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Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

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Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#11

Post by tedunangst »

eth0up wrote: post #2

Reminds me a bit of Marlinspike's Google Sharing: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/googlesharing-a... The concept of hurling garbage into the all-seeing-eye is a good one and I hope it gains sustained popularity.

Posit that the government wants to round up all the pressure cooker searchers. Now, instead of one searcher, they have a conspiracy of a dozen pressure cooker searchers. Are they going to just shrug their shoulders and say oh well?

The idea that it's possible to overflow the governments secret lists is founded on the idea that the government cares if a list gets too long. I'm not sure that's the case.

Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#12

Post by [deleted] »

tedunangst wrote: post #11
eth0up wrote: post #2

Reminds me a bit of Marlinspike's Google Sharing: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/googlesharing-a... The concept of hurling garbage into the all-seeing-eye is a good one and I hope it gains sustained popularity.

Posit that the government wants to round up all the pressure cooker searchers. Now, instead of one searcher, they have a conspiracy of a dozen pressure cooker searchers. Are they going to just shrug their shoulders and say oh well? The idea that it's possible to overflow the governments secret lists is founded on the idea that the government cares if a list gets too long. I'm not sure that's the case.

[deleted]

Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#13

Post by zhan_eg »

Well in fact if you check a section of your Google profile (Ads Settings) [0] you can turn off Ads based on your interests which will result it:

  You will still see ads and they may be based on your general location (such as city or state)
  Ads will not be based on data Google has associated with your Google Account, and so may be less relevant
  You will no longer be able to edit your interests
  All the advertising interests associated with your Google Account will be deleted
If you decide to believe them (as you are by using all their other services), that should be enough :)

[0] - https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads/authenticated

Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#14

Post by staticautomatic »

existencebox wrote: post #10
blakesterz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The concept of hurling garbage into the all-seeing-eye is a good one and I hope it gains sustained popularity. So this is a genuine question, because I don't get it. How is that good? What does it accomplish exactly that makes someone safer or more private on any realistic level? I understand the point at a high level, but what does that actually do for a person on a practical level? Like... "I hurl all this garba…

Speaking as a data engineer: If your personal data is junk, it limits my ability to derive insights from it, and leverage it. I can't speak in terms of ad-tech/user data selling, I'm in an entirely different space, but if it prevents them from being able to both derive value from and further proliferate my identity as a datapoint, that's both a personal and a commons good from where I'm standing.

I work in a space that's orthogonal to ad retargeting, and from what I can tell after talking to people at the big data brokers, reading their white papers, and reviewing their actual data, I've concluded that their ability to retarget is excellent but they otherwise have a really poor understanding of the targets' characteristics/demographics.

Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#17

Post by slarrick »

blakesterz wrote: post #8
eth0up wrote: post #2

Reminds me a bit of Marlinspike's Google Sharing: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/googlesharing-a... The concept of hurling garbage into the all-seeing-eye is a good one and I hope it gains sustained popularity.

>> The concept of hurling garbage into the all-seeing-eye is a good one and I hope it gains sustained popularity. So this is a genuine question, because I don't get it. How is that good? What does it accomplish exactly that makes someone safer or more private on any realistic level? I understand the point at a high level, but what does that actually do for a person on a practical level? Like... "I hurl all this garba…

For me, I imagine a scenario like the movie GATTACA where in a future world an employer can base their entire hiring decision on what your genome says about you (theoretically, a lot). Imagine a world where business giants judge you by correlating huge amounts of data about you. "You shop for expensive purses and small dog toys, therefore statistically your personality is x, y, z"

Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#19

Post by dr_zoidberg »

As a simple rule, whenever I want to search something and minimize polution to my web history, I open the other browser I never use and then go into incognito mode.

As a side note, this reminded me of the "Neo looks for Morpheus" scene (the one just before "Wake up Neo").

Re: Fogging your Google search history with Python and Reddit

#20

Post by cooper12 »

veeragoni wrote: post #6

Google probably already knows our typing pattern and typing speed. They could probably detect whether you automated it or really typing. It wont be hard for them. "Google knows everything!"

Just because they have that information, doesn't mean they can determine what they need or do it in a scalable and computationally feasible manner.
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