Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 215 posts

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#161

Post by pizza234 »

yrygfjv wrote: post #125
pizza234 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so easy. It seems that major companies are on the offensive against privacy. Google search, map and translate display a pop up. Youtube search displays two (!). Bing translator is the most dishonest - for anything else than a trivial sentence, it requires a captcha to be completed, pretending that it detected abnormal traffic (I know it's a lie, because if I don't use private mode, it doesn't do this). The servic…

What do you mean? It doesn't matter how many popups or CAPTCHAs the sites make you deal with: as long as you don't log in to your Google account, any searches you make with an incognito window shouldn't be associated with your Google identity. They'll be associated with your IP address (and of course browsers can in principle be fingerprinted, etc.) If there's any reason to believe that Google tries to defeat incogni…

I'm not concerned about the privacy, rather, that this is a strategy to attack it indirectly.

I believe that they're just trying to make life harder for those who browse in private mode, in order to push them to always stay logged in. After all, Google built a browser based on the concept of user being logged in (this was one of the primary reasons why I've moved from Chrome).

This is nothing new, as at least some news paper had explicitly rules against it, for a long time.

On an extreme and hopefully far fetched scenario, I image this becoming common practice, and Google says that you have only a certain amount of searches before you must log in. I think the current situation as a sort of middle ground (or step towards).

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#162

Post by rozab »

spamalot159 wrote: post #82
werid wrote: post #20

It's annoying clicking some youtube link only to find it was something you really don't want more of, and then youtube proceed to recommend much more of it, even though you barely watched any of it. kinda forces me to watch something else that is new but at least somewhat wanted in an attempt to make the algorithm look at the new shiny i'm interested in and forget the previous one. i find it funny though when amazon…

It's frustrating that nowadays YouTube seems like it can only keep 3 or 4 types of videos that you like in its head. I feel like I'm watching the same thing over and over whenever I click on recommendations. I totally agree with you.

Exactly! Sometimes my recommendations are good, with long form tech and history content I actually want to watch. But click on one Top Gear clip and that's all out the window, and I have to actively recall what these channels were called and try to build them back into my recs.

There was a time a couple years ago I watched one episode of Arthur for nostalgia purposes and it completely obliterated my recommendations. I scrolled for hundreds of videos and didn't see a single non-arthur one. It took months for the site to become usable again.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#163

Post by MaxBarraclough »

new_guy wrote: post #130
yrygfjv wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? It doesn't matter how many popups or CAPTCHAs the sites make you deal with: as long as you don't log in to your Google account, any searches you make with an incognito window shouldn't be associated with your Google identity. They'll be associated with your IP address (and of course browsers can in principle be fingerprinted, etc.) If there's any reason to believe that Google tries to defeat incogni…

Google in $5bn lawsuit for tracking in 'private' mode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52887340

Discussed [0] and elsewhere.

I have to agree with [1] that Google is completely in the right here.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23552967

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23554678

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#164

Post by MandieD »

Garlef wrote: post #11
greshario wrote: post #2

Use duckduckgo and this is a non-issue.

I tried it and went back to google because google saves me time. As a dev, I google a lot to figure out how to do X. My experience with DuckDuckGo was that it added 2-10 minutes of filtering for usable results every time.

Google for tech stuff, Startpage/DDG for anything else. Google doesn’t need to know every single infant-related concern I have.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#165

Post by HKH2 »

marrs wrote: post #84
HKH2 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't see why stereotyping (especially that which is uncharitable) shouldn't be classed as an ad hominem attack.

Is observing that someone conforms to a stereotype the same as stereotyping them though?

That is beside the point. Insofar as you are appealing to people's prejudices, you're most probably not making a charitable argument.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#166

Post by MaxBarraclough »

pizza234 wrote: post #119
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #113

Use a private browsing/incognito window then. Not bullet-proof, but probably good enough.

Not so easy. It seems that major companies are on the offensive against privacy. Google search, map and translate display a pop up. Youtube search displays two (!). Bing translator is the most dishonest - for anything else than a trivial sentence, it requires a captcha to be completed, pretending that it detected abnormal traffic (I know it's a lie, because if I don't use private mode, it doesn't do this). The servic…

I imagine the captcha is to combat bots abusing the service.

> I know it's a lie, because if I don't use private mode, it doesn't do this

If you don't use incognito/private browsing then you have an ordinary-looking set of cookies, so it makes sense you wouldn't be challanged with a captcha.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#167

Post by jbaber »

Spooky23 wrote: post #121
werid wrote: post #20

It's annoying clicking some youtube link only to find it was something you really don't want more of, and then youtube proceed to recommend much more of it, even though you barely watched any of it. kinda forces me to watch something else that is new but at least somewhat wanted in an attempt to make the algorithm look at the new shiny i'm interested in and forget the previous one. i find it funny though when amazon…

> amazon still make recommendations to me based on a purchase in 1998. yes, Jeff, i still want to buy wrestling VHS tapes... It’s funny you mention that. For many years I would get recommendations for Latino lgbt books. Weird as it’s not really my topic. I found a way to look at how they generate recommendations, and it turns out that I bought a book about a gay Chicano growing up for a college class in 1998 or somet…

Can you share what you found out?

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#168

Post by specialist »

lreeves wrote: post #120
ectopod wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your XBox online? Are you sure the DVD player doesn't report back what you're watching and how you're watching it?

Or your smart TV.

These comments made me wonder if any smart TVs have something like built-in content-id detection, which then somehow gets shared with the mother ship.

One precedent is Nielsen Audio's Portable People Meter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Audio#Portable_People_...

I assume that if surveillance can be done, someones are doing it.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#169

Post by khimaros »

rozab wrote: post #162
spamalot159 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's frustrating that nowadays YouTube seems like it can only keep 3 or 4 types of videos that you like in its head. I feel like I'm watching the same thing over and over whenever I click on recommendations. I totally agree with you.

Exactly! Sometimes my recommendations are good, with long form tech and history content I actually want to watch. But click on one Top Gear clip and that's all out the window, and I have to actively recall what these channels were called and try to build them back into my recs. There was a time a couple years ago I watched one episode of Arthur for nostalgia purposes and it completely obliterated my recommendations.…

i find NewPipe subscription groups are a better way to keep up with creators i care about.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#170

Post by x86ARMsRace »

spamalot159 wrote: post #82
werid wrote: post #20

It's annoying clicking some youtube link only to find it was something you really don't want more of, and then youtube proceed to recommend much more of it, even though you barely watched any of it. kinda forces me to watch something else that is new but at least somewhat wanted in an attempt to make the algorithm look at the new shiny i'm interested in and forget the previous one. i find it funny though when amazon…

It's frustrating that nowadays YouTube seems like it can only keep 3 or 4 types of videos that you like in its head. I feel like I'm watching the same thing over and over whenever I click on recommendations. I totally agree with you.

I continually get suggested videos that are all already watched. I can't think of the last time I've gotten video suggestions that don't already have a red line at the bottom. At least it has stopped queueing up the same 3 videogame walkthrough videos I always click out of the minute they start.
Post reply on HN