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redfox
2-22-12, 11:45pm
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/how-remove-your-google-search-history-googles-new-privacy-policy-takes-effect
herbgeek
2-23-12, 6:40am
I updated all my google privacy settings, and no longer am using google as my primary search engine, since they'll be sharing all of this data with advertisers. Sad, I like their products, but am so annoyed at this "convenience" they are touting is for my benefit.
Rosemary
2-23-12, 7:32am
I also quit using google as primary search engine, despite my history now being 'paused.' I painstakingly went through every setting for my account, and am not using that as my primary email, either.
leslieann
2-23-12, 8:08am
Thank you. Done.

Now I wonder about using the email. I know it isn't secure but I use it for my business and I wonder if that's okay for my clients....I hate having to think about this stuff....
peggy
2-23-12, 9:19am
Sorry if this is an ignorant question. I don't have a google 'account' like e-mail or anything. I just use google to search for web sites and images and such. Does this affect me?
herbgeek
2-23-12, 9:55am
Peggy, you might be using other Google products and not be aware of it. Like Youtube for instance or Blogger or Picasa. This also applies to the Chrome browser. What google is doing is sharing all the information it gathers about you with its advertisers, so they can target ads to you better. As of March 1, they will be sharing the information across all of their sites and products (and likely doing some analytics as well).
razz
2-23-12, 9:58am
Thanks, done.
Bastelmutti
2-23-12, 10:10am
Hmm, I have a paid Gmail business account, and when I go to that page, it says this feature is not available. I wonder if that means I can't turn it off or if it isn't being used for my account.
Spartana
2-23-12, 1:30pm
Peggy, you might be using other Google products and not be aware of it. Like Youtube for instance or Blogger or Picasa. This also applies to the Chrome browser. What google is doing is sharing all the information it gathers about you with its advertisers, so they can target ads to you better. As of March 1, they will be sharing the information across all of their sites and products (and likely doing some analytics as well).

I'm like Peggy and don't use google for anything other then occasional web searchs so would this effect me? How would they know who I am and how to target me if I delete my browsing history and cookies everytime I log off? Or more often when I'm surfing.
Alan
2-23-12, 1:36pm
I'm like Peggy and don't use google for anything other then occasional web searchs so would this effect me? How would they know who I am and how to target me if I delete my browsing history and cookies everytime I log off? Or more often when I'm surfing.
They wouldn't!
peggy
2-23-12, 4:40pm
OK, thanks. I don't think I'm going to worry about this. One, I'm pretty anonymous on the web, and two, who cares if they target advertising to me! They still can't make me buy!
loosechickens
2-23-12, 9:32pm
I am the Queen of Google, and couldn't live a day without it. They will have SOME fun trying to figure out how to market to me, because between doing tasks on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, which leads me into doing Google searches for some pretty esoteric stuff, plus having a very curious mind that follows links from one place to another obsessively on a huge variety of subjects, good luck to them.

I worry more about the NSA, hahahaha.....so every time I go to Al Jazeera, I also go to Fox News website, just to confuse them, hahahaha....(only half kidding).

I look at the internet as having no privacy at all. I realize that, I understand it, and I truly don't worry about it. There may come a day, especially if the right wing fundamentalists take over the world, that somebody might show up to my door and the jig would be up, but I'm old already, so what the heck........
lhamo
2-24-12, 7:59am
I live in China and given my academic and professional background (in which I spent a lot of time working in some very high altitude places and now work on USG-funded programs) pretty much assume every keystroke is being logged by someone somewhere. Google probably bought my file from the Public Security Bureau long ago. I don't buy enough random stuff to make targeting me worthwhile.

(waving to the spooks)

lhamo
Spartana
2-25-12, 1:39pm
(waving to the spooks)

lhamo

But are the spooks waving back - they aren't casper the friendly ghost ya know :-)! Well, when you get hauled off to China's equivilant of Siberia (Outer Mongolia?) for being a disruptive foriegner, we'll be thinking of you :-)!
catherine
2-25-12, 1:49pm
I am the Queen of Google, and couldn't live a day without it. They will have SOME fun trying to figure out how to market to me, because between doing tasks on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, which leads me into doing Google searches for some pretty esoteric stuff, plus having a very curious mind that follows links from one place to another obsessively on a huge variety of subjects, good luck to them.

I worry more about the NSA, hahahaha.....so every time I go to Al Jazeera, I also go to Fox News website, just to confuse them, hahahaha....(only half kidding).

I look at the internet as having no privacy at all. I realize that, I understand it, and I truly don't worry about it. There may come a day, especially if the right wing fundamentalists take over the world, that somebody might show up to my door and the jig would be up, but I'm old already, so what the heck........

I'm with you, LC. I think about google searches the same way I do about email. If I wouldn't want my email or google searches known to the world, I simply don't email/search.

I don't like the fact that in this day and age there is no such thing as a private life if you are keyed into technology, but on the other hand, I'm not willing to give up the technology.


But, redfox, thanks so much for posting this information--it's really important for people to know.
loosechickens
2-25-12, 2:51pm
yeah, with me, at least, they'll probably be surprised at no visitations to porn sites, but lots of stuff like investigating the burial practices in the Bronze age in present day Siberia and other weird things.......

I just look at it as a cost of doing business, and just accept that nothing I do online is private. And behave accordingly. What you see is what you get......in person, AND online.
mamalatte
2-25-12, 7:13pm
I'm curious what are the alternative search engines, and are there any that don't collect your info just like Google does? Isn't that essentially how they make money? Is Google considered "worse" because they have numerous products and cross-reference the info?

I remember using Alta Vista but stopped using it once Google came along . . .
pinkytoe
2-25-12, 7:22pm
DH, the ever paranoid conspiracy theory guy, uses startpage.com
shadowmoss
2-27-12, 4:22pm
I use dogpile.com, which searches several search engines and compiles them. I'm hoping that I'm a tad disguised that way as well.
Alan
2-27-12, 4:35pm
If anyone want's to get paranoid about people watching their internet habits, I'd start with Amazon. They send me emails every time my wife searches for something, helpfully showing me other similar items I may find of interest.

She sometimes uses my email address when signing up for things since she doesn't like getting un-solicited emails, not considering the fact that I now know her every move. :laff:

I'd have to say that compared to Amazon, Google's a piker.
redfox
2-27-12, 5:53pm
Oh, my, Alan! I have a junk email inbox for just those kinds of communications, and I ignore what comes in.