Escaping from google
category: offtopic [glöplog]
OK, so some hypothetical future dodgy government could indeed investigate me, and end up knowing this account belongs to me. I should therefore avoid any discussion of pretty much anything online... if I'm paranoid.
I'm not though, I'm just looking for some balance. Between trusting a single company with all of my info on the one end, and not putting any info online ever on the other, I'm going for the middle ground and spreading things out a little. Between supporting one giant company with my custom and hosting everything myself, I'll use just a few of the smaller companies that have great products and need more support. And between keeping silent from worrying about dodgy governments and putting all my opinions in a single account with my name, address and phone number attached, I'll spread things around a bit.
I'm not though, I'm just looking for some balance. Between trusting a single company with all of my info on the one end, and not putting any info online ever on the other, I'm going for the middle ground and spreading things out a little. Between supporting one giant company with my custom and hosting everything myself, I'll use just a few of the smaller companies that have great products and need more support. And between keeping silent from worrying about dodgy governments and putting all my opinions in a single account with my name, address and phone number attached, I'll spread things around a bit.
hehe, and your not even putting words in what i wrote. :)
was written even*
if you're in anyway concerned about a possible authoritarian government thing, then I wouldn't waste my time worrying. there is no escaping that on the net as every byte of data goes through a central provider. spreading that data at the output end (among companies like google) will not help one bit. even dynamic IP's can be traced to individual customers at the ISP end indefinitely after their expiry. it's the data retention laws they are trying to force on ISPs that should worry people.
people will call you a paranoid maniac, but it's surly something to consider. there are specialist psychologists who study our very sentence structures, the words we say, our interests, hobbies, people we are affiliated with, etc... and can build scarily accurate social profiles of people - i mean shockingly accurate. with appropriate ISP-side tools, the necessary "profiles" of people could theoretically be reconstructed from your raw ISP data streams. There is no need for Google to hand neatly packaged profiles to authorities. I think governments realize this and that is why they are focusing on ISP legislation a lot more.
an example which you may be able to extrapolate: in the uk not too long ago there was a political scandal of sorts, where the labour government were discovered prioritizing social housing in certain regions to those whose records showed that they had voted for labour in the last elections. consider that critical decision which effects people's daily lives was based on a single item of data. extend that idea and you see there is big potential for sophisticated internet profiling in future. not necessarily buy an overtly brutal authoritarian dictatorship either.
the only solution is to never say or do anything on the internet which you wouldn't want the world to know came from you and that includes your opinions and thoughts. i just find all this fascinating and scary at the same time. history proves that it is only a matter of time before possibilities become reality - regulatory boards will step aside and give up the farce of "protecting our privacy" and it will be a free for all as far as profiling individuals is concerned.
people will call you a paranoid maniac, but it's surly something to consider. there are specialist psychologists who study our very sentence structures, the words we say, our interests, hobbies, people we are affiliated with, etc... and can build scarily accurate social profiles of people - i mean shockingly accurate. with appropriate ISP-side tools, the necessary "profiles" of people could theoretically be reconstructed from your raw ISP data streams. There is no need for Google to hand neatly packaged profiles to authorities. I think governments realize this and that is why they are focusing on ISP legislation a lot more.
an example which you may be able to extrapolate: in the uk not too long ago there was a political scandal of sorts, where the labour government were discovered prioritizing social housing in certain regions to those whose records showed that they had voted for labour in the last elections. consider that critical decision which effects people's daily lives was based on a single item of data. extend that idea and you see there is big potential for sophisticated internet profiling in future. not necessarily buy an overtly brutal authoritarian dictatorship either.
the only solution is to never say or do anything on the internet which you wouldn't want the world to know came from you and that includes your opinions and thoughts. i just find all this fascinating and scary at the same time. history proves that it is only a matter of time before possibilities become reality - regulatory boards will step aside and give up the farce of "protecting our privacy" and it will be a free for all as far as profiling individuals is concerned.
tl;dr
using the internet, that alone guarantees that your privacy is invaded. you see there is an internet service provider in between that keeps track of lot's of stuff about you, if not everything. either it is google or duck duck...
SIE WERDEN DICH FINDEN!!!! HAHAHAHA!
"oohh. ich fuehle mich so hornig!"
Photograph made by Tilman Hornig:
OT: I have an Android phone. I'm fucked anyways. Multiple times. In the ass. It needs a google account but it is simply a fake account so I can use their shit, no syncing, no nothing. Fuck them. Email goes through a different account.
Ah and then Facebook. Don't have it. Don't want it. Don't need it.
Short: Abstinence as the solution sucks, but is really the only thing that might work.
Said that I really, really would like "one account to rule them all", if the above shit wasn't there. I'd even pay for it in exchange for them providing the service and NOT uising my data, but nobody offers that...
OT: I have an Android phone. I'm fucked anyways. Multiple times. In the ass. It needs a google account but it is simply a fake account so I can use their shit, no syncing, no nothing. Fuck them. Email goes through a different account.
Ah and then Facebook. Don't have it. Don't want it. Don't need it.
Short: Abstinence as the solution sucks, but is really the only thing that might work.
Said that I really, really would like "one account to rule them all", if the above shit wasn't there. I'd even pay for it in exchange for them providing the service and NOT uising my data, but nobody offers that...
Quote:
using the internet, that alone guarantees that your privacy is invaded. you see there is an internet service provider in between that keeps track of lot's of stuff about you, if not everything.
This is something I can't do anything about (without going to stupidly complex measures), and they're not building a profile on me so they can make money from it. Just because they're keeping an eye on my ass it doesn't mean I want everyone else to start renting it out for cash ;)
Somehow related: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/02/26/2141246/youtube-identifies-birdsong-as-copyrighted-music
Somewhere in time google went from: "do no evil" to "join the dark side"
Somewhere in time google went from: "do no evil" to "join the dark side"
Escaping Google-the-service-provider? That's nothing! I have successfully escaped Google-the-employer :)
(Ah... posing. What can you say. Nothing like it!)
(Ah... posing. What can you say. Nothing like it!)
omg. what a paranoid thread. what they doing to you that scares you @psonice? that simple profiling? lol. what can they do with it? pff. most off all it's about consume and service statistics. mostly products and warez and services they want you to get and bring in money for any company. the worst they can do is getting on your nerves if they offer to much in too less time. just build up some adresistance or use tools. that's it. every other data or data in general is up to you to give to social nets or offer for the ipublic to see.
on the brighter side. they just want happy customers/consumers/users. includes their own services. ;)
i still dont get how google could make that friggin lot of money just with adverts. i mean, who's clicking google adverts? a more serious problem is payed google ranks and personalized search results based on your profile, creating the google bubble and, for the lack of a better word, a wrong sense of security. paranoia is only wrong if its all in your head, which it appearantly isnt. scary tho, how free services of that magnitude arent really free and i dont even wanna know in which hands my profile is gonna end up. http://cdn.10dailythings.com/images/2011/09/facebook-and-you.jpg
that said i use google a lot, even to search wikipedia, because its just too convinient.
definace: fair point! see carrier iq et al
that said i use google a lot, even to search wikipedia, because its just too convinient.
definace: fair point! see carrier iq et al
Quote:
customers/consumers/users
...so no human beings involved, just easily predictable cattle, eh ?
All that profiling stuff that the talk is all about is just the execution of what
was outlined by Mr. "Public Relations" (a.k.a. Propaganda -> propagarae to broaden, to multiply [a mindset/idea/opinion] ) Edward Bernays.
Read his keynote book from the late 1920s -- it's not that big ;) -- and you might get a glimpse of how long actually this "profiling customers" already is exercised on peoples all over the globe.
Regarding Google ... well, I registered "myself" with a funky trash-mail account some years ago when they merged the authorisation of youtube accounts with their own.
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omg. what a paranoid thread. what they doing to you that scares you @psonice? that simple profiling?
I'm not paranoid or scared at all, and haven't said that I was. You've just assumed that it's a case of wild paranoia and fear and come in with your own fearless bravery, maybe you have some issues of your own ;D
It's not paranoia at all. I consider that my life is private, that's all. If a company wants to poke into my life and make money from it then they're going to do it on my terms or they're going to fuck off.
The way google was working previously was just about acceptable in return for some decent services, the way they're working now isn't so I'm shutting down my accounts and they lose my business. Clear enough?
yumeji: you as a user you are allowing it to be "ok" to profile your entire life and store it forever. wonder if you'll still find it ok when that data is breached and abused against you (either by hackers or court order). once you waive your right to privacy you'll never have it back.
well. as said it's up to yourselves what you decide to let them all know. if you don't want it just don't. I for myself don't care. against popular I dont spread my whole life on the net. what they have/get from me is a random search history. random webpage traffic where my id showed up on an unblocked ad panels. barely mail to know how unsocial I am on the net or just stupid webpages where i register. not much more personal data then my address without a picture. so far i'm good. you?
i agree, well said yumeji. you're all aniti-social paranoid androids. i mean, it's not as if it's ever going to become the norm and/or essential to perform every single social/economic/communicative 1st world personal transaction over the internet. we'll always have the option to opt out.
https://startpage.com -> google results without ads and without your IP logged
https://xquick.com -> alternative SE results without ads and without your IP logged
For total privacy, use a VPN with servers rotation. But IMHO, they put fear on the Internet because there's too much info to learn from big business scandals, political hidden agenda and important social and banksters scams informations so power elites want to keep the media smoke screen alive for as long as they can.
Because the NWO is coming and they don't want people to wake-up, i.e Communism for All, that is fascism for all. See Greece and the USA economy and life ATM, it says all about what EU is heading for.
https://xquick.com -> alternative SE results without ads and without your IP logged
For total privacy, use a VPN with servers rotation. But IMHO, they put fear on the Internet because there's too much info to learn from big business scandals, political hidden agenda and important social and banksters scams informations so power elites want to keep the media smoke screen alive for as long as they can.
Because the NWO is coming and they don't want people to wake-up, i.e Communism for All, that is fascism for all. See Greece and the USA economy and life ATM, it says all about what EU is heading for.
if your reasoning is that we'll always have the opt-out then i dont get why you label as paranoid the folks who want to want to use it now. also, if you don't care, why are you posting to call us paranoid? projecting personal insecurities to get social & existencial validation is all nice and fun until it polutes the discussion at hand, which in this case is finding useful alternatives to the services we (the shameful, paranoid, tin-foil hat wearing, new google policy haters) wish to replace.