the article:

Note that disabling Web History in your Google account will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes. It also does not change the fact that any information gathered and stored by Google could be sought by law enforcement.

With Web History enabled, Google will keep these records indefinitely; with it disabled, they will be partially anonymized after 18 months, and certain kinds of uses, including sending you customized search results, will be prevented.

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