Google Admits It Will Track Everything Its Users Do, No Opt Out
January 25th, 2012In other words, Google now admits doing things that Cryptogon readers have known it has been doing for about a decade: Tracking everything.
Via: Washington Post:
Google said Tuesday it will follow the activities of users across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.
The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes.
The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users, who are required to log in to Google accounts when they activate their phones.
Posted in Covert Operations, Dictatorship, Economy, Elite, Rise of the Machines, Surveillance, Technology | Top Of Page
for whatever it’s worth, there’s always Googleshare…
http://googlesharing.net/index.html
“GoogleSharing is a special kind of anonymizing proxy service, designed for a very specific threat. It ultimately aims to provide a level of anonymity that will prevent Google from tracking your searches, movements, and what websites you visit. GoogleSharing is not a full proxy service designed to anonymize all your traffic, but rather something designed exclusively for your communication with Google. Our system is totally transparent, with no special “alternative” websites to visit. Your normal work flow should be exactly the same.”
Yeppers, I just read that and the first thing I did was deleted my real google account, and bookmarked startpage.com. If forced to use google or youtube, it will be through a sock puppet. They can still easily trace user activity though ip address and browser characteristics, but still it will make them work a little harder for their money.
If startpage and tor are really just honeypots, I guess the joke will be on me. My guess is startpage is not a honeypot, and tor (especially onion space) probably is. Of course if either gets too popular or can’t be infiltrated, they will be exterminated just like megaupload.
Anyone have any secure options to the Iphone/Ipad or Android phone/pad devices?
I don’t like the idea of the “cloud” owning or accessing my data. I’ve been using a Truecrypt usb thumb drive for years but I need more usability on the go.
Just to mention some other privacy tools… Ghostery seems to do a decent job of rubbing out GoogleAnalytics. I also recently switched to using either duckduckgo.com or ixquick.com for web searches.
I think that about all you can do with a stock iOs device is use a VPN connection or a proxy for some degree of anonymity; paradoxically, the panopticlick project at eff.org suggests that iOs type devices have decent anonymity due to the fact that there are very few configuration options for the browsers – they all look alike. So if you can mix your requests into a stream where many other packets are being sent, you might end up with decent anonymity.
So much for don’t be evil.
You want privacy?
Stay the f**k away from all Net-connected electronic devices of ANY type, including refrigerators and microwave ovens.
Modern technology is a Faustian bargain if ever there was, and when you choose to “opt-in” for your own set of reasons (work, pleasure, piracy, research, whatever) you surrender your privacy.
Period.
Obfuscation will make it a little harder to nail you down under specific circumstances, but for the most part you can (and will) be monitored if you provide the appropriate set of imperatives (keywords, affiliations, et al.) to the growing network of automated systems responsible for ferreting out “terrorists” from the chatter.
Sorry.