Google has been one of my favorite things about the internet since I've been online. Over the years I've let little things slip because of it's usefulness but I think they've gone too far. They are announcing a change in their privacy policy and basically ditching many of our privacies and will now be profiling users by building a database on them with every last bit of info they can squeeze out of their pc. Anything and everything about you, every last bit of info they can grab will now be stored and accumulated from what kind of hardware you're using to all accounts with other websites to any physical info (address, phone numbers, associations...) and the informations is theirs to do with as they see fit. Eff that and eff you, Google. Please take me off your list. I'm taking you off mine. You will be blocked from my pc and I will no longer use your service.

NYA!

Yep. I need to find a new browser. I've been using Chrome, but will be leaving it before March 1, 2012. I'll be using Yahoo for my search engine...I already use Mapquest because they get me lost less often than Google Maps.

It isn't anything different from what any other ad server company does. If you're seeing banner ads, you're being tracked across domains and your information is being gathered.

All you have to do is block their ad server cookies and you're good for the most part. Several free anti-spyware programs will do it for you.

They'll still track your search history if you have an account and stay signed in. That isn't anything new either.

Every single web page you have ever gone to tracks you basically, unless its a bookmark they know what address you came from wnad what link you left on, they alo know your operating system and browser, this has been going on for at least 10-12 years.

They can only get information that is on your account stored on thier servers, they cant go thru your computer and start pulling files or address books.

You can also opt out of Google's gatherings. I doubt I'll use anything else.

These guys don't think so.



Did you see that? Notice I made like The Washington Post itself posted that, and made thier screen name a link to the artcile? Straight up magic! I AM the OT medicine man!

I'm gonna opt out by digging deep into my OS and killing anything remotely related to Google, and block them from ever putting a cookie or script of any kind on my pc. Forever!

I'm gonna miss YouTube. We've had so many good times together. Anybody know of a good video hosting site where there's no tracking stuff going on?



LSS,

In lieu of Chrome, Firefox with the NoScript and Ghostery add-ons. Ghostery blocks a slue of trackers on it's own and in the background. NoScript gives you absolute control by showing any and all scripts attempting to run and blocking them from running until you either allow or forbid the site from running a script on your pc. You can also temporarily allow a script if you're not sure. OF turned me on to NoScript and that's the biggest solid anybody's done for me in a while.

Thanks again OF!

One more thing to add: Now that corporations are legally defined as people, I'm gonna get some friends drunk and send them over to Google's house and believe me when I tell you - My friends will hurt Google. They're gonna call him names, and beat the ever-loving-sweet-[censored] out of him.

google is the anti-christ. no wait, it's bill gates. no wait, its obamba. no wait...

Chill out bob and say a prayer.

Y'all need to shut up and drink the cool aid.

Staying anonymous on the web is a full time job. But I must say that using my work laptop 99.999% of the time sure does keep me on the straight and narrow, most of the time.

This article on the power and reach of google is pretty good - Google Knows All

Google has tentacles everywhere and the information they collect can all be tied together - Google Search, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Analytics (used on TFF and millions of other websites), Adsense (ads on millions of websites), Android, ...... Now they are finally going to be a little more open about the fact that they cross-reference and use the data, but I'm sure they've been doing this for years. They're probably worried about getting caught breaking their own privacy policies.

Kind of scarey if you think about it.