I'm one of the likely few these days who isn't a member of a social network (it's the hermit thing), but I thought I'd post this link FWIW:

I’m Not Here To Make Friends
Google’s disastrous decision to muck up its search results with stuff from your social network
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/01/google_social_search_the_tech_giant_s_disastrous_decision_to_muck_up_its_search_results_.html

I noticed "personal results" on Google a few days ago and it freaked me out. I'm thinking of stopping using Google altogether, it *already* keeps loads of your data and adjusts search results accordingly, and now this social bullshit.

I hear you, Dona. Frankly, I've felt uneasy about Google's general level of intrusion for awhile now. This concern is the main reason I've never tried Chrome.

I do use Google Docs and I have used Feedburner, though, so I figure that trying to maintain any level of privacy where Google is concerned is fighting a losing battle. 

good thing i removed myself from google+ then, because i haven't seen any social search results yet.

None of my friends seem to use g+ anyway

I never used Google+ and frankly, I'm tired of these connect-with-your-rl-friends services. I got used to the Internet being my safe corner and I like to keep my off and online lives separate. It's becoming impossible :/

As for Google, I use their e-mail, photo, RSS feed and Document services. SIGH. And Chrome, because it's so much faster than any other browser, and I just installed a bunch of privacy extensions and changed my search engine to one that doesn't track or keep your data (DuckDuckGo).

Ooh, paranoia...

The day they started using JavaScript to make search results "better" was the beginning of the end for me and Google.  Creepiness need not even apply.  A few days ago I was introduced to DuckDuckGo thanks to Anna Rohleder over at Opera, and that may very well be the final nail.  It's just a wee bit slow, sadly.

Well... never really checked out this end of the forum before. Thanks all for the DuckDuckGo lead - it's getting harder and harder to deflect and disable all the crap flying around these days.

hmmm since when do all your picasa pictures pop up in a google search of your own name 

I hate it when they change such features without notifying you

Seeing what's happening to others with Google is really starting to creep me out. I've become another DuckDuckGo convert.

I intend to stay as far away from Google as I can get.

Thank you for pointing out DuckDuckGo, Dona - while I'm still using Google for most searches, DuckDuckGo looks useful for those cases in which I suspect that my results could be improved by moving away from their filters, or in which I simply want different results. ^_^

hmmm, a new overall google privacy policy and user agreement, is there anything to worry about?

Looks like it's going to get worse...

January 25, 2012 - Google announced that it would be changing its privacy policies across over 50 of its sites and applications to allow it to more accurately track and coordinate all the personal information it has about you. Essentially, that means Google will match all the videos you watch with the searches you conduct online, the e-mail you send, the friends you chat with, and your family calendar online (plus a whole lot more).

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/25/privacy-one-step-forward/?intcmp=obinsite

All the scarier science fiction scenarios are coming true.  People will be known to the authorities not by force, but because they have been seduced into divulging their personal data.  Eventually, this entire planet will be filled with data, everyone will be logged, nothing will be hidden or private. 

Then the anarchists will rise up and destroy the power grid, wiping clean all the servers and back ups and underground data storage facilities and suddenly people will have to start talking face to face again and writing letters and reading books and remembering things in their own heads instead of relying on Google. 

Originally Posted By Caroline (29 JAN 2012 3:35pm)

All the scarier science fiction scenarios are coming true.  People will be known to the authorities not by force, but because they have been seduced into divulging their personal data.  Eventually, this entire planet will be filled with data, everyone will be logged, nothing will be hidden or private. 

 

Then the anarchists will rise up and destroy the power grid, wiping clean all the servers and back ups and underground data storage facilities and suddenly people will have to start talking face to face again and writing letters and reading books and remembering things in their own heads instead of relying on Google. 

What a magnificent post, Madame Pirate. I love it! You definitely have a way with words.

(I was going to add a smiley applauding, but my ability to add smilies just broke again. So try to imagine one, if you would, please and thank you.)

I'm getting tired of this. Anyone know an e-mail provider that doesn't collect your data?

I think that might be very hard to find in this day & age. If your ISP gives you a free email adress, that might be your best bet. 

I tried to find out who Google thought I was only to receive a pop up message telling me the program wouldn't work unless I enabled cookies.  I think I'll leave things exactly as they are.  

The same thing happened to me, Caroline. Except I took it a step further: I told my browser to accept cookies from that particular URL with the intention if rescinding permission/deleting the cookies after I'd looked at who (or what) Google thinks I am.

I tried this in both Foxfire and IE. It didn't work with either. I guess I hadn't enabled cookies to the extent desired by Google. Well, too bad. I can live without knowing Google's opinion of my identity.

BTW, I received notification of Google's new Privacy Policy -- the one taking effect on 1 March 2012-- via email today. What a hoot.

I suppose this was sent due to the fact that I registered with Feedburner back when I was handling JA's feed, so it knows my JA address. I haven't used Feedburner for months, however, and I'm thinking of dumping it. I haven't registered for anything else Google offers.

This whole thing gives me the creeps. I used to joke that Google was trying to take over the world. This doesn't seem so far-fetched to me anymore. 

Hey, lookie! My smilies are working again!!

Originally Posted By Dona (30 JAN 2012 9:18am)

I'm getting tired of this. Anyone know an e-mail provider that doesn't collect your data?

Yes, the one that comes with your ISP  really is best.

I've also been getting the Google policy change e-mails.  But i don't have time to read through all that, so i don't know all the implications.

I'll see what happens and prehaps start getting into the habit of trying alternate products like Chrome and other search-engines.  Luckily I don't use my Google e-mail addy much.  I have been using the Google toolbar, but that might not mean too much, it's mainly just for the search engine, and a few useful addons that other services can also provide.  Luckily there's still alternatives for now...

Thanks for the DuckduckGo tips and so on.

I am not sure if my provider gave me an e-mail inbox, and even if they did, I share this connection with three other family members. If I moved away (which I plan to do, since I live with my parents right now) I wouldn't be able to check that address anyway.

However, I do have my own website domain and an e-mail addy that I use for business (and so I don't have to spell out my terribly embarrassing gmail address). I know next to nothing about privacy of these addresses, I do have an inbox on my host's server (a friend is hosting my website on her server) but the interface is pretty crappy and I have all messages forwarded to my Gmail inbox because it's just convenient.

Would it be safer to link my custom inbox to Outlook or something? (Geez, it's been YEARS since I used that thing... is it still a hip program to use?)

Originally Posted By Dona (1 FEB 2012 5:41pm)

I am not sure if my provider gave me an e-mail inbox, and even if they did, I share this connection with three other family members. If I moved away (which I plan to do, since I live with my parents right now) I wouldn't be able to check that address anyway.

If your ISP provices an email inbox, then why not speak to them about giving you another one? I don't know how the market look down there, but if it is anything like here, ISPs are quite keen on pleasing their customers, because they know that the customer has other options. In fact most companies that offers a service like this can usually be bargained with (I got a new cellphone from my provider for the cost of shipping, in exchange for sticking with them for another 12 months. A phone that would have costed me about 7€ a month otherwise). And when you move, you should still be able to access your email account, so as long as your parents don't change ISP, or if you have the same ISP after you've moved, they should be able to move it with you. 

I suspect that Google's main goal with such data collection is likely better targetting of ads, which is understandable, I feel.  Similarly, while limiting, I can, I think, understand the intent behind such things as Google's targetted search results: simply improving the probability of turning up something that you're likely to be interested in.  I suspect that the limiting of potentially interesting or useful results is likely a side-effect, albeit one that is at times undesirable.

That said, I really don't like the decrease in privacy; I see that Yahoo (from whom I have my mail account) have, if I recall correctly, an automated system that searches for keywords in one's emails, with again the stated intent of improving the applicability of shown ads.  There might be a way to opt out of this in Yahoo's case, however; I haven't yet fully looked into it.

In my case, I feel a little stuck; while I might like to move to another provider that offers more privacy, I don't currently have an internet service provider of my own (I'm using a relative's connection at the moment), and don't want to rely on someone else not changing their provider.  If all goes well, I may again have an account of my own at some stage, but likely temporarily. :/

It's heeere...

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/03/01/stealing-your-privacy-its-google-once-again/

I've linked the emial addy my ISP porovides, with Outlook, and it works like a bomb. 

Well I've now been forced to switch from the google search engine to yahoo's search engine.  With the Google one, it forces me accept only results for the area where my ISP is located, and you cannot change your country settings; so if you're in the US, you cannot get results for Canada, if you're in the UK you cannot get result for France, and so on.

I find it extremely limiting and frustrating, and to me it defies the whole object of having a global web.  I don't mind if it goes to my ISP area or country first, but then it should at least give me an option to change my settings if I so desire, and believe it doesn't, because I tried.  Hard.

Originally Posted By Thaumaturge (2 FEB 2012 12:00pm)

I suspect that Google's main goal with such data collection is likely better targetting of ads, which is understandable, I feel. 

Understandable from a capatalist POV, but totally undesirable from the user's POV...  and extremely extremely frustrating to the user.

Google's recent decisions is a prime example of how cloud technology could turn into a monster...
 it made us dependent on it it while we were still innocent and unsuspecting, and now that we're used to it, it's using  us.

Wait, isn't that how many web-acessed apps work?  They offer you a free copy, and then, suddenly one day, the previously 'for free' app isn't for free anymore and comes with a hundred traps and price tags included.