As Americans read daily about the stagnant U.S. economy, they not only have to worry about their family’s savings and retirement plans — which are vanishing right before their eyes — they have to worry about new types of con artists and scammers exploiting their worries.
Whether it’s scams that exploit seniors, identity theft schemes, phony IRS agents or other scams, the world-wide web has proven itself to be a perfect tool during the economic downturn for con artists looking to exploit a vulnerable mark.
News coverage of these frauds may cause a sense of hyper-vigilance and even a desire to limit online activity to familiar places and sites generally to minimize risk. However, that’s not necessarily the way to avoid exploitation in the digital world.
Unfortunately, one of the most insidious opportunities of all time to deceive individuals is one being put forward by digital heavyweight Google. In this case it appears to be part of the company’s business model, challenging the well-accepted notion that name brand products and services are likely to be more trustworthy and safe.
From tracking and collecting your favorite restaurants, movies, and even your dating status, Google’s business model appears to rely on collecting and collating personal information about online users in a way that even the best private investigators can’t. Their algorithms are so sophisticated that they can determine not only how many individuals access the internet in a given home, they even can capture their birthdates, gender etc., all so they can determine how to market products and services. They do this whether you knowingly give permission or not.
If this seems useful, just imagine that the info marketed to you by Google may not be the same as that which is seen by your son or daughter when they log on.
Officials as far afield as Texas and the European Commission have initiated investigations into Google’s actions that exploit online users. In Washington, both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are reviewing Google’s practices. Nevertheless, the complaints don’t stop there. From alleged misuse and manipulation of search results to censorship of content and purported intellectual property rights abuses, Google’s practices are beginning to attract attention in the public arena.
Use ixquick.com; it NEVER saves any information on your searches, and destroys your IP address immediately following your search. Just as comprehensive and fast as Google, etc.
Just checked it out. Very fast and gives about the same results as google. Thanks!
Thanks, Paul!
I just did the same search for “christmas dresses” in Google and IxQuick. The top results were about the same, with one notable exception.
I’m going to start using ixquick for a while and see how it goes.
The anonymity that we supposedly have while using the web is very fragile. Almost all of the web usage history of “Mr. X” is known to Google in considerable detail. If you happen to be Mr. X , that is only piece of information between your privacy and complete exposure. And the details would come without any context whatsoever. For example, if you are researching some criminal activity, are you a victim, interested in law enforcement or a would-be criminal? Imagine a potential employer or a political opponent getting a print out of your web activity. You’ll end up sputtering Herman Cain-like to explain every site you visited, every discussion group you engaged in, etc.
What is happening is a breach of privacy and freedom of epic proportions and it just gets a pass from our society, not unlike the pass we give to big government’s increasing control over our lives. In both cases, supposedly altruist concepts are pushed by people and companies for their own benefit – ultimately at your expense. Paul R. is right – use something besides Google. And while you are at it, fight against freedom-sapping, hyper-regulating big government and all of its manifestations.
Problems of the same proportion involve what is posted about your business as well as yourself by Google and sites that post “public” information. They know everything, but they know nothing. Street View should be “Paid View”.
The phone calls to my business line and cell phone from people looking for Google “confirmation” and information are a real frustration as well. In cases where I do not recognize the number I will not use my buisiness name as an introduction and inform them this is not a business. Data mining should be as restricted as gold mining.
The people who were “mad as hell” about TV have good reason to be madder than a wet hen about these new abuses. (No offense to Mooshelle).
Even Alan Dershowitz know that privacy is right, anonymity is not.
There plenty of ways to do it, but it might cause some aggravation. You should not stand before the window, strip, then complain if people notice.
Again Mike G., protect yourself, and don’t demand action from others for things should do for yourself.
When I was on Wall Street, smart people knew not to use the phone or message avoid all but the spoken, out of earshot, and eye shot.
I am somewhat conflicted on this issue. On the one hand, Google isn’t really doing anything that marketers and advertisers have been doing since the beginning of capitalism: identifying a market and selling to it, in the most business-efficient manner possible. On the other hand, the technology, as noted, makes it possible to do that to a previously unimaginable degree. On yet another hand (as noted above), nothing =forces= you to use Google. Nothing compels you to enter your credit card number and other sensitive info online: any more than (as many leftists would portray it) Walmart sends out shock troopers to force shoppers out of Ben’s Corner TV & Appliance and into their evil maw. And yes: Google does provide a useful service. Also yes: There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (or TANSTAAFL, as scifi legend Robert Heinlein put it.) Despite some of own misgivings, I continue to use Google, although I have also used the somewhat counterculture alternative “Scroogle.” Yes, as in “Screw Google.” I also use lots of adblockers and spam filters, and I actually see very little advertising, either in my browser or my inbox. Bottom line: if Google is acting either illegally or unethically, by all means, nail ‘em to the wall: same as anyone else. If they are not, then let’s not berate them for for making money, like some Fleabagger occupying Zucchini Park.
Bottom bottom line: you know the price of doing business online; and if you don’t, well, caveat emptor.
To finish on a light note: I feel like whatsisname doing the “Point/Counterpoint” cameo in the movie “Airplane!” saying, “They bought their tickets, they knew the risk. I say — let ‘em crash!”
PS- checking out ixquick now!
Firefox users should get an extension called “TrackMeNot” that thwarts tracking & data mining by all search engines.
Regardless of browser, people should shield their IP addresses with anonymous proxies such as Anonymizer or Cryptohippie. There’s also the free Tor network, but it can slow your surfing to a crawl and will disable video content.
Search for the term “Page Rank 0″ in google and other search engines. The results don’t match as all do they?
Google’s been known to alter search returns to fit their liberal agenda. The first Climate Science leak proved that pretty well.
The Encyclopedia Dramatica crowd (who did a lot of legit research and infact were able to force Google’s hand into showing themselves) refer to it as “Missing White Womyn Syndrome”
Fun “fact” from Encyclopedia Dramatica: Al Gore coined the word “algorithm”, naming it after himself. Really! LOL!
From the article: “In that case, involving Google Buzz, Google acknowledged that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy when it launched the social networking site nearly 2 years ago. ”
From the FTC website page describing the Google Buzz Consent Agreement: “A consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the respondent that the law has been violated.”
http://ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/google.shtm
I guess it all depends on what the information is used for. If it’s being used strictly for marketing purposes then I don’t have a problem with it. No one forces me to buy an advertised product. If it’s being used for other purposes then it may very well be a serious privacy concern.
Ironically, this Web page incorporates a Google+ Web beacon. Unless you’ve disabled Javascript in your browser or are using a browser extension that blocks Web bugs, such as Ghostery, just the mere fact of reading this article has provided Google — at minimum — with your IP address, your Internet service provider, and your browser user agent.
Meanwhile, for those of you who use Firefox with the ‘Block Reported Attack Sites’ option toggled in Firefox’s Security tab, you are actually revealing to Google EVERY Web site you visit — whether the sites incorporate Google Web beacons or not — because it is a Google service (that is, a Google server) that Firefox is using to check for malicious Web sites.
Oh, and even if you’ve turn off this security feature and disabled Javascript, Google knows when you visit any Web page with an embedded YouTube video. You see, YouTube is owned by Google, and YouTube uses Flash, and Flash is a plug-in (not an add-on or extension). Plug-ins operate in a way that reports your IP address (and other information, as well), even if you’re using a proxy server, and even if you’re using a powerful onion routing network like Tor. It’s why the Tor Browser Bundle comes without any plug-ins installed (and only a few extension like NoScript).
There is more. Truth is, Google is ubiquitous. In general, when online one has zero privacy unless one is completely anonymous (there is no in between), and to achieve anonymity you must be extremely technical, a bit of a hacker, and committed to numerous inconveniences.
And don’t even get me started on smartphones and Android.
So it is simply not true, as someone put it, that no one forces you to use Google. Truth is, it’s exceedingly difficult to AVOID Google, even if you never use Google search directly, sign up for Google+, or have a Gmail account.
There’s a reason why Julian Assange referred to the Internet as the greatest spy tool ever invented.
Conservatives have basically surrendered the new and growing fields in cutting-edge technologies… to their ideological counterparts.
What I’m saying is that most of the people directly involved in developing and implementing policies and uses for cutting-edge technologies are a bit left of center, politically. For some strange reason, conservatives, as a whole, avoid these careers and fields of endeavor. To put it bluntly, conservatives – as a whole – have abandoned the future.
The greater concern is we now have geeks, many of whom suffer from Aspergers, and most of whom are politically left of center, controlling and influencing policies about cutting-edge tech…from the ground up.
The wonder isn’t that left-wing geeks think that it’s ok to control and sell your private information. Like the people on the ideological right, those left-wing geeks think that all of their ideas, policies and programs are the best way to do things, bar none.
After all, they only have your own best interests at heart. Honest! Those geeks are quite honestly shocked when you disagree with them. (They are so insulated and insular that they simply cannot imagine anyone disagreeing with them on this point.)
The true wonder is that conservatives have completely abandoned these fields of endeavor to their ideological enemies…and to geeks who suffer from Aspergers.
Not that there’s anything wrong with geeks…but ya gotta keep an eye on them. …for some reason, there aren’t a lot of right-wing geeks working with cutting-edge technologies.
It’s almost always a mistake to regard some company’s business records as “your” information, much less as “private” information.
If you don’t want Google to create business records that record what you do when you use Google services, then don’t use Google services.
They’re a convenience, not a necessity of life.