I'm sure google is not as "evil" as those recent bashing campaigns tend to insinuate, but the fact is, if google could publish clearer, more-defined data-privacy or data-retention policies instead of the vague assertions you can find in their TOS, things would be clearer. The current situation is just feeding doubts, and nothing serious or accompanied by hard facts comes to contradict this illustrated guide
Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
21–30 of 178 posts
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#22Or, you could use https://encrypted.google.com which disables the referral[1]. You can also turn off the history[2]. Other info, like your IP address (which they partially anonymize after... 9/18/24 months (conflicting details)) and cookie[3] (which you can clear / block), is still stored. Odds are DDG does this too (edit: they don't, see replies), as it's mostly useful for overall statistics. [1]: http://www.google.…
We do not store IPs or have any personally identifying cookies (actually no cookies whatsoever by default). We don't store user agents either, which have also been shown to be able to uniquely identify you. Also, "partial anonymization" has been shown time and time again not to work. More details on our privacy stuff here: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#23"which can often uniquely identify you." "and potentially show up in unwanted places, like insurance, credit & background checks." yeah, i'm pretty sure that's not a thing that can happen. also, if you like the internet being free then you shouldn't mind seeing ads for your demographic that get a better roi and make more money for publishers of the content you don't pay for.
I don't see why this COULDN'T happen. There are already list brokers out there who buy information from retail outlets (all those "member" programs that collect what you buy). They then combine them into master lists to sell
In that same way if you search for Herpes and then are directed to a web site they'll have your IP and maybe a cookie. If you then go to another site and log in with your Facebook ID they'll have your IP, Name and Facebook ID.
So all it would take is an industrious list broker to start combining that info like they already do with offline info (and in fact probably combine that with the offline info to get even more comprehensive lists)
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#24Or, you could use https://encrypted.google.com which disables the referral[1]. You can also turn off the history[2]. Other info, like your IP address (which they partially anonymize after... 9/18/24 months (conflicting details)) and cookie[3] (which you can clear / block), is still stored. Odds are DDG does this too (edit: they don't, see replies), as it's mostly useful for overall statistics. [1]: http://www.google.…
Other info, like your IP address...is still stored. Odds are DDG does this too, as it's mostly useful for overall statistics. You could have checked this assertion by reading DDG's plain-language privacy policy: When you access DuckDuckGo (or any Web site), your Web browser automatically sends information about your computer, e.g. your User agent and IP address. Because this information could be used to link you to y…
>This is a very unusual practice
So I was close. They even admit the odds were in my favor. Thanks for the fact!
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#25I've been using Duck Duck Go as my primary search for the last month - it's pretty great! And if you need to fallback to google because you want a map or something else there are a bunch of ! shortcuts to go right there. (!map is most frequently used by me)
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#26"which can often uniquely identify you." "and potentially show up in unwanted places, like insurance, credit & background checks." yeah, i'm pretty sure that's not a thing that can happen. also, if you like the internet being free then you shouldn't mind seeing ads for your demographic that get a better roi and make more money for publishers of the content you don't pay for.
It's already happening to various degrees, and that is just what we know about. See the three WSJ articles I linked to at the bottom of the post, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870464860457562... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870397700457539... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230441050457556...
Their whole privacy series (http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-pri...) taken together is what inspired this page. I urge anyone interested in what is really happening to read all the articles (13 so far).
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#27I think it's some valid info here, and it's certainly worth being wary of the info Google collects, but I also sense a little bit of FUD here. The whole "...which can often uniquely identify you" makes me feel like this is playing on fear a little too much. It's not like that "big ebony booty" search is going to come up in a job interview any time soon guys.
Once upon a time what you did on myspace and facebook had no impact on your work life.
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#28Or, you could use https://encrypted.google.com which disables the referral[1]. You can also turn off the history[2]. Other info, like your IP address (which they partially anonymize after... 9/18/24 months (conflicting details)) and cookie[3] (which you can clear / block), is still stored. Odds are DDG does this too (edit: they don't, see replies), as it's mostly useful for overall statistics. [1]: http://www.google.…
We do not store IPs or have any personally identifying cookies (actually no cookies whatsoever by default). We don't store user agents either, which have also been shown to be able to uniquely identify you. Also, "partial anonymization" has been shown time and time again not to work. More details on our privacy stuff here: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html
Yeah, there's been flack about Google's anonymization before. Specifically, they apparently remove the last 8 digits. Which allows you to (partially) reconstruct (some) people by tracing IP + cookie. A failed anonymization, absolutely, but blockable if you are already taking steps to actually guard your privacy online, as part-way-there is almost the same as nowhere-near when you have enough data.
Solved everywhere, of course, by anonymizing your IP address and blocking the cookie. And as you give your IP to the site you visit through DDG, as well as to their advertisers if you're not proactively blocking them (and those tools can fail / be nullified by a server transmission), extreme measures are the only effective means of actually protecting your privacy. As such, I don't find those two steps to be at all unexpected for someone who actually wishes to guard their privacy.
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you pay with your data instead of money, how does that make a service "free"? It would only be free if your data was worthless. But then they would not collect it in the first place.
Be careful how you define value / cost / worth. It costs me nothing if they duplicate information I give them. It costs me something if it's used to abusively manipulate me. It pays me something if it's used to manipulate me (ie, what I see) in ways I approve of.
Does the duplication of private information reduce it's value? I think it does. If there is a transfer of value from you to a company then you can call transfer that a sort of payment. The company may sell you something in return, but I wouldn't confuse selling with paying.
Re: Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
#30I think it's some valid info here, and it's certainly worth being wary of the info Google collects, but I also sense a little bit of FUD here. The whole "...which can often uniquely identify you" makes me feel like this is playing on fear a little too much. It's not like that "big ebony booty" search is going to come up in a job interview any time soon guys.
I really tried hard with this not to perpetrate any FUD. I re-read all the recent WSJ reporting many times and ran this by a bunch of critical eyes. Tracking down to the individual level is certainly real.