google <=>privacy

[trymahjong]

got a few emails from family members suggesting I might want to reconsider always using google

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/232601809

[LTAWACS]

So be it.

I dont use Chrome or stay logged into gmail... in fact I remember reading in wired or some other magazine that there are some different search engines that do not track you or steal your privacy. They are growing in popularity.

[samagon]

Google provides me with a service, for this service they only charge I have to pay is that they get to track everything I do using their products. This seems fair to me. After all, when I go to a pizza buffet they charge me to eat pizza, don't give me the choice of opting out, but still track everything I do, maybe not in such a personalized manner, but then they also don't offer personalized service.

So Google uses my info to make money on the back end, so does the pizza place, they might see that jalapeno is more popular than mushrooms, so they run a promotion to draw in jalapeno eaters.

Business also isn't government, although what's scary is that the government can petition these businesses to provide my personal data without my permission and without a search warrant, that's a different problem all together, and choosing to use a crappier search engine won't save you from that. But then, the government can also petition the pizza parlor.

The best solution for that problem is to download Netscape 4, and bounce through mirror sites hosted in other countries, at the very least.

The internet, even though you access it from a private device, or from the privacy of your house is very much public domain.