Extricating Yourself From Google's Tentacles

[Delancey]

Seriously, they didn't leak anything smart people didn't already know. Maybe they're going after the dumb ones or the lone-wolfs. Assuming otherwise is as naive as assuming the data collection wasn't happening in the first place.

[IdoraKeeper]

All the snooping and selling of data is beginning to level out. There are limits to any business model. When there are too many ads folks stay away. Unless we regain net neutrality in the USA it will soon be too expensive for most people or small companies to use the net the way we have been anyway. If your not a crook you can just use the services as long as they are available and stop using them when they have compromised utility.
The real problems originate in dishonest data collection..... All those apps that came preloaded on your phone? All collecting and "updating" your data even when you never, ever, open them? That's a big issue and should be stopped. The biggest problem starts with the phone company and their tactics. Google is useful, phone apps that cannot be removed......not so much.
My.02

[zeehag]

lol..when i started my yoo toob account i was pissed off and i used the worst name i could think of and an appropriate for it password....which i immediately forgot..lol
and sooo. many years later i look for stufff online in you tube and lo and behold, it has signed me into a different computer..i had used up 3 between making account in my hewlett packard puter in 2005, and searching in 2012..lol..and using that name i created then.... it still welcomes me under that name....and i cannot change it.....

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by zeehag

lol..when i started my yoo toob account i was pissed off and i used the worst name i could think of and an appropriate for it password

You mean other than Zeehag?...

[poiu]

Google's information gathering obsession is a big part of it. There are messages on Usenet I posted in 1995 that are still there showing my name and address. There forever. Screwed.

It is getting worse. Now Apple have a colossal database of global credit cards and buying and browsing patterns with your physical location at any time. Amazon and EBay know bucket loads as does your ISP. All this is accessible by the authorities.

In the UK info is available about vehicle movements from the NPR network. Need a criminal stopping, get your friendly cop to access the system with a warrant and in literally minutes that person will be arrested. Seen it happen. Chilling.

An issue I recently learnt about is "browser fingerprinting" couple this with any login including on CF and your life can be tracked between cooperating websites. Check out: https://panopticlick.eff.org/. Very, very hard to be anonymous. Tor project and vpn's are good defences as are pseudonyms. Perversely using these strategies make you more identifiable and make you look suspicious. Between a rock and a hard place...

[Lake-Effect]

I've been in the web/internet business for 16 years now, on the programming side, and often working on large-scale consumer-facing initiatives.

Yes I have concerns about what's being collected by private companies, and Google is for sure leading the pack... but i don't particularly fear Google. They're innovators and trailblazers, and they are actively developing the infrastructure and processes that the futurists predicted.

And Google won't throw you in jail, or cancel your passport, or put you on a no-fly list, or board your boat a few times a month.

With regards to privacy, it's the government you have to fear:
- no-fly lists that are near impossible to get off of
- several different agencies with little better to do than board pleasure vessels
- extra-legal gulags for imprisoning and torturing people, though they signed treaties saying they would not do that very thing
- getting scanned/fondled every time you fly
- unknown levels of warrantless surveillance, data collection and analysis. Minority Report, already. (Snowden deserves a medal)
- treaties negotiated in secret
- governments not so secretly in the control of corporate interests
- NSA, anyone?

And remember that, in addition to their own spying, the governments can grab and use all the data collected by commercial companies like Google etc.

Colour me naive, but I think that only something the size of Google is in any way able to resist government demands for data access; smaller companies would have little choice but to roll over.

Amazon, Google, etc - they can collect enough data to annoy me. Only governments can hurt or imprison me.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, it pisses me off. I have had to undo Google Chrome a couple of times. Still using old Google. But as said, it's the way of the world. I get ads on this forum for things I looked at on line recently...hmm... helluva coincidence. Even worse is your Iphone... not only tracks where you are (address locations etc) but what you look for too. I guess you either have to accept it all or stay unconnected. I often use wrong names and never use my real birthday etc.
it amazes me that so many got up in arms over the NSA collecting phone numbers (not coversations) but everyone loves their far more intrusive Iphone.... haha. My flip phone is working fine!

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yeah, it pisses me off. I have had to undo Google Chrome a couple of times. Still using old Google. But as said, it's the way of the world. I get ads on this forum for things I looked at on line recently...hmm... helluva coincidence. Even worse is your Iphone... not only tracks where you are (address locations etc) but what you look for too. I guess you either have to accept it all or stay unconnected. I often use wrong names and never use my real birthday etc.
it amazes me that so many got up in arms over the NSA collecting phone numbers (not coversations) but everyone loves their far more intrusive Iphone.... haha. My flip phone is working fine!

If you've signed in with Google/Chrome you can go to Ads Settings and turn off the 'Interest based ads'. At least you won't be bombarded with marina ads...

[Delancey]

"We're all in this together" - Archibald 'Harry" Tuttle

Brazil (3/10) Movie CLIP - Harry Tuttle, Heating Engineer (1985) HD - YouTube

Terry Gilliam's Movie Brazil - Plumbers' Nasty End - YouTube

Courtesy of Youtube.

[Cheechako]

It just seems some smart legal eagle out there could come up with a way for each of us to copyright our personal info as intellectual property. Then they would have to pay us to resend the info anywhere. we would be owed $ for any use of it. I mean let's face it, Lady Gaga's name is copyrighted.... that would put a stop to it!
I'd love to see the jury trial; Google against John Doe. Google stole JD's property. They have hugely deep pockets. The Jury of your peers hates being invaded.... I think Google would loose.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

It just seems some smart legal eagle out there could come up with a way for each of us to copyright our personal info as intellectual property. Then they would have to pay us to resend the info anywhere. we would be owed $ for any use of it. I mean let's face it, Lady Gaga's name is copyrighted....

Kind of a silly idea.

First:

Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga


[... waits for bill... nothing. I bet you didn't get a bill either]

Secondly, The US needs less lawsuits, not more. Example A - Malpractice insurance is a significant contributor to the cost of healthcare in the US.

[IdoraKeeper]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

It just seems some smart legal eagle out there could come up with a way for each of us to copyright our personal info as intellectual property. Then they would have to pay us to resend the info anywhere. we would be owed $ for any use of it. I mean let's face it, Lady Gaga's name is copyrighted.... that would put a stop to it!
I'd love to see the jury trial; Google against John Doe. Google stole JD's property. They have hugely deep pockets. The Jury of your peers hates being invaded.... I think Google would loose.

You have hit the nail on the head.......now if we could only stop Lady Gaga…

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

You have hit the nail on the head.......now if we could only stop Lady Gaga…

Lady Gaga is sooo last year.
The current mess is Miley Cyrus.

[Dsanduril]

An interesting (and scary) topic. How about we take it back to sailing? How many cruisers use Yotreps or Winlink? Now I can go to Shiptrak and get 10 year old position reports. Maybe Customs takes a look at those when I check in? How close to Cuba was I? Is there a hole in the data near there?

Then the new versions, SPOT, DeLorme, ... We use those in the name of safety, or keeping our friends up to date (see Boaty's delivery thread), but it all goes into the same big data pile and could be used for other reasons. We go cruising to get away from these things, and then still want to know where to find the free wifi, best bullet antenna, ....

[forsailbyowner]

Duck duck go does not track your browsing history. Im with go linux. You never know what is being included with your software with microsoft. Linux doesnt require antispyware and virus protection because they dont work with linux. That is as long as you download programs from trusted repositories. The software in the repositories has been gone over and over to receive the trusted status and the software is open source so it can be examined by peer programmers and must be to be included in the trusted repositories. With windows just opening an email can open your operating system up to all kinds of intrusive crap. in linux if you ever try to open anything and it asks for your sudo password, dont do it.