9 ms·

What if you object to being tracked, but also realize that no other search engine comes close to matching Google's results?

by ronnoch 15y ago

untog 15y ago
Tough. Google's results are, in part, created from their tracking. If you object to the tracking then you shouldn't use the output of said tracking.
- ronnoch 15y ago
  Why? I doubt it has any negative impact on Google if a tiny fraction of their users go through a proxy, and I'm having trouble thinking of another reason to oppose doing so.
- schiffern 15y ago
  >Tough. It's not my job to look out for Google's interests. "You're the product, not the customer," remember? Why should I concern myself with the quality of Google's product?
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
enneff 15y ago
Use Tor? http://torproject.org/ http://torproject.org/
andrewcooke 15y ago
the disconnect extension http://disconnect.me/ http://disconnect.me/ includes an option to depersonalize searches (which seems to work by killing google's cookies). there's also http://www.googlesharing.net/ http://www.googlesharing.net/ which is an anonymizing proxy service, but i think it's firefox specific. personally, i just stopped using their other services (i tried disconnect, but vaguely remember various issues when otherwise logged in) - as far as i know, they don't track you when you're not logged in (to be more sure i also use ghostery - that, together with disconnect, prevents a lot of tracking).
- greyman 15y ago
  Killing Google's cookies will not make your search anonymous, since you can still be identified by your IP address.
  - pconf 15y ago
    Not just IP address but also browser signature, screen size and resolution, javascript settings and anything else in the HTTP header. See http://browserspy.dk/ http://browserspy.dk/ for details.
  - andrewcooke 15y ago
    yes, i know (and also browser fingerprinting if they really wanted to), but do they do that? as far as i know, they do not (likely for various reasons - bad press, confusion of people behind NATs, etc). [i mean, more exactly, that i have heard nothing about them updating personal information with data from searches when not logged in; i am not talking aggregate info like typical searches from geoip locations]
jlarocco 15y ago
I'm not sure that's true, but in any case, being tracked is the price you pay for using Google. The way I see it, there are three options: * Accept it and keep using Google * Use DuckDuckGo, Bing or some other search engine * Struggle to use hacks like Scroogle Tracking users is a key part of Google's business model. If you use their services, they're going to track you and target ads to you. And they're going to keep implementing things like throttling to frustrate sites like Scroogle.

What if you object to being tracked, but also realize that no other search engine comes close to matching Google's results?

by ronnoch 15y ago

What if you object to being tracked, but also realize that no other search engine comes close to matching Google's results?

untog 15y ago

Tough. Google's results are, in part, created from their tracking. If you object to the tracking then you shouldn't use the output of said tracking.

ronnoch 15y ago
Why? I doubt it has any negative impact on Google if a tiny fraction of their users go through a proxy, and I'm having trouble thinking of another reason to oppose doing so.
schiffern 15y ago
>Tough. It's not my job to look out for Google's interests. "You're the product, not the customer," remember? Why should I concern myself with the quality of Google's product?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

enneff 15y ago

Use Tor? http://torproject.org/ http://torproject.org/

andrewcooke 15y ago

the disconnect extension http://disconnect.me/ http://disconnect.me/ includes an option to depersonalize searches (which seems to work by killing google's cookies). there's also http://www.googlesharing.net/ http://www.googlesharing.net/ which is an anonymizing proxy service, but i think it's firefox specific. personally, i just stopped using their other services (i tried disconnect, but vaguely remember various issues when otherwise logged in) - as far as i know, they don't track you when you're not logged in (to be more sure i also use ghostery - that, together with disconnect, prevents a lot of tracking).

greyman 15y ago
Killing Google's cookies will not make your search anonymous, since you can still be identified by your IP address.
- pconf 15y ago
  Not just IP address but also browser signature, screen size and resolution, javascript settings and anything else in the HTTP header. See http://browserspy.dk/ http://browserspy.dk/ for details.
- andrewcooke 15y ago
  yes, i know (and also browser fingerprinting if they really wanted to), but do they do that? as far as i know, they do not (likely for various reasons - bad press, confusion of people behind NATs, etc). [i mean, more exactly, that i have heard nothing about them updating personal information with data from searches when not logged in; i am not talking aggregate info like typical searches from geoip locations]

jlarocco 15y ago

I'm not sure that's true, but in any case, being tracked is the price you pay for using Google. The way I see it, there are three options: * Accept it and keep using Google * Use DuckDuckGo, Bing or some other search engine * Struggle to use hacks like Scroogle Tracking users is a key part of Google's business model. If you use their services, they're going to track you and target ads to you. And they're going to keep implementing things like throttling to frustrate sites like Scroogle.