Be warned...Google is stalking you, more than ever.

How dare people protest the government wasting the money and assets they've stolen from us, and using it for nefarious purposes.

It doesn't matter what I'm doing. Its a matter of personal privacy.

What is creepy is that they are spying on you without you ever knowing it. Imagine a camera on in your home as you go about your business, with someone recording and writing down all your habits. Thats precisely that Google wants to do with your online life too.

It may be fine with you, but I'd like to be left alone when I want to be. and I shouldn't have to ask for permission to do that. In fact it should be the other way round, they should ask for permission to snoop on me.

I use ghostery and am currently blocking google adsense, google analytics and vibrant ads on Lerts run.

I use ghostery and am currently blocking google adsense, google analytics and vibrant ads on Lerts run.

i think it's a bad trend, but i don't really care. i'm trying to figure out what to do before i die. google doesn't matter in the big picture

Things like this make me wonder in 25-30 years when most of the candidates for major public office are members of Generation Y who have used the internet almost their entire lives will there ever be a campaign cycle that goes by without a large number of scandals relating to candidates online activity whether it's related to something they posted on Facebook or Twitter or maybe something in their internet history. While this information is supposedly private, I'm sure it could be obtained with a little digging. The era of people actually having skeletons in their closet is over. Those skeletons are going to be out in the open for everyone to see.

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We're becoming The Real BORG!!!!! You all laugh at this idea but I'm telling you that's exactly where we are all headed! Everything you frick'in Do, Think and Say is going to be watched and monitored by some voyeuristic freak or some maleficent program that target markets you as a prospective receptacle for their profit or selfish agenda! Look at how much time we are spending online now, becoming completely codependent on the Internet for everything we do in our lives. If your over 35 you know exactly what I mean because you were around before all this ciber-culture started!

There definitely seems to be an ever increasing reciprocal relationship between the amount of public information we have access to and the control on the amount of personal freedom, we are allowed to continue to have!

Leviathan is in the machine!!!

So, all those porn sites you've been visiting over the years are going to come back on you big time fool!!! The film "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith is not really far off!

I'm a registered google user, but that means I always have the option of not signing in. When you don't sign in but instead just go to google and search for something, google can't track you. They can, theoretically, track your IP address, but that is NOT the same thing as tracking YOU.

In other words, if I don't sign in and if I use Google from various IP addresses--work, home, wireless connections in Starbucks, etc.--they are NOT collecting all this information about ME. They're only able to do that when I sign in from one or more of those different IP addresses.

What's insidious, though, is that the various social media are now frequently linked: google and Youtube, for example. So if I sign in to YouTube, look at a few videos, then go to google and search for something, THAT is when every more I make is being tracked, and associated with my name.

Just remain conscious and, before you use google, make sure that you're not signed in. They can't track you then--at least not in a way that associates your purchases, likes, etc., with your name.

If anybody thinks I'm wrong about this, please clarify.

Actually, I'm of two minds about my claim above. Here's the relevant part of the article:

"Google can collect information about users when they activate an Android mobile phone, sign into their accounts online or enter search terms. It can also store cookies on people’s computers to see which Web sites they visit or use its popular maps program to estimate their location."

I was speaking to the former idea: signing into your account. But the cookies thing changes everything: google can place cookies on my computer during any signed-in search I make, and those cookies will remain there, associated with my computer, my name, and my choices, even when I make future searches while NOT signed in.

Hmmm.

It sounds as though I SHOULD be very afraid.

I use Google Adwords. I just went into the preferences of Firefox and told it to stop accepting cookies from AdWords and google per se. Then I tried to sign in to AdWords. I got an error message saying something like "Your browser does not accept cookies. Please enable cookies."

Google is evil. Pure and simple.

They're watching your every move.

I urge all who read this and who don't have any "official" (gmail, adwords, etc.) account with Google to try setting your browswer preferences to it doesn't accept cookies from Google. then try using google to search. Does it work? If it does, I believe you're completely safe running any sort of search. You won't and can't be tracked.

Victory! Yes, that works. I just signed out of Google, then specified under my Firefox preferences that cookies would not be accepted from google.com

Then I went to google and ran a search for the phrase "google is evil." And it worked.

That's the way to go, folks. You can safely use google for anonymous, non-trackable-to-your-IP-and-name searches, as long as you're signed out of all your accounts.

Of course, when I try now to sign in to AdWords, I'll get an error message. And I'll have to allow google.com to install cookies.

The only way around that is to neither have nor use ANY accounts associated with google. That includes YouTube.

themanontherun wrote:

It's a private company. Nobody is forcing you to use their services. Decide as a consumer whether or not what they do is worth your privacy.

^this

you all act like google is invading your privacy. you're choosing to use it.

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

What is creepy is that they are spying on you without you ever knowing it.

But you DO know it. Just like when you leave your house you know the satellites can track you or surveillance cams got you. Make a phone call...there's a record of that. Watch a television program...cable company knows.

It's the 21st century. Big Brother is watching...all the time.

Cookies are not the only way to ID a device, for the record. Tip 1: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/speed/quick/

Big BoyZ wrote:

It's the 21st century. Big Brother is watching...all the time.

This may be true but consider that "Big Brother" is also watching everyone else all the time too. The sheer volume of digital data from audio, video, gps, internet tracking, etc is incredibly huge and managing all of this data is computationally prohibitive. Unless you are personally targeted, there is not much to worry about.

Stuck with LetsRun.com wrote:

Unless you are personally targeted, there is not much to worry about.

Good God, man, how stupid are you? "Unless you are personally targeted"? That is the whole point.

You, me, or anyone could become targeted by any number of organizations or individuals at a time and for a purpose that is not of our choosing. This gives those who may, for whatever reason, choose to target someone a very powerful tool at their disposal.

This guy has a marginally interesting perspective on it (from a few months ago though)

http://www.ozoneshack.com/2011/07/3rd-millennium-where-big-brother-doesnt.html

What is more fun is to generate random, but, extensive searches. Just because people track your habits doesn't mean that you have to direct in everything you do. I occasionally search for things of no interest to me over several days/weeks just to skew the results. If you use the web enough, statistics make it obvious what you are into, when, how, why, where. What cracks me up is how people think Connect, and the like, are just innocent little toys. You are being profiled people, and, it's not just web movement patterns. Look at technologies like Cataphora. Through the application of linguistics to forensic chains, intent can be calculated, and, based on simple communication chains, used to prosecute you. This is just one area of active research. Why people assume things like iPhone, Connect, xBox, Facebook and these free bandwagon vehicles are not being used against them is beyond me. The only way you are not tracked is if you have no electronic life, don't use a car, never buy food from a chain store and avoid major cities. Even then, unless you were born and your parents never reported you, you are a statistic somewhere.

Groundskeeper Willie wrote:

Consider This wrote:

As it is, what are they going to do, show me targeted advertisements?

exactly!

I guess they'll be showing me more porn.