Tips to protect oneself a minimum from Google

[sid]

in order to prevent google analytics from collecting information, i would suggest using the firefox addon called 'Customize Google'.
_http://www.customizegoogle.com/

Hi Iconoclast, this addon does not work with the newer versions of Firefox (latest update is from 2008). Any alternatives for stopping google analytics to collect data?

Hi Salleles

Refer to my earlier post regarding Firefox and noscript.

 

[rylek]

Also, to help protect oneself from some other forms of unique identification and tracking as discussed in the SOTT article:

What the World Knows About Your Computer

one can use something like Privoxy available at http://www.privoxy.org/.

Speaking of Privoxy there's also Tor which is used together with Privoxy, this can be found here _www.torproject.org

More information about Tor: _en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)

The Onion Router (Tor) is a free software implementation of second-generation onion routing enabling Internet anonymity by thwarting network traffic analysis

although I'm not too sure what to make of this:

Originally sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory, Tor became an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) project in late 2004 and the EFF supported Tor financially until November 2005.[7] Tor software is now developed by the Tor Project, which since December 2006 is a 501(c)(3) research/education non-profit organization based in the United States of America that receives a diverse base of financial support.

:/

 

[Iconoclast]

yes, unfortunately it seems customizegoogle is not being developed anymore...

recently a new add-on came to my attention: GoogleSharing
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60333

as far as i understand it, it routs all identifyable information through a proxy server and muddles it with everyone else's search, making the transferred data to google rather useless to them.

 

[fabric]

I use NoScript with Cookie Monster for firefox. It does job pretty well. Only thing is every time you go to a new site you have to manually allow the permissions if you are okay with it. Can be a little tedious at times but one gets used to it pretty quickly.

That google sharing link looks pretty interesting - gonna give it a try! Thanks.

 

[D69]

I didn't try it yet but it might be interesting
Here is a link.

__http://www.googlesharing.net/

 

[Ellipse]

My last recommendations for Firefox extensions :

Ghostery : http://www.ghostery.com/ (activate it with Blocking->On after installation). Will block hidden scripts that track our behavior (google analytic and a lot more).
+ CookieCuller (destroy all cookies except those flagged) http://cookieculler.mozdev.org/
+ YesScript to deactivate javascript on Google main page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4922

The only constraint is the need to click on the Cookie Culler button often to clear the cookies.

 

[D69]

FYI :)

__http://donttrack.us/

I don't trust them either but it is interesting how they describe google :D