Parsad Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I'm really starting to get unnerved by some technology companies. It's bad enough that the government knows every little detail about our personal and financial lives now, but it's quite disturbing that Google Ads will change automatically to something I just did or searched for. For example, I just booked my hotel for Omaha, and automatically the Google Ads on here change to Hilton Doubletree ads. This happens almost every time I open a new window and search, or complete some sort of transaction. They have cookies on everything we do now on the internet. Even if you empty and delete your cookies, they are back tracking you the next time you open your browser. Very frightening in a way...to imagine these companies know so much about our daily movements and habits. There is little the government is doing to stop them, because it just makes it easier for the government to track us as well. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Meet the new boss, same as the old boss... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alekbaylee Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 "here is little the government is doing to stop them, because it just makes it easier for the government to track us as well." Exactly! Few people realize that! It's freaking frightening! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorsia1 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 For anyone who is annoyed/concerned about this, there is a device (USB flashdrive) called "Ironkey" that is effective in thwarting the bullshit surveillance. It effectively changes your IP address continually as well as a few other neat tricks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berkshiremystery Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 For anyone who is annoyed/concerned about this, there is a device (USB flashdrive) called "Ironkey" that is effective in thwarting the bullshit surveillance. It effectively changes your IP address continually as well as a few other neat tricks. https://www.ironkey.com/product/products-for-windows/ sure,... and they are also funded by the government ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IronKey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farnamstreet Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 https://duckduckgo.com/ — We believe in better search and no tracking Also, Google's "knowledge" has other implications: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/03/the-filter-bubble-what-the-internet-is-hiding-from-you/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrkhoops Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Seconding duckduckgo. Also, although not perfect, you can use extensions for your browser which help to limit the tracking of your activity and collection of data about you. If you use firefox try installing the following combination: NoScript, Ghostery, and AdBlock Plus. They block most tracking activity by default but allow you to whitelist websites/companies that you trust. It won't help you much against the government (see: https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying) since apparently all major ISPs in the US just blanket forward all data and browsing of US citizens to the NSA (usually through "private companies" to avoid legal issues). You can google or duckduckgo this for more information if you want. Regardless, it definitely does help against the many private companies that try to track your every online move and mouse click, including google adsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valueInv Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Use Safari or Firefox and turn on Do Not Track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turar Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 You can look into this as well: https://www.torproject.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compoundinglife Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 You can look into this as well: https://www.torproject.org/ If you do not have a completely clean computing/browsing environment and keep it that way then tor is of little help. It attempts to anonymize you at the network layer, but if your browser is still barfing up cookies its very easy for sites to identify and track you while using tor. It is also painfully slow or at least it was the first time I tried it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compoundinglife Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 You can look into this as well: https://www.torproject.org/ If you do not have a completely clean computing/browsing environment and keep it that way then tor is of little help. It attempts to anonymize you at the network layer, but if your browser is still barfing up cookies its very easy for sites to identify and track you while using tor. It is also painfully slow or at least it was the first time I tried it out. I take that back, it looks like the tor project now provides some browser plugins to help reduce the exposure to cookies etc... in addition to providing the network layer anonymizing. https://www.torproject.org/torbutton/index.html.en Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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