[harel]

To me this smell like paranoia for paranoia's sake. No real valid reason for it. So Google track you. Everybody tracks you. Its the nature of the web. If you don't get tracked you will still see ads. They'll just be random. At least you have a chance of seeing something you might actually be interested in. And really the bottom line is that all of this internet-scale costs money. And since we are a bit touchy about paying for stuff we take for granted these days, like 'search' and 'social' or 'maps', we might as well accept the ads and get on with it. Why would I want to use an OK service for maps or translation when I can use a Great one from another provider even if they track me. (by the way, should we tell him that Facebook, Yahoo and in future most likely DuckDuckGo too, tracks him in the same way or let him figure it out by himself over time?)

[electrichead]

I am ok with targeted ads. I actually think that most people would be ok with targeted ads too, since a lot of my searches would have been averted by a good well-placed ad. For instance, I see something on TV that I want to buy; I have to Google "what was so-and-so character wearing in this episode" or search for the soundtrack to a particular ad. These are things that could have been targeted to me. A pure audio ad that plays 10 seconds of a song from an artist's new album is an effective ad, if that is an artist I actually like.

Targetting is not a bad thing when done right.

[john61]

It is not about ads. It's about personal private data. For ads, anonymous targeting would suffice. No one can garantee that this personal private data is used for ads only. It is usefull for a lot of ugly things. And therefore it will (is?) used for them.

[harel]

Yes but no one can really guarantee anything on the internet. What I don't want Big G' to know, won't go on line and if it has to, it will be done right. The only thing is, there's not much I can think of that I'd really give a #u!@ if G' Man is in on it or not. I don't have a deep rooted principles regarding this leading my life and ultimately restring my movement. I use what I use, until its no longer useful, and I'm well aware that what I use is also using me. Fair exchange I think. H

[john61]

The power comes from combination. Even very small bits of information in your email, photo tags, searches can build a very precise picture of your personality if there are a lot of them. You can not control the small information bits that go to Google if you are using their tools. This is a dangerous illusion. The solution is to limit the overall amount of information leaking and diversity. Therefore not using Google or other well known data mining companies at all. And yes it is possible.

[electrichead]

I would disagree that you can escape from all data mining companies. For instance, I would be willing to bet a lot on the fact that a company like Acxiom knows a hell of a lot about you that you don't know yourself. And they are not that well known.Facebook uses Acxiom, but you would never know that. You would really only look at Facebook's privacy policy where Axiom would just be listed as a "third party" in there.

It is very difficult not to be tracked at all, unless you are using Tor or other anonymizer.

Edit:misspelled Acxiom

[john61]

I did not say that it is possible to escape all of them. But if you limit the leaked data, their profile is useless. I do not get very well targeted ads. That is a good sign that they do not have a good profile of me. But I never used gmail or g+ for example.

[harel]

Retargeting companies share their cookies amongst themselves. So when tracked by company A goes to a site published by company B, company A gets notified. You are tracked, be sure of that. It might not be enough data to show you exactly the ads you might accidently care about but its close enough and closing in all the time.

[harel]

But what is one to do, when a large collection of tools from one provider ends up being superior to others? I'm not religious, and if someone offered me a better-than-Gmail alternative that works better for me, I'd take it. Give me a better search engine - I'm there. In the same way that I'm using Facebook and not G+ because I find the party is better over there with all of my friends.

[john61]

It is called a trap.

[harel]

Not if you don't feel trapped nor care about it being so. Every service coming up with a superior level product which then has to support it at scale will have to resort to charging users or showing them ads and using their 'data' as a channel to target ads by. Yes Google is a trap and so is Facebook, skype, iOs, windows, mac, linux. You choose what you like to use, get used to it or not find anything better and are trapped with it. Until you chose not to because you are either paranoid or something better came to be.