Is it 'safe' to you G*ogle as a search engine

chiefgoobster

Possibly a daft question but someone may be able to throw some light on the subject.

I was chatting to someone a few days ago who said not to use G*ogle as a search engine, as you leave a trace of sites you've visited etc. It was better to use other search engines, even if they were slower and produced less results than G*ogle.
Even then if you clear your own history, G*ogle still know what you are up to.

Is there any truth in the matter, anything worth worrying about
or is my friend talking out of his behind ? Not being a techie person I couldn't really argue a for or against.

anyone got any views please ?

Darksun

Yes, Google can keep track of everything you've searched for, as can every other search engine and website. You can find out more about what Google do with your information in their Privacy Policy

-TangleFoot-

If computers kept no records of their transactions the Internet as we know it would not exist. Can you imagine a world populated by billions of people with no long-term memory? That's what we'd end up with if we had to forget all the things other people didn't want us to know.

Computers aren't so different from us in some respects.

closed

If you are worried about tracking, it's a lot more complicated than choice of search engine - all the major search engines have access to your searches and a lot more.

tombruton87

there are some search engines that don't track you such as duckduckgo! most of the tracking is used for advertising purpose's however the chances are America and most the eu governments have access to the info, probably building up a profile of you, but you better get rid of your email address unless its on your server, phone as records are kept of all your movments, car gps's have been used in evidence before, any apple product's, oh and microsoft. you can become annoymous on the web but its more than just changing ur search engine, you need to make a second identity

maxc

If you are really concerned try ixquick search engine not quite as good as google but at least it respects your privacy
Maxc.......

chiefgoobster

Thanks to all who have replied so far.
Seems Big Brother is always watching you, somewhere, some how.

-TangleFoot-

They're not really watching you of course - they're watching bits going to and fro, at best knowing whether 'these' bits came from the same place as 'those' bits. Associating network traffic with a specific being is virtually impossible thanks to NAT and many other things besides.

Unless you've got yourself plugged into every social network known to man I suspect you have much more important things to worry about.

chiefgoobster

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

They're not really watching you of course - they're watching bits going to and fro, at best knowing whether 'these' bits came from the same place as 'those' bits. Associating network traffic with a specific being is virtually impossible thanks to NAT and many other things besides.

Unless you've got yourself plugged into every social network known to man I suspect you have much more important things to worry about.

I have.
Like when did time start and why do they put frosted glass on
aeroplane toilet windows

:rotfl:

thanks for all your replies. I am more the wiser now for knowing
the info.

tombruton87

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

They're not really watching you of course - they're watching bits going to and fro, at best knowing whether 'these' bits came from the same place as 'those' bits. Associating network traffic with a specific being is virtually impossible thanks to NAT and many other things besides.

Unless you've got yourself plugged into every social network known to man I suspect you have much more important things to worry about.

they are gathering as much info as possible, if u use gmail like me that also helps them track you. You know what they say you only need to worry if youve got somthing to hide. 99.99% of the time all the info is uses for is targetted marketing and search results

John_Gray

chiefgoobster wrote: »

Like why do they put frosted glass on aeroplane toilet windows

It's to prevent the UFOs seeing in...