How to prevent Google from remembering every link you click on

[scottxyz]

Through collecting your IP address, cookie information, and then tracking this down to your machine, Google can and does keep every search you complete on your machine. Yes, that is right, every search you do if required by law, Google Inc., would give up and reveal the exact person who made those searches.

This is from an article at:

http://microdoc-news.info/home/NewsOnGoogle/2003/08/06.html/1

which describes how Google tracks your clicks, and how you can stop it from doing this.

There is also a way you can maintain your privacy by changing some security settings in your browser pertaining to "cookies" (a permanent identifier which some websites store on your computer). Below is this method which you can follow to prevent sites like Google from putting a cookie on your machine and thereby maintaining a permanent record of all the links you've clicked on over time. (I did this in Mozilla - I guess something similar would work in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.)

(1) In my browser Mozilla, I went into

'Edit > Preferences'

(2) I then clicked on:

'Privacy & Security > Cookies'

(3) I left the radio-button 'Enable cookies based on privacy settings' checked, and clicked on the button 'View' to make sure my Privacy Level was set to 'Medium' and then hit OK.

(4) VERY IMPORTANT: I checked the box 'Ask me before storing a cookie'.

This slows things down a bit the next time you log into DU, because a dialog comes up saying "Do you want to allow this website to store a cookie on you?" But I hit "Yes" and there is also a checkbox on this dialog where you can say "Always accept cookies from this website" so you won't get asked anymore for a cookie when logging onto DU.

On other websites where you don't want them storing info on you (such as Google), when this dialog comes up you can say "No" and prevent Google from storing a permanent record on where you've clicked.

[classics]

1. Thanks for posting this.

I was suprised to see google coleected so much information... to think of all the odd things I have searched for in Google.. ;)

For those interested, I was able to deny cookies just from google.com with Mozilla Firebird.

Just go into the privacy options, check the box that says 'deny cookies for removed sites', then delete the cookie for google.com.

I verifed by going back to google a few more time that it would not let it make a new tracking cookie, but google still worked.

[berry]

2. Is the google cookie easy to identify?

I clear out my cookies every once in a while, and wanted to save a few (DU, newspapers, etc.) but I couldn't figure out which cookies were the OK ones.... They all look so anonymous. Luckily I've kept a list of passwords, etc.

Guess I'll try again--I usually avoid messing with what sort-of works. But you make it sound do-able. Thanks.

[classics]

3. Looks like just one google cookie to me.

Unless they are sneaking a 3rd party cookie in there. Here is what google sends for the set-cookie.

---request begin---
GET / HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: Wget/1.8.2
Host: www.google.com
Accept: */*
Connection: Keep-Alive

---request end---
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Cache-control: private
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: PREF=ID=0c2007fe791fea24:TM=1066117167:LM=1066117167:S=9EtDsLYht1yOYMCd; expires=Sun, 17-Jan-2038 19:14:07 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com
cdm: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Stored cookie .google.com 80 / permanent 0 Sun Jan 17 14:14:07 2038
PREF ID=0c2007fe791fea24:TM=1066117167:LM=1066117167:S=9EtDsLYht1yOYMCd
Server: GWS/2.1
Content-length: 2690
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 07:39:27 GMT
Connection: Keep-Alive

[scottxyz]

10. One cookie on your drive - but its entire clicklist stored back at google

I may be wrong, but it seemed like the article was saying that although only one cookie was installed on your hard drive, that same cookie would stay there until year 2038, and every time you clicked on a link at Google, the links you click would be added to a file AT GOOGLE under that cookie number.

That sounds like it would mean that ALL the links you click on Google are stored in a list on GOOGLE'S computers. Somehow it sounds like they can also record additional information about you at Google in this list of clicks, such as your IP address.

I'm not clear whether once you get rid of the Google cookie on your hard drive, would that make it impossible for them to correlate that list of links on their computer with your machine?

At any rate, I shut off cookies!

I also at first liked the idea of bearfartinthewoods, who says you can copy and paste the google link into your browser. But there are two problems:

(1) It's extra work.

(2) Google could still keep a list of your SEARCH TERMS under a cookie record on their machine referencing your machine, even though they would be deprived of knowing which of the resulting links you actually clicked on.

Maybe it would be good to throw Google off the trail by clicking on some conservative websites too...

[JasonBerry]

4. Keeping the "good" cookies

A quick method...Best done with a good "cookie keeper" kind of program

1. Clean all of your cookies out of the COOKIES folder and the few that you'll find in "Temporary Internet Files"....

2. In the browser in your Security and privacy options select to REFUSE all "third-party" cookies.

2. Close your browser

3. Open Browser and be sure and not click on any links.

4. With lists of your "faves" that you want to save the cookies for, begin with your first site and TYPE IT into the address bar. Once there, put in your personalized info for the cookie to "set"...

5. Immediately from the first site, TYPE in your second "fave" URL and do like above.

6. Continue as above going DIRECTLY from one "fave" site you want to keep cookies from to the next until completion.

7. When you have visited all of your "fave" sites that use cookies and you want to keep -- you should have ONLY the cookies you WANT in the COOKIE folder.

8. With your "cookie keeper" program (or browser depending on which you're using) have them save all the cookies that are at that moment in your COOKIE folder.

9. You should be set.

If you ever want to add a cookie to the keepers and aren't sure by looking which cookie file it is. Repeat above. It will just get rid of all cookies you don't want - saving the ones you have told it to save, and then you have a "clean" folder to discover cookie for new site.

[JasonBerry]

5. One other thing

I should have said...after you have all of your "good" cookies set, be sure and make it a practice to clean your cookies on browser shutdown, or run a cleaner program. Just be sure cookies are cleaned out regularly to prevent tracking cookies from being able to track anything. You'll be surprised how fewer there will be after telling your browser to refuse third-party cookies.

[oasis]

6. kick

[jbutsz]

7. Thanks

I use Google dozens of times a day and haven't heard of this until now. Thank you for bringing it up!

[bearfartinthewoods]

8. or just copy and paste the url in a seperate browser window

[izzie]

9. My God Ashcroft is going to know I was looking for.....

A girls riding camp of the 1940's in the lake region of NH. What will he make of that? I am a spy? I wish to blow up Churchill Downs? I may try another Charge of the Light Brigade? What in hell does the gov. want with this stuff? This is just getting crazy.We are paying people to see what we look at on a PC? This is getting to be a police state.