Stop using smart phones, switch to a flip phone. Pay for everything with cash. Live in a Faraday cage, and you are making progress to an invisible person.
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DuckDuckGo Calls Out Google Search for 'Spying' on Users After Privacy Labels Go Live
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Ad personalization is on by default, and I'd bet that the majority of google users won't turn it off, or know it even exists. Google claimed it stopped scrapping email back in '17 or '18. But they've been caught before. I know they still use your search history to serve ads. Why even put your privacy at risk? Google is in the business of using people's behavior online as the commodity.
Also, 3rd party apps can and will access your gmail, if you're not careful about permissions. I prefer my email not even to allow 3rd party connections to begin with, on the off-chance it may accidentally be allowed.
To me, it's just not worth it. While I'm sure no one will ever care about my browsing habits and whats in my email, I do. I pay for protonmail. I use this for sensitive emails. I also feel a lot more secure using my icloud email for other stuff.
I've used DDG as my search engine for years. It is now my favorite browser!
I’ve tried DDG in the past although it’s been a few years. I couldn’t specify time ranges to the extent that I could in Google and frequently didn’t get any valid results.
At this point I don’t have a favorite or something that I would recommend to others. It used to be with Google that looking beyond page 2 or 3 of the results was a waste of time. Now you have to go to page 2 or even more to get beyond the ad driven results. And trying to limit unwanted matches by telling Google that a word must or must not appear in the results is now pointless. You will still get results with the word you wanted excluded or without the word you specified must be included.
DDG doesn’t find a lot of things when I’m searching, so I quit using it. Using bang Google searches on DDG probably isn’t any different than just using Google without going thru DuckDuck Go, security or privacy wise. I would pay to have/use a decent and anonymous search engine but I think I’m in the minority with that attitude.
At this point I don’t have a favorite or something that I would recommend to others. It used to be with Google that looking beyond page 2 or 3 of the results was a waste of time. Now you have to go to page 2 or even more to get beyond the ad driven results. And trying to limit unwanted matches by telling Google that a word must or must not appear in the results is now pointless. You will still get results with the word you wanted excluded or without the word you specified must be included.
DDG doesn’t find a lot of things when I’m searching, so I quit using it. Using bang Google searches on DDG probably isn’t any different than just using Google without going thru DuckDuck Go, security or privacy wise. I would pay to have/use a decent and anonymous search engine but I think I’m in the minority with that attitude.
Use a different account that isn't tied to your identity. If you're extra paranoid isolate those uses in a container or VM.
People paid to put all their data through Nord's ISP(s) instead of their own, making it a hotspot for everyone who has something to hide. So naturally it'll draw attackers, and it did. In 2018, NordVPN was hacked and some user traffic intercepted, not all of it but enough to concern users. In 2019 they were hacked again; 2000 user credentials were leaked. They say they have all these privacy practices in case of attacks, but who really knows? I'll bet most people are paying with credit card or other traditional means instead of cryptocurrency, which leaves an obvious paper trail to someone labeled "I'm paying to hide my traffic." Those who use BTC, that's great, but it's not always untraceable either unless they tumble it properly.
I don't think they're particularly untrustworthy, but it's unclear whether people even benefit by paying for such a service. Edit: And after writing this, I looked up what Krebs has to say. He's cautious about VPNs too but does use one himself. Caveats apply, mainly paying with cryptocurrency. So again, you have to know what you're doing, unless you're just trying to get around basic firewalls using Tor.
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Google's whole business model is targeted ads--why would you think they would actually anonymize anything? It would be counter to their best interests. Better to not let them have the data in the first place, don't you think? And, try plumb.one--high quality results and no intrusion at all (transparency: I am the CEO).
YouTube has recently blocked me from using my account by insisting I surrender my mobile number. No chance, not happening. Looking at the privacy info is quite alarming what they are collecting from our mobile devices. It would be simple just to delete YouTube but as the number one streaming platform it is quite impossible to live without.
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I have an open mind. If they say they anonymize stuff, then they do. But the thing the guy linked to doesn’t actually say what personal data is actually anonymized, and by which apps and services.
Also, re: plumb.one.
I just tried it. Typed in my name to search for it. The entire screen is filled with 4 ads, 3 of which appear to have little to do with the search term. I actually have to scroll down to see the first result. (Also, the results were slow)
I had better luck with “New York Mets.” But clicking the “news” tab again shows all ads. Scrolling down, I see actual results, but they are very old (20 hours). The first result is their facebook page, which is not what anyone searching for “New York Mets” news is looking for. Most of the first page of results are links to news aggregation, not specific news stories (e.g. events from today’s game, etc.)
In general, reasonable results show up on the main search results, but they take too long to load, and you have to scroll to reach them. Definitely not a reasonable replacement for Google, or even duck duck go.
this is the thing people need to understand.
just because google doesn't have your name associated with stuff it doesn't mean they aren't tracking you as an individual.
If you have searched on Google even thru DDG, they have your IP address. Your IP address can be tracked to your house. Your house will likely have public mortgage records. Your mortgage records will have your name.
You can substitute Google with any online entity.
Maybe we really need that decentralized “internet” 😂
Yup.
If you're using ipv6, rotating IPs through a random /64 subnet is built into the protocol. Sure if you're in a domestic house with fixed line internet... you'll still be traced. But it's a start.
And yet people still whine and complain that NAT is good enough and IPv6 isn't worth it.
my router vendor, which makes pretty high end stuff, told me to turn off IPv6 after I reported seemingly unrelated problems, because “we find that turning on ipv6 causes a lot of the issues.” <smacks head>
Which vendor? Name and shame please! People need to be not buying this sort of thing.
IPv6 can illustrate configuration problems, software bugs, etc. but it is NOT the root cause. Turning it off is a temporary band-aid/diagnostics measure, used to help diagnose whether the problem is ipv6 related, it isn't a "fix".
Telling people to turn off ipv6 permanently is like telling people not to drive faulty cars on the road in order to reduce road fatalities - instead of fixing the car.
Even the best of companies skimp when it comes to their support departments.
Whats a good reason to run ipv6? ipv4 works just fine. This thing has been in the talks for like 20 years but all I hear it causes problems setting up.
I didn't like the direction that I saw Google going years ago. I got tired of them cancelling every product I relied heavily on. I got educated and learned that if you're not paying for a product, you're the product being sold. So I left Google years and years ago. That included google.com and using adblockers. So while I liked Google search better, I decided to use Bing instead. Got used to it eventually. I use Office 365 and work uses Business 365 so I already was heavily invested in the Outlook ecosystem so it worked. I still use Edge now on my MBP and OneDrive for work.
- The world is out of IPv4 addresses. Some countries have tiny allocations.
- NAT breaks end to end connectivity which means there are ugly hacks required to make various protocols (e.g., VOIP) work. NAT isn't security either, NAT traversal is trivial due to many of the hacks required on routers to make things like VOIP and VPN tunnels work through it - if you think a basic NAT router is protecting you from the internet, you are mistaken.
- IPv6 has performance, configuration and security advantages
If your devices do not work properly with IPv6, your vendor needs to get a clue and fix their products.
I'm a full time network administrator since 1998...
Yeah, from what I've read, the IPv4 addresses have died some months ago. Lately I've noticed that a lot of my searchings are through IPv6 and including the websites I visit. Just my observation.
I wonder if that is the full extent however.. They say they use other apps to collect data also. Other apps have access to even more. Surely they is classed as a loop hole.
You do know that Bing/Microsoft are just as invasive as Google right?
If you are a network administrator that will help a lot.
-Will I notice any difference if I use IPv6?
-Is there a benefit if I have IPv6 but the site/service I am connecting to uses IPv4?
-My understanding that IPv6 can give a unique identifier to every device on the internet. How do I ensure the IP address on my device is not the same as a one already used out there? Or does the idea of the "outside" network and "inside" network (192.168.1.X) still apply?
how do you find out the ip address of sites you visit? do you look it up each time?