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So in essence this is for the people who are in denial, right? Toggling the button doesn't effect what or how Google collects your data, only that you can't see
by mimsee 5y ago
So in essence this is for the people who are in denial, right? Toggling the button doesn't effect what or how Google collects your data, only that you can't see it. "Yes I use Google, let Google collect my info, but under no circumstance do I want to see that info." Like what?
If you don't want Google scanning your emails, don't use Gmail. Don't want Google seeing all your queries, don't send them to Google in the first place. Use Duckduckgo or some other service.
- saurik 5y agoI would have guessed this is for people who want to do a "neutral" search query without it being affected by where you are located or your past searches; I am not sure why you would jump to privacy? I guess the options feel a bit like privacy options, looking at it more carefully... but I would still see wanting to turn this off just to avoid ending up in situations where your history pollutes your screen (such as in demos).
- peakaboo 5y agoGoogle records where you are and stores your every search result, and you are not sure how it relates to privacy.
- austhrow743 5y agoClearly they mean how this setting relates to privacy.
- peakaboo 5y agoYou are correct of course. I'm just really tired of seeing Google act like we have options when it comes to privacy.
- mimsee 5y agoI'm talking about privacy because it's easy for people to not realise that this is not a privacy setting. I don't know if disabling the personal results toggle even puts you in to a "neutral" mode of Google since it clearly states at the bottom that: "Some Search results may require additional settings, like Web & App Activity or Location History". Reading more about Web & Web app activity explains it as follows: "If Web & App Activity is turned on, your searches and activity from other Google services are saved in your Google Account, so you may get more personalized experiences, like faster searches and more helpful app and content recommendations."[1] [1]: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?hl=en Edit: reworded from personalized results to personal results
- mattowen_uk 5y agoI have everything that Google allows me to turn off, turned off. And I rarely search (via Google) when logged in with my Google account, and I still see filtered/tailored results based on my IP location and my interests. I also run uBlock Origin, and Cookie AutoDelete, so Google are going to great lengths here to keep on tracking me. It's now at a stage where if you don't want to be tracked, you should just stop using the Internet.
- sen 5y agoI block all Google and Facebook domains at a router level, and haven’t really had many issues. I’m sure there’s sites that don’t work with those blocked but for whatever reason they’re not sites I visit. I get cloud flare captchas occasionally but barely enough to be annoying. I also use a VPN 95% of the time, only turning it off for Netflix occasionally.
- tgragnato 5y agoIt is the most practical solution to make sure there are no leaks to G. The most annoying thing is that reCAPTCHA stop working: more website administrator should consider migrating to hCaptcha.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y agoNo, it's enough to turn off Javascript. Virtually all tracking code is in Javascript.
- zbentley 5y agoAbsolutely not. GP was concerned about: > filtered/tailored results based on my IP location and my interests IP location is typically computed server side, based on the originating IP of requests. Your interests are recorded server side, based on what requests were made. "Tracking" in JavaScript is a big problem, and disabling JS does help prevent third party tools from knowing about you, but the discussion here is about first-party tracking: tracking being by Google, whose site you're using.
- qwertox 5y agoThis can be better archived by using a second, clean browser profile.
- tirpen 5y agoThere's no way it's easier to use a second browser profile every time you want to search and get useable results than just toggling this toggle once.
- np_tedious 5y agoI could see wanting this as a toggle on a particular search more than an account-wide setting
- jonnycomputer 5y agoThis.
- PetahNZ 5y agoIf only DDG was any good at local results.
- mimsee 5y agoYeah, I guess. I wonder if there was a private way for DDG to implement that.
- ForHackernews 5y agoIt works pretty well for me to just include <name of town> in my search query if I want local results.
- AlotOfReading 5y agoThat fails without personalization. Take the example of Dublin. My IP is in Europe, but DDG returns a bunch of results about Dublin, Ohio when I look for "Dublin McDonald's" before eventually linking McDonald's Ireland. Imagine how bad it'd be in Dublin or Pittsburgh, CA or worse, large cities that share a name like San Jose or Ontario.
- boomboomsubban 5y agoTry "Dublin ie McDonald's".
- AlotOfReading 5y agoThat still doesn't resolve the ambiguity of Ontario, which is in both California (CA) and Canada (CA). Moreover, the search is getting a bit unwieldy. The point wasn't to illustrate that there's no way to produce the information without personalization, it's to illustrate that search queries can become much more relevant and straightforward with it in particular, common scenarios.
- boomboomsubban 5y ago
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoI don’t particularly care if Google tracks me, but I don’t want to be put in a filter bubble!
- mimsee 5y agoDoes disabling this setting put you in a "neutral" mode of Google or just hide the [Your flight to AMS] boxes it grabs from your Gmail?
- yosito 5y agoConsidering that Google tracks you because you are the product they are selling, or rather, one sheep in the flock they are selling, removing the filter bubble from your search results seems like just a small, superficial fraction of the bubble Google has you in.
- anchpop 5y agoFor me, I may be the product Google is selling, but they convince me to use Search anyway because it’s much better than the competition (yes I’ve tried DDG). And I can’t see any way that being tracked negatively affects my life, so it’s a trade I’m happy to make
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoI wrote more here about why personalized results and recommendations really bother me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27668373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27668373 But if Google has the information and doesn't do anything with it... I guess I just don't care? Why should I care? I'm open to being convinced on this.
- ptero 5y agoGoogle doesn't do anything with your information for this particular search shown to you. It can still be used to skew your other interactions with Google, it's partners and anyone else with whom Google decides to share the data it has on you.
- 5y ago
- Lio 5y agoHaha yeah, this is me and I am indeed ridiculous. :D I try my hardest not to use Google products because I don't like tracking. Occasionally though I'm forced to use things like YouTube as it's the only source for certain information. I turn off the personalised ads not because I think it stops them tracking me but because of the vague hope that if I still see the ads and they don't need to be personalised then just maybe Google would see the subservience as an unnecessary overhead. ...which is still just wishful thinking on my part. For the record I would happily accept personalised adverts based on context if they would just packing in the forced tracking.
- DrLindemann 5y agoThis are indeed separate effects of surveillance. For most people surveillance does not affect them, if they are not consciously aware of it all the time. They might know it, or remember it, from time to time. But they fade it out. It is like the backrest of your chair. You just recognize it, if you focus on it. Most of the time, you don't. So the question is, do you sense it all the time, just not being aware of it? But after all, just because Google will not turn the collected data against you at the moment, it does not mean, they won't in the future. Or some of their contractors. Or some third party instrumenting google. Or some regulator ...
- sharikone 5y agoIt can be also for people who plan on occasionally sharing their PC. It could be a bit embarrassing to let your friend/family member fo a search and get tailored results
- blueflow 5y agoI need such an feature because google always seems to prefer the information that i already know. Sometimes i'm looking for websites i don't know yet because the information is rare... Sucks that it needs an Google Account (which is no option for me), but i can have a similar effect by using duckduckgo.
- listmaking 5y agoThose are different settings: - the settings for what data about your Google activity is retained are at https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization — in particular, "Web & App Activity" at https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity (for new accounts, it defaults to all activity being deleted after 18 months). - the setting for whether your Google activity is used for ad targeting is at https://adssettings.google.com https://adssettings.google.com (the checkbox under "Advanced", if you're signed in). - For non-Google activity, the setting for turning off Google ad cookies on random ad-carrying websites is to block third-party cookies in your browser. For Chrome, it is at chrome://settings/cookies
- spansoa 5y ago> Use Duckduckgo or some other service DDG is not a silver bullet. I use it, but only when combining it with a VPN or sometimes Tor for ultra private searches. DDG is a US company and the US doesn't have a good track record for spying and human rights. DDG's servers are all Amazon based too meaning the data is probably tapped and being spied upon. There's no way of knowing, so combine DDG with an anonymous proxy if you can.
- mrAnon218 5y agoHonestly DDG is not much better than google, hosted in Amazon and got caught selling data from their users, in the matter of search engines we're pm screwed, the ones that are really private like YacY, SearX and MetaGer don't provide results as good as google simply because they don't track the user. About not using Google, well they're even crawling data from Telegram Groups, they're everywhere pretty hard to escape.
- valleyjo 5y agoIf you pay for google workspace do they still scan your emails?
- froh 5y agothey don't scan your emails for ads. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en
- brundolf 5y agoOn top of that: personalized search is the only thing I miss from when I used Google services. It's the only case I can point to where data collection actually benefitted the product in some small way. If I'm going to give them my data anyway, there's no way I'm turning that off. I think most likely this is a sham "privacy" feature that Google is shipping solely for PR reasons
- froh 5y agogoogle doesn't "scan emails for ads", since ca 2017. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en duckduckgo is powered by bing search, no?
- amelius 5y agoMaybe these people don't want others to see their search history when they look over their shoulders?
- jackson1442 5y agoI know Google will occasionally bring literal personal information into your search results- for example if I search "directions home" it will show my home address in the search results. If you're frequently using Search in a location where you don't want these things to appear on your screen, I can definitely see it being useful. I know it's brought up contact information and random crap from emails up in Search before for me.