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Thread: Time to stop using Google?

  1. #1

    Exclamation Time to stop using Google?

    Is it time to stop using Google?

    I've always been a devoted "Googler" from the very first time I used their search engine a few years ago. However, after reading this article I've decided to start exploring other optinos. I've found two decent engines: iXquick and perhaps this other one, Clusty. Google did refuse to hand over information to the government earlier this year but I don't like the idea of them storing that much of my personal data.
    :

  2. #2
    T3h Ch3F
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    Re: Time to stop using Google?

    Originally posted here by JerrySmith[MvP]
    Is it time to stop using Google?

    I've always been a devoted "Googler" from the very first time I used their search engine a few years ago. However, after reading this article I've decided to start exploring other optinos. I've found two decent engines: iXquick and perhaps this other one, Clusty. Google did refuse to hand over information to the government earlier this year but I don't like the idea of them storing that much of my personal data.
    Greetings JerrySmith[MvP] they all still collect your personal info. Whether or not they "delete" your IP. within a specified timeframe.

    It is still up to them what they do with it.

    From iXquick's privacy statement.

    Ixquick collects limited information each time you visit our site, so we can improve the overall quality of your online experience. We collect referral data, your IP address and browser and platform type, and register the date and time you visited the Ixquick.com site, your search terms, and the links upon which you choose to click. Like most standard Web site servers, we use log files to collect and store anonymous user information.
    The use of the word "Limited" is nothing new. They still have your info. I don't see how they would be less likely than Google to divulge it.



    Edit- BTW welcome to AO!!!
    Get some good religion from Bad Religion.

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    Re: Time to stop using Google?

    Originally posted here by JerrySmith[MvP]
    Is it time to stop using Google?

    I've always been a devoted "Googler" from the very first time I used their search engine a few years ago. However, after reading this article I've decided to start exploring other optinos. I've found two decent engines: iXquick and perhaps this other one, Clusty. Google did refuse to hand over information to the government earlier this year but I don't like the idea of them storing that much of my personal data.
    By saying you've found two decent search engines... what you mean is you've taken two from the article you linked to... and you probably haven't even tried them... unless you wrote the article and are spamming yourself... but I find that doubtful... Neither of those sites compare to google... I did a search for "Computer Defense"... on site had 13 million results, the other 33... google had 150 million.. Now you may say "no one looks at more than the first hundred"... I've looked into 2000+ for certain searches.. .to which you'll say "even so they all cover that many" To which I'd say they have "varing" degrees of decent results... and I don't think they compare to google's results... Although ixquick.com somewhat does because I'm pretty sure they actually search through google... For all we know they could be using the Google API key and running a search.

    As for privacy... it really doesn't exist on the internet... From your single post, in under 5 minutes, I found blog postings by you, your ebay account, your favourite radio station... had I looked deeper based on those results I'm sure I could have found a great deal more... You can do the same for me and then some..

    Something you might enjoy reading is http://www.lifehacker.com/software/t...ail-187113.php

    I don't see google as that big of a concern in my life...

    Especially when I watch someone walk around with their bank card, credit card, health card, drivers license, SSN/SIN, Birth Certificate and Car insurance paperwork in their wallet... Or women who carry all of the above + bank book, checkbook, passport and phone-number/address book... (With their pin numbers written on the front-page)... oh yeah.. and pictures of the family...

    With the number of purse snatchings and pick pocketings that occur daily... it's more likely that crucial personal information will be stolen that way..

    If you want to sit and search for Child Porn, How to best assassinate the president, 101 illegal things to do for fun, how to dispose of a dead body or whatever else you have in mind... that's your business... but if the government goes after Google for that personal data... I say let them... Who cares that Google has the data.... the question of "Why were you making those searches" is a better question to answer... If you have a legit answer for that... it doesn't affect you in the end.. but if you don't.. you may be in trouble.. and rightfully so...

    My searches are all legal... I'm seldom looking online for instructions to make a nuclear weapon... so I have nothing to worry about.

    Peace,
    HT

  4. #4
    Greetings!

    I always consider it as given that my searches using not just Google but even other search engines gets recorded and monitored somewhere in the WWW. I have no qualms about these since I access only sites that allow themselves to be accessed, download only those that are downloadable... and all. PLUS, I never do any online purchase.

    Let them build my profile to their hearts' content... that profile is of no use, even for identity theft.

    Cheers!
    Si vis pacem, para bellum!

  5. #5
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    What do you think using another site which seraches in google for you and displays the results as google does with a rating on how well is the site in spreading viruses or good enough not to infect their visitor's PCs and afterall what category they belong to??? This is a very good site which does exactly that : www.scandoo.com .... exactly speaking my homepage. I usually search on DOS attcaks, breaking into systems, modifying drivers and all...and usually without opening scanddo....i.e. right on the goole website. But does that really matter??? If I take my case, I think there might be a lot of people maight be in millions who would be entering this quesries somewhere on google DAILY??? Who will go through those results?? Ok IP ranges right??? Does making a search prove that I have commited a crime??? [WELL I DO NOT DEAL WITH REAL WORLD CRIMES AND MOST SERACHES ARE JUST FOR THE OJNLINE ACTIVITIES]. But then I have a reason to do so. And does it really make a concern ?? and even when I say that a crime needs to be PROVED??? Its not that easy that that get feared out of these things. But people start thinking like that ...... well to some extent I think everyone is a criminal or why would one get feared up of getting caught???? LOL!!

    ANyway I already know what google does with my data. I use my REAL world address in google accont and am sincerely logged into google everytime I search....so it would be easier for them to get at me. Bue does it really mean what you search is read by GOVERNMENT??? Who will read the millions of words fed into that searchbox every hour??? Filtering aint a solution because it will reduce it to a max to 1/10 of a milloin. Is tht data still interpretable by human brain in short time??? IP range will reduce it hundred times and we get some thousands of words and then you divide the TYPE of searches...and you reach to me. BUT did I really commit that crime??? And who thinks a criminal is so childish to reveal his IP on the crim scene???

    Well that was about serching for online security ( or call it criminal from government's perspective) . Now if you really like google that much that you dont care to use a proxy anf still search for making nuclear bombs, I think you might land into trouble.

    And I think its good that the companies do collect the data. Because sometimes it becomes important to know who afterall was trying to get the data about airport security for hijacking.

    And do you think other sites dont collect data from you???? WEll...they do of couse...as Ht has pointed out from the privacy statement of that another site.

    I dont think it is much of a concern untill you try to insert some string which is a probable try to get some hidden data from google...or that you go on typing the searches one after another...so that your FREQUNCY of searches reveals almost everyhing about you.

    PEACE.
    "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

    - Albert Einstein

  6. #6
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    I use a variety of search engines...because they all seem to have a quality that is particular to one and not the others...

    Google is the best when you don't really know what you're looking for but have a general idea...
    MSN I find brings truer results if you DO know what you're looking for...
    Icerocket is the best if you're looking for anything to do with Blogs...
    Yahoo is generally better at finding solutions to problems if you have a specific question..so instead of ' google it ' it should really be ' yahoo it '

    so...to limit yourself to one search engine is ridiculous in my opinion...because there still isn't a best search engine out there for everything...different search engines provide different results in different areas...

    you should be using each one at their strengths..not for everything.

    Eg

  7. #7
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    maybe I have just read 1984 one too many times... but I figure, the less the government is prying into my privacy, the better... Sure, I am not searching for kiddie porn or weapons of mass destruction, but with the state of things [at least in the US] with all of the paranoia over the 'gal derned terrorists' who knows what kind of search could send up a red flag... I am really sick of the argument 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' ... how long before that is not true? maybe I am just being paranoid... but... in the words of a great philosopher [ok so he was a heroin addict... much the same ] "just because you're paranoid, don't mean their not after you" ...
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  8. #8
    Dissident 4dm1n brokencrow's Avatar
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    ...they all still collect your personal info.
    Even when you're using an avatar? Or you're on someone else's computer on someone else's network? LOL.

    As for privacy... it really doesn't exist on the internet...
    Then why is the internet the fastest growing crime scene? Because you CAN get away. The criminal infrastructure on the internet is vast and growing. Here's just one example: click here . Privacy is a key element (among others) to internet crime, just as it is for other crimes.

    There is no privacy if you're a sitting duck. Sometimes obscurity is security.
    “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” — Will Rogers

  9. #9
    AO übergeek phishphreek's Avatar
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    I also use a variety of search sites. However, I've been using Tor a LOT more lately than I use to.

    Here is a neat little doc for your entertainment.

    http://www.freenet.org.nz/misc/google-privacy.html
    Quitmzilla is a firefox extension that gives you stats on how long you have quit smoking, how much money you\'ve saved, how much you haven\'t smoked and recent milestones. Very helpful for people who quit smoking and used to smoke at their computers... Helps out with the urges.

  10. #10
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    Re: Re: Time to stop using Google?

    Originally posted here by HTRegz

    My searches are all legal... I'm seldom looking online for instructions to make a nuclear weapon... so I have nothing to worry about.

    Peace,
    HT
    Why not, exactly? Most mid-level to advanced physics books discuss how anyway

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