Google Begins Behavioral Targeting Ad Program [EFF]
(Photo: msmail)
just to add, when you're here on consumerist, you're getting content (and potentially cookies) from:
google.com
google-analytics.com
atdmt.com
fbcdn.net
facebook.com
sitemeter.com
quantserve.com
digg.com
yimg.com
typepad.com
If you accept any cookies, you've always been giving your browsing history to multiple websites. Using the NoScript plugin to Firefox can prevent you from granting googleadservices.com (and others, you can easily tell by their names when NoScript filters them out as you visit websites) access to your history.
When you visit a website, you're accepting cookies from 5-10 other websites. Shady, but not illegal, so at that point, you're implicit in them having your browsing history, and can do what they want with it.
]]>@ThatIdiotJeffrey_GitEmSteveDave:Google repeatedly forgets my search preferences. Sometimes it's a few time a week, sometimes a couple months can go by without it happening. I know someone at Google who is looking for patterns/clues, and I've forwarded him a link to this discussion. Can you say what operating system you use, what browser (name and version number) and whether you are logged in to Google when it happens? If anyone else has this problem: same questions.
]]>that's NOT fancy. what the plugin does is prevent the doubleclick cookie from being deleted, so by using Google's opt-out plugin, you are opting IN to their advertising data collection forever to opt out of their new user classification system. it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. not fancy.
]]>2. get the plugin: Ad Block Plus ([addons.mozilla.org])
3. block all the ads you want
]]>This doesn't opt you out of ad's. It just lets you select from about 5 or 6 broad categories that might suit you better (like Art, auto, or entertainment, etc...).
]]>Many have already figured out that Double Click is pure evil - and this association with Google doesn't do Google's reputation any good.
]]>Forcing people to "opt out" is evil.
Google can get f***ed, and I'll tell any "targeted" advertiser to do the same.
]]>Give 'em a week or so.
]]>Oh well, I use a combo-punch for ads and trackers anyway: NoScript + Adblock plus.
]]>Or, you could use a different search engine that doesn't target you with ads. Does anyone have a suggestion of one for me? I love Google, but this kinda pisses me off. I'd like to start using another engine....
]]>Interesting that employers would be concerned with people taking data out via local files, but not so concerned with Google gathering and logging all the search information of their employees. I'm actually surprised that the existence of this comprehensive external logging isn't a bigger confidentiality concern for employers. If you have access to Google, you could easily send out confidential information through that channel.
My bigger concern, like I said, is not how they're using this information now. It's that the private information is eternal, potentially. Someone in the future could come up with a nasty, nefarious use for all that data and turn it against us. They might use techniques that haven't even been invented yet to mine through it, or to link it to other information sources that don't exist yet.
]]>As for my address, any e-mail I receive confirming a purchase shows where it's getting sent to and where it's being paid from. I don't normally get directions from Google, b/c I have a GPS w/a unique ID which is registed to me through Garmin. There's someone who knows "everywhere" you go.
Like I said before, I not that concerned who knows that much about me. I pretty much bare all in my avatar here, I run/have a website w/4 webcams set-up throughout my house that broadcast 24/7(as long as they are working), and speak my mind. I will confess that I maintain two identities online, one being GitEmSteveDave, and the other being the email address/SN I put on job applications and my business cards. I do a pretty good job making sure the two don't ever show up together, though, as I might not want a future employer knowing my feelings on politics/corporations.
If I ever find out someone goes/went through all the trouble to track/find out as much as they can about me, I will admit it will be a shot to my ego, and I might have trouble fitting through doors. My life is depressing enough having to live it myself. If anyone was forced to study up on me, I confess that I would not be surprised if they needed to see a shrink. :\
]]>I think that there is a real privacy issue with this sort of data collection. (And I should be clear that what I have a problem with is the storage of the history in the first place, linked to my identifiable information, rather than its use for targeted ads). You might not think your search information is very private, but think about some of the stuff that gets in there, like addresses that you've searched for on Google Maps. If you regularly use that to get directions, they can easily tell where you live, etc. This isn't a huge issue if all this data is being used only the way it is right now, but I can easily see numerous ways that the Google search data could become quite dangerous in the hands of people intent on using it for other purposes than what Google is using it for (for example, insurance companies, employers, local police, attorneys in civil lawsuits...). Credit card companies are already judging us based on where we shop; health or life insurance companies could do the same to identify people who patronize businesses frequented by "sick people" and deny coverage, for example.
]]>I am glad they have the Opt out now but Google has REALLY been ignoring its "Do no evil" creed more and more lately. O well thats why I always spoof my IP address and surf through at least 2 proxy servers. Using linux helps too, nobody really makes malware for linux. :D
]]>Same here, ThatIdiotJeffrey_GitEmSteveDave. Like, I don't really care if they sell my search histories of "taco bell wiki" and "pears wiki" both of which I searched for this weekend, because for some reason I like to wikipedia everything I come into contact with.
]]>That said, here's a question. Has anyone been having Google "forget" your search preferences, and all of a sudden you have 10 results on your page, instead of 50, in all languages, and safe filter on?
]]>Who's to say that Google still isn't selling your browsing history to marketing agencies?
]]>