I don’t worry that some of my information can be easily accessed on the web. I think I’m typical of most people in my generation who have grown accustomed to taking privacy into their own hands. My rule of thumb is this: if it’s a free service on the internet, you’re probably the product. In many instances, that’s not a terrible trade off. Facebook, for example, uses my information to target ads to my profile, but I can think of worse violations of my privacy in exchange for an easy platform to share information with my friends.
Google is revising their privacy policy in March, though, and it doesn’t look up my alley (and it probably won’t be up yours). So don’t wait for some dopey Congressman to slap a large, sweeping law that will invade more of your personal liberties (think SOPA). Take matters into your own hands and enter a 21st century frame of mind, one filled with personal responsibility: How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google’s New Privacy Policy Takes Effect (courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation).
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Turns out I had this off already, thankfulyl I suppose. I just hope Google doesn’t do some “auto-opt in” thing when they reset to confuse us all.
I followed the steps in the Electronics Frontier Foundation press release yesterday. Then this morning I wanted to comment on Althouse’s blog. Her blog uses the Blogger platform, which is a Google product. I had to reverse what I had done yesterday before my comment was accepted.
So this “fix” is going to be a pain if you want to comment on Blogger blogs.
Thanks M@B&W for that tip. I haven’t been able to post a comment on a ‘blogger’ blog in many, many, months and _could_not_ figure out why? Since I also disable Google’s ‘Search History’ functionality many, many, months ago as well this explains for me my blogger.com commenting issue. And, FWIW, I _will_not_ be re-enabling Google’s ‘Search History’ data mining just for the ‘privilege’ of posting on Google’s blogger platform!
And remember everyone, there are alternatives to Google Search. At the moment I’m using: DuckDuckGo , and liking it a lot.
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Does this affect anonymous google searches? I don’t have a google account( that I know of)
You can’t stop google from collecting your IP address and cookies of course may be a different issue. The Former is going to be impossible to stop (IP address being needed to make the internet work). The Latter can be fixed by clearing your cookies often enough.
It’s worth pointing out that Google seems to be using IP addresses to target advertising at some level. I get ads all the time for things related to sites that my wife visits.
Using a proxy like http://hidemyass.com/ or a tunneling service will absolutely prevent Google from tracking you via your IP.
Thank you Kathleen for the info.
Sooner or later government is going to get involved pretending to be your “friend.” They will suppress Google and others while looking after “their” interests.
So, I’m going to take action regarding Google buy will be waiting for the other shoe to drop…
For anonymous searches, I recommended: https://startpage.com/
Very nice search engine, so far!
[…] Legal Insurrection: “Google is revising their privacy policy in March, though, and it doesn’t look up my alley (and it probably won’t be up yours). So don’t wait for some dopey Congressman to slap a large, sweeping law that will invade more of your personal liberties (think SOPA). Take matters into your own hands and enter a 21st century frame of mind, one filled with personal responsibility: How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google’s New Privacy Policy Takes Effect (courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation).” […]
[…] Legal Insurrection: “Google is revising their privacy policy in March, though, and it doesn’t look up my alley (and it probably won’t be up yours). So don’t wait for some dopey Congressman to slap a large, sweeping law that will invade more of your personal liberties (think SOPA). Take matters into your own hands and enter a 21st century frame of mind, one filled with personal responsibility: How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google’s New Privacy Policy Takes Effect (courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation).” […]