Sep 04 2010

it’s not that I’m anti google

I’m just pro privacy. And google just happens to be one of the worst offendors when it comes to breaches of my privacy. El Reg yesterday ran an article pointing to the consumerwatchdog.org ad depicting Eric Schmidt as a “privacy pervert”. Deliciously, that ad is hosted on youtube.

But consumerwatchdog have long campaigned about google’s attempts to trample on users’ privacy. The video below shows how google’s chrome browser fails to protect the user’s privacy even when “incognito mode” is used. Incidentally, the video also shows how google’s javascript based, supposedly helpful, “stem searching” capability during searches effectively adds a keystroke sniffer to your PC. Note that this capability is not specific to chrome, it happens whatever browser you use when you use google’s search engine.

Be careful out there.

Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2010/09/04/its-not-that-im-anti-google/

2 comments

  1. This article from May 2009 based on a tip-off that Microsoft was funding CW.org to attack Google is interesting:

    Summary: A look beneath the surface reveals that ConsumerWatchdog.org is “the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights”, which is affiliated with/derived from Grassroots Enterprise, a Washington/SF-based AstroTurfer for hire

    Their comparison on how CW.org spins Microsoft versus how they spin Google is interesting. Likewise this Wired post is amusing:

    The reason you have to opt out of Google ads or any ad network in each browser you use is BECAUSE you don’t have a single identifiable identity. You’d have to get a single online identity, and log in with it every time, in order for a Do Not Track list to work. I care about privacy, sometimes too much, and I think that’s the dumbest thing anyone could possibly suggest would help.

    Of course if everyone had a live.com identity then it would be easy! ;-)

    • Mick on 2010/09/05 at 8:21 pm
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    Chris

    Thanks for that. I like the references. Sure consumerwatchdog is a lobby group. Also sure it is funded by corporates (of which MS may be a major player) but, given the poke it takes at google, that doesn’t surprise me at all.

    I like this from the wired article you reference:

    If you don’t want people to know what you are searching for, take some basic steps to shield them. Try DuckDuckGo for instance. Get Abine. Use the incognito function of your browser. Install Tor. Buy a VPN. Turn Web History off and don’t use that damn Google toolbar.

    Mick

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