Posted on 05/13/2015 1:18:43 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Google probably knows more about you than your mother, your partner, your boss... but chances are that you have no idea of just how much it knows.
Fortunately, there's an easy way to open your eyes to the scale of just what the world's most popular search engine knows about you, your interests and your peccadillos.
You may find yourself squirming when you realise Google never forgets what you've been typing into its search engine over the years, but, at least afterwards, you'll be able to do something about it.
First things first, take a deep breath and visit: https://history.google.com/history/
Chances are you will see one of two things.
The first possibility is that you might see what I saw when I tried it — a screen telling me that I had disabled web history and had specifically forbidden Google from collecting my search results.
That was a relief, I can tell you.
But what you're more likely to see is something like this:
In the case of the anonymous guinea pig who graciously allowed me to screen capture their web searching history, I would have been able to trawl back through over five years worth of web searches, learning about their medical complaints, old school friends they were curious about/stalking, and perhaps even their taste in porn.
(Excerpt) Read more at intego.com ...
I got a screen asking me to sign in with or create a Google account. That seemed counter productive so I just closed out.
How else did folks think it was able to be so predictive to do things like tell me how much time to home?
Nothing new here or anything to worry about, if you don’t want all the convenience don’t use the product.
Your ISP knows a lot more than Google.
Also, dump your free gmail/yahoo email accounts. Fifty bucks a year will purchase a secure email account. No tracking, no spam...no nothing you do not want there.
Dump your smart phone...just one more way for entities to track your Internet/phone/physical location.
Go to the ATM...withdrawal cash. Use it for day to day transactions.
Stay off the toll roads unless absolutely necessary. Federal, state and local governments are rapidly installing ALPR’s along toll roads, major arteries. ALPR = Automatic Lic Plate Readers. They know when you've left, when you arrive, what vehicle your driving, who it's registered to.
Dump Facebook. Excellent way for entities...even your employer to keep track of your day to day activities.
Twitter...watch what ya tweet. Could come back to haunt’cha someday.
Newer autos have black boxes. They provide information on YOUR driving habits. Did you buckle up? How fast were you driving? When and where were you speeding...school zone perhaps? GPS capabilities being incorporated into these black boxes. Get into an accident...don't fib, they'll prove you wrong in a court of law.
Just sayin.
I use Epic.
This is one of the reasons I posted this article. . . to bring this kind of information forward for those who are still using Google's search engine and exposing their entire lives to scrutiny. For Google, you are not the customer, you are the product they sell. . . and you can break that sick symbiosis. . . or is it parasitism?
If you let them that is.
I regard Google as another evil tech corporation.
“How else did folks think it was able to be so predictive to do things like tell me how much time to home?”
Or all of the ads that keep coming up for sunglasses. (I wish it was smart enough to know I already bought the pair I had been searching for!)
Another, perhaps bigger thing. We don’t truly have “freedom” in our internet searches. They point you towards relevant articles based on your previous searches, so it has already made up its “mind” on what it is going to tell you.
Some guy tried it out. He did a search on something (say “China”) and it came back with all sorts of political stuff, Nixon trips, etc. He did a search using his girlfriend’s computer and it came back with cultural and anthropology stuff.
Of course doing a more specific search might be better. Like “China sex tours for midgets”.
Bookmark
n one month Obama will silence us all for good by taking over the Internet:
Obama and the FCC will shut down Drudge and freerepublic, and the Internet. I can’t believe even on this site people don’t seem to know or care what Obama is going to do to the Internet:
“FCC Commissioner: Feds May Come for Drudge [Isaiah 29]”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3286140/posts
“(Soros strikes again!)FCC Cites Soros-Funded Marxist Group 46 Times in Regs (internet takeover) “
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3267247/posts
I’m a medical transcriptionist and mostly just use Google for work to look up and verify the names and sizes of the new cardiac and orthopedic implants, catheters, tubes, drains and new drugs that are not in any of my Stedman’s word books among other medical terminology. Much of my job entails having to verifying things. Just because a doctor spells out the name of a surgical instrument or a new drug doesn’t mean it is the correct spelling. I laugh because Google must think I’m a hypochondriac.
https://ixquick.com/
“the world’s most private search engine”
Yes. One word of caution. If you use it to access your online banking, the bank may see it as unusual access to your account and lock you out. Been there, done that.
I had no history on Google.
Using the word “know” is a stretch. It’s a set of programs and data. It doesn’t “know” anything. Humans know. Computers store data that is used by humans.
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