Re: Using Google

You know, this is REALLY old news. Though I knew it before, an
obvious example of just how old it is is contained in a book called
"The history of Google" written about the time they went public. I
just finished listening to the audio book version.

Beyond that, consider that all search engines do what your eyes were
opened to. Google was the only one to stand up to the feds and for
that I give them a slap on the back.

For that matter, unless the operator has taken specific actions to the
contrary, every website out there keeps a log of what you surf. Some
(many?) sell those logs to data aggregators. Read a typical privacy
statement sometime. Nothing about privacy of logs. Ironically, the
most controversial sites such as porn sites typically have logging
turned off or else delete the log after some short interval precisely
to keep their clients' habits from falling into the wrong hands.

If you're really concerned about your search terms being logged and
don't want to quit using a search engine, do what I do. Salt the log
with enough extraneous, outrageous and irrelevant terms that your real
ones are camouflaged. Maybe even use a script to do that unattended.
Whatever is in the headlines pretty much gets added to my search
regime.

If you're really, really paranoid about google, there are proxies out
there.

http://tor.eff.org/
http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/security_aachcacace_ae/
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/06/29/Anonymity.html
http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/cgi-proxy.htm

Another simple measure is to install the RefControl extension to
FireFox. This plugin allows you to block the <referrer> tag your
browser sends out or alternately, send out the URL of your choice. For
example, for anything Google, I send out http://www.whitehouse.gov as
the referrer.

If you have Firefox or Opera set to wipe all cookies after each
session and you're on dial-up (or even most broadband) where you get a
new DHCP IP address for each session, there's not much left by which
to track you.

Still running Micro*** software? I have no sympathy.

John


On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 17:16:49 GMT, "Tom J" <tomnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

http://earthlink.com.com/FAQ+When+Google+is+not+your+friend/2100-1025_3-6034666.html?tag=nefd.lede

This may be an eye opener for some. It's what I suspected all along.

Tom J

---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.johngsbbq.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
.

Loading