Is Google Watching You? New Plugin Will Let You Know

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20...atching_you_new_plugin_will_let_you_know_apps

 

Interesting Wouldn't work with my version, so couldn't try it

I think "maybe" with Noscript and Referrer blocking etc set up to the max, "might" accomplish a similar thing ?

 

The article does not describe what this personal info is. Name and address? Or just IP and web sites visited during the current session?

This is a rather alarmist statement. How can Google capture more information about us in America than the IRS -- which has our SSN -- already has? Besides, any web site where a user stores credit card data will already have more personal information than Google can mine from visiting a web site.

Now we are back to the same old stuff.

How can Google correlate dynamic IPs via data mined by Google Analytics?

Also, unless the user stores a Google cookie, how can it associate the various tracking data with individual users?

Please explain, if I'm missing something!

----
rich

 

You aren't missing anything, privacy is an extremely hot topic at the moment, both online and off. This is just another person looking to cash in/gain exposure on the issue. Let me pose a question who is watching these tools and the people behind them that are supposedly protecting our privacy from others? At least Google CAN be held accountable if they get out of hand, who is going to go after some no-name person on the vast internet who created some little plugin or other type of tool? What if these tools end up being the enemy and not the ones the tools are protecting you from?

Another thing, it IS an alarmist article. Some people act like Google and others are watching us as we read this forum. Come on guys, Google uses human technology, they aren't omnipresent, hell, neither is the NSA. Does anyone think that if Google or even the government was able to track bad guys, let alone millions of people not even on their radar,with as much ability as so many people write about and try to make us believe, that technology such as VPNs, TrueCrypt and countless others would even still exist, let alone be useful?

There is real cause for concern these days, very real cause. But, we've got to be careful that we keep things in perspective. Humans are imperfect, and so is their technology. There's no "ghost in the machine", black, silent helicopters with cameras that can see through your roof peering down at you while you shower, or anything of the sort. We, the normal users are just as much responsible for privacy loss as the Google and NSA's of the world. Why? Because we're the ones that became dependent upon and, indeed, addicted to computers and other technologies that, like everything else in this world, can be used for both good and bad purposes.

 

Apparently all it does is give an alarm (both audial and visual) whenever a webpage you're on interacts with anything Google-related.
So, as the reporter said-- if you like alarms, go for it.

Brought to us by the same folks who make the 'Shaved Bieber' extension, btw-- which will remove any mention of the name 'Justin Bieber' from a webpage.

Just in case anyone's interested.

I'm holding out for the 'Oprah, You Go Girl!' extension, myself.

 

Is Google Watching You?

no but i'm watching them

 

The only thing google that I use is Gmail and that is used for nothing sensitive, I don't use my google password for anything else like utube or use Google search. If I go to a website and get Google.de because the website went belly up I delete/erase the Google cookie.

 

Why don't people just start using Yauba, Duck Duck Go, or IxQuick?

It begs the question: Is there a trade off between data mining, collecting and the effectiveness of search?

 

I'm with you man!

 

Bingo! My first thoughts on reading the subject line.