I've been using DDG for nearly a year now, and have rarely turned back to Google. I only do so when I really cannot find what I'm looking for on DDG, and I try to tell DDG about the bad results (which I've actually seen get fixed). Getting bad results happens infrequently though, so the benefit of using DDG really outweighs the occasional inconvenience.
PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
21–30 of 213 posts
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have access to IP+time, your search query, and cookies for correlation to other requests. It's valuable information and Google openly documents that they are keeping and using it, along with anything else you leak to them: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ IP+time is enough to get your personal identity information from your ISP (physical location of the endpoint, billing information), I have no idea if Go…
> They have access to IP+time, your search query, and > cookies for correlation to other requests. It's > valuable information Valuable for blackmail, but not really useful for anything else; the commercial value of information rapidly degrades over time. Knowing I want to buy a new fridge today is very valuable, knowing I wanted to buy one last month is nearly worthless. > IP+time is enough to get your personal iden…
Valuable for blackmail, but not really useful for anything else; the commercial value of information rapidly degrades over time. Knowing I want to buy a new fridge today is very valuable, knowing I wanted to buy one last month is nearly worthless.
That depends on what they can get out of the data, besides the obvious. I'm thinking of the story about Target knowing that a girl was pregnant before even her father did[1]. Even longer trends can probably be derived, regarding personality traits, income, etc. That information is worth a lot even months or years after it was captured.
[1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targe...
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#23Why would anyone believe that DuckDuckGo isn't already penetrated?
Why would anyone believe his own computer isn't already penetrated?
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#24Here is a non-US-based alternative: https://startpage.com
Just because they say they don't collect your info, it doesn't mean that google doesn't get it. Look at the source of a search page and you'll notice that they include scripts directly from google.com...
Hum, neither NoScript nor a search in their source reveals such scripts. Can you point me to them?
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#25Glad to see them succeeding, but personally the privacy of my web searches doesn't bother me - as long as they aren't being passed along with personally identifying information. I'm far more worried about emails, messaging, video, storage etc. Can someone explain to me (or point me in the direction of something that explains) what Google and Bing store in terms of tracking when you are not logged in? Obviously you ca…
TOR is not that safe. If the exit node is compromised you’re f*cked for good.
As for Google the thing is that they’re also an advertising network so basically they track you all around the web.
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#26if the NSA is intercepting the communications, why would switching sites matter?
1. The NSA isn't the only threat to privacy on the net.
2. DDG is SSL, so there's some hope that the traffic is not visible to a passive observer, even the NSA.
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#27Not that this is going to help. The NSA is probably tapping the fiber at the ISP's backbone in front of Google. Why do you think it is called PRISM? It's probably named for the way they are splitting the fiber and recording everything.
Or it could be an API for issuing FISA warrants and collecting the requested data.
(The NSA may very well be doing both.)
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have access to IP+time, your search query, and cookies for correlation to other requests. It's valuable information and Google openly documents that they are keeping and using it, along with anything else you leak to them: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ IP+time is enough to get your personal identity information from your ISP (physical location of the endpoint, billing information), I have no idea if Go…
> They have access to IP+time, your search query, and > cookies for correlation to other requests. It's > valuable information Valuable for blackmail, but not really useful for anything else; the commercial value of information rapidly degrades over time. Knowing I want to buy a new fridge today is very valuable, knowing I wanted to buy one last month is nearly worthless. > IP+time is enough to get your personal iden…
I love targeted advertising because it is so blatantly obvious and hilariously over-optimistic.
I search for a lot of random crap with more curiosity than intent to buy. I looked up the price for several windmills , the late 19th/early 20th century style, (~$1000, by the way). For weeks or months afterwards, I saw windmill ads on a sizable fraction of the websites I visited.
To be fair, it's far more likely that I am going to by a windmill than a random ad viewer, but the probability is still staggeringly low. There had to be a hundred other products I was more likely to buy than the windmill, that would be more valuable to show me. But no! I had viewed their product and I! Must! Be! Targeted!
I really wonder what the set of products that do well from targeted ads looks like.
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#29Chrome integration possible?
you can integrate any search engine into chrome by right clicking in the search field and picking "Add as Search Engine".
Then you can go to Settings and make it your default.
Re: PRISM fears give private search engine DuckDuckGo its best week ever
#30Chrome integration possible?
this is a joke... right?