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Avoiding Google

UCDCritic

I've started using the website www.duckduckgo.com for doing searches. It doesn't keep a list of everything you search for doesn't track you. I use it on my phone.

However....

I'm still using google chrome as a browser on my laptop.

I downloaded firefox but then read something online about google paying them money to influence their search results so I feel a bit skeptical about it now.

Internet exploring is unbearably slow.

What can I do?

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Hotblack Desiato

Google paid Mozilla money to be made the default search engine on FF. They did a similar deal with Opera.
Chrome is Google obviously and IE is Bing.
It's only a problem if they stopped you changing it, the default has to be something and most people would want the default to be Google.

bonzodog2

Try SRWare's Iron browser on the laptop. Chrome without the spying and calling home to mammy Google. It won't necessarily do anything for speed though.

Khannie

ninja900 wrote: »

Google paid Mozilla money to be made the default search engine on FF. They did a similar deal with Opera.

That's the extent of the google deal. Firefox sounds like it suits you. You can change the default search engine to duck duck go handy enough.

solomafioso

This bugs me...the amount of information that one would willingly put up on the likes of Facebook / Twitter / etc and that you're afraid of Google tracking you?

If you want to be completely anonymous online, I think TOR-browser would suit. Or if you wanted to go the whole hog you can install Tails (I think yer man Snowden used it).

Khannie

solomafioso wrote: »

This bugs me...the amount of information that one would willingly put up on the likes of Facebook / Twitter / etc and that you're afraid of Google tracking you?

It's a fair assumption that OP uses any of these. I don't.

Rucking_Fetard

Khannie wrote: »

It's a fair assumption that OP uses any of these. I don't.

You need to move on from BeBo.

Khannie

Rucking_Fetard wrote: »

You need to move on from BeBo.

LEAVE BEBO ALONE!

solomafioso

Pfffffft, Friendface is where it's at now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg

flutered

UCDCritic wrote: »

I've started using the website www.duckduckgo.com for doing searches. It doesn't keep a list of everything you search for doesn't track you. I use it on my phone.

However....

I'm still using google chrome as a browser on my laptop.

I downloaded firefox but then read something online about google paying them money to influence their search results so I feel a bit skeptical about it now.

Internet exploring is unbearably slow.

What can I do?

use yahoo search in both chrome or firefox.

solomafioso

flutered wrote: »

use yahoo search in both chrome or firefox.

You can also disable Google tracking your searches, or delete your search history.

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/465?hl=en&ref_topic=3037039

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4540094?hl=en

I'd still have a tinfoil hat on that they actually delete it...and it's still not resting on a server somewhere!

Hotblack Desiato

Yahoo search is just Bing. I cba looking up their privacy policy as (a) on linux so it's not forced on me via IE and (b) I'd fully expect it to be similar to Google anyway.

Duckduckgo has really improved in the last while. Until it closed down I used Scroogle.org. I'd only use google search as a last resort and try to use openstreetmap not google maps, etc. Avoid gmail obviously.

Helps that main browser is Opera 12 with no cookies (except Boards), javascript or plugins allowed :cool: surprisingly very few sites that don't require login won't work. Most things that won't display properly without JS can be made work by switching from the site author's style sheet to a user style sheet. You can configure that and most other preferences to be a single keystroke. Hopefully by the time the webkit-derived Operas appear for linux they'll have that sort of customisability and control back.

For stuff that absolutely neeeds it I have FF with ABP and NoScript and I'm trying out RequestPolicy at the moment as well.

It's gob-smacking the amount of untrustworthy third-party JS guff that 90% of sites are infested with these days to track you, invite you to share crap on social networks, and sell you stuff. The joke is that you can disable 99% of this in NoScript and still have sites work perfectly. Same with third-party cookies, just reject them, and have all cookies clear on browser exit.

RequestPolicy could be a bit of an eye opener as well, at the moment it's set so nothing is allowed by default so it's interesting to see how much content is pulled from third party sites and for what and how little of it is really needed or wanted.

Dude111

ninja900 wrote:

Yahoo search is just Bing.

Most likely so...... Yahoo has become just about as intrusive as Microsoft is!!

Recondite49

UCDCritic wrote: »

I've started using the website www.duckduckgo.com for doing searches. It doesn't keep a list of everything you search for doesn't track you. I use it on my phone.

However....

I'm still using google chrome as a browser on my laptop.

I downloaded firefox but then read something online about google paying them money to influence their search results so I feel a bit skeptical about it now.

Internet exploring is unbearably slow.

What can I do?

Hi UCDCritic,

In the first instance I think it's worth saying that Google themselves have a habit of bigging up their own search results so no matter what browser you use, if you search on Google, you'll likely see them favouring their own products and services.

Having said that there are ways you can protect your privacy and avoid being tracked by them while online. The search engine DuckDuckGo has already been mentioned which is an excellent way to search without your browsing activity being recorded.

I went off Firefox after I found out they were going to cave in and introduce DRM in the browser which I'm sure you know is a nightmare for the privacy conscious as in the nature of things you have to be identified.

I appreciate you're probably a Windows User but my advice to you would be to think seriously about switching to Linux as you can use the IceWeasel browser. It's included by default in the Debian Operating System and it's not too hard on other popular distros like Ubuntu and Linux Mint (my fave).

It's virtually identical to Firefox minus the aforementioned DRM. Other users have mentioned important plugins you can use to enhance your privacy. My personal faves are :

Adblock (blocks advertisements - has been previously mentioned here).
Ghostery (blocks most tracking cookies)
Noscript (blocks Javascript until you specifically choose to enable it)
Https Everywhere (forces sites to use a secure version e.g Facebook if available).

These are all available from addons.mozilla.org

If you prefer to stick with Windows, you can install these add ons there too.

Recondite49

solomafioso wrote: »

This bugs me...the amount of information that one would willingly put up on the likes of Facebook / Twitter / etc and that you're afraid of Google tracking you?

If you want to be completely anonymous online, I think TOR-browser would suit. Or if you wanted to go the whole hog you can install Tails (I think yer man Snowden used it).

Good man,

However I would suggest rather than installing TAILS to a USB stick, to use a 'live' version and just save files as and when needed to an encrypted memory card or USB.

At the moment TAILS is looking for alternatives to Truecrypt. The last I heard they'd settled on a lovely app named tc-play which has the same functionality without any of the privacy concerns. Sadly you need to be familiar with the command line to use it.

Anyone who's interested in tc-play can read a step by step guide on my Tech Blog.

Rucking_Fetard

Recondite49 wrote: »

These are all available from addons.mozilla.org

Think you can only get https everywhere from eff.org now.

Recondite49

Rucking_Fetard wrote: »

Think you can only get https everywhere from eff.org now.

Quite right Rucking Fetard, many apologies all. HTTPS everywhere is available from:

https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere