While trying to get rid of google tracking me whatever I do (mostly fearing the chrome browser), I opted for another browser, which is Iron (based on the same open source code of Chromium that g's Chrome is based too), and also changed my default start page to Bing.com - where I do all my searches now. For those curious, there are info online on what data chrome tracks, and iron don't. I feel like having another layer of protection between me and the big g. Unfortunately I get used with gmail, so I still have to login to google accounts, but will think of redirecting all my inbox to a hotmail account, just to get rid of g completely. The most ideal setup would be to have two systems, one strictly for work, and one for personal use, I suppose. I invite other experienced users to give their opinion on what other measures we must take, to safeguard our online privacy, especially tailored for BHat/GHat-intensive fellows.
I seen some Bing backlinks in my spam comments recently and now this post, what is Microsoft up to, lol?
I don't work for Microsoft, its just like the saying: "The enemy of your enemy is your friend." And since G is working hard to prevent most of us making a living online (when it comes to G's traffic/services), I just want to make sure I don't hand them sensitive data of my actions myself So that's why the switch.
Just FYI it's fun to fire up tcpdump when you're basically browsing ANY page and see that in some shape or in another (it might be doubleclick, adsense, analytics and whatnot) there are tcp packets periodically sent to some google server the majority of the time... Hence my hosts file is very long on all my systems, including my jailbroken iphone... While switching browser is a very appropriate step to stop the stasi-like google tracking is in no way a comprehensive way to take action to limit their ridiculous snooping around and additions to the aforementioned hosts file with hosts pointing to 127.0.0.1 + flashblock + adblock should be considered at all times.
Now this is what I call getting to the heart of it. Good points, I also completely forgot about plugins/addons that help a lot, but the hosts file is really the bread of it. Among, flashblock I installed Noscript, and I'm impressed at how many 3rd party domains are asking for permission when accessing a site. Most of them are concerned with data/stats gathering, but I really don't know what else they my place or get out of my comp, so better block them
i didnt really know about this. i'm going to have to check into it and see if i need to make a switch
If you are really paranoid use Tor, it will slow down your browsing but should protect you. https://www.torproject.org/download/download
Tor has its place but it's not the same thing at all and it's as practical as suggesting wearing a bulletproof vest at all times, just to be on the safe side, you never know... As the fellow user posted above http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm is a great place to look at. For those who might not know the hosts file is the file that gets queried BEFORE (by default 99% on all OSs..) trying to use an external DNS server to get the numeric IP of a certain URL. Adding those entries will simply create bogus entries to several well known tracking / advertising URLs to point to 127.0.0.1 that's the default IP for YOUR local host. In other words you simply make those URLs unreachable on your system that's a good way to trim the tracking crap. The additional plugins I suggested do most of the rest.
You mean spamming the shit out of your visitors with ads, spinning content till you must lower your intellect close to a monkeys to be able to read the gibberish you post everyday, and banking hard without doing nothing but spam. I was under the same impression till I really needed some info from Google and all that I was able to find was retarded spun posts and articles pointing to content locking txt files containing shit. The spammer gets the hammer!
The thread is about protecting your privacy, blocking the keyhole of your doors, not quality vs gibberish content, because what I do is for me to know and kepp, isn't it? Though, if someone is curios, I actually have authority sites, some do good, some not, but this is not the point here. Maybe you were absent when last year legit business with legit sites lost their revenue overnight because if they mostly depended on G's (white hat) traffic, they were blown out of picture. That was not a privacy concern though.
Try duckduckgo its even better bro.. Now all we have to do is get a few billion other people to switch to bing also.
Only issue for me of 'fuckfuckgo' (as THE default SE and I tried to resist for a few weeks) is that their always-on https connection kills the experience and when you do a lot of queries every few minutes the lag adds up fast but I agree it's a good one just like: https://www.ixquick.com/ another worthy alternative.
