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Anonymous Google searches with G-Zapper

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dk70:
On the other hand Googles Personal Search page is neat. You can see your xxxxx searches, which search engines were used, which results you clicked. All this also spread over time with calendar, 7, 30 etc. days stats or Personal Trends. Almost a dairy. Data is not hidden but part of their Service mania and of course also part of "optimzing" personal advertising/searching.

That was searching but what about Gmail, Docs, Checkout and the rest? If you use most of their services accumulated information will be better than dairy for sure. But danger of not having control over passwords, who access computer is probably a billion times bigger than Google handing out your life story. Google Desktop is out of the question naturally. Many if not most services only require Gmail login, get that and door is wide open.

Rohit sign up for Google Analytics https://www.google.com/analytics/home/ Free and used on many many sites. How much of internet works, tracking is essential and some will scream if you block :) Analytics is Google in a nutshell, all about analyzing and directing traffic efficiently - for whatever reason. Does not have to related to money - is for Google obviously.

Btw, Google says users must be informed when Google Analytics is activated on a site. Very few does that and similar services does not seem to have same openness about them. To prevent unwanted tracking you have to disable cookies and scripting on all sites - only allow it on sites you trust. G-Zapper not nearly enough, other monsters than Google have an interest in you. Get at least No-Script for Firefox http://www.noscript.net/whats and with IE disable all this for internet zone. There are tools for IE to manage this white listing idea. You just crippled browser and many sites but are better protected.

There was a guy who published a button for a Firefox extension. On a forum somewhere. Worked ok but he forgot he left some information in the few lines of script. Like his Gmail login and password  8) Had he been a Google freak his life would have been published with it - thanks to userfriendly sharing of login. Actually I only checked his Gmail account, may be there is more. Could be he keep his banking data in online Doc file!

Rohit:
dk70, thanks for your thoughts.

I don't really have anything to hide; most of my searches are about technical stuff, software reviews, programming tutorials etc. The only reason I wanted to anonymize my Google searches was the principle - I don't like that they keep the data indefinitely. But that doesn't address the issue of other sites that track users ...

I recognize the near futility of this gesture :huh: I do use Gmail for most of my mail ... And soon there will be laws throughout the world that will make it compulsory for all companies and ISPs to preserve all emails and log all activities of their employees and users, respectively. Sooner or later, Big Brother will be a reality.  :o

I guess I could just give in and let everybody track me as much as they want. And maybe I will do just that. But not today. :)

Rohit:
Combine Scroogle with TOR and you've got a fantastic way to search for poisons to kill your cheating spouse and ways to dispose of the body!
 :-\

-Renegade (December 10, 2006, 07:32 AM)
--- End quote ---

Heh. Thankfully I don't need it.
But if I don't reduce the time I spend online, my wife may need it soon  :D

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