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> Google Privacy Enhancer performs random searches at > random intervals while you are (optionally) logged into > your Google account. This "fuzzes" your se

> Google Privacy Enhancer performs random searches at > random intervals while you are (optionally) logged into > your Google account. This "fuzzes" your search history, > making it difficult for Google [..] to gather > information about you. I am reminded of the classic MIT AI koan: > In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came > to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. > "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. > "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play > Tic-Tac-Toe" Sussman replied. > "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. > "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how > to play", Sussman said. > Minsky then shut his eyes. > "Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher. > "So that the room will be empty." > At that moment, Sussman was enlightened. If you generate random searches, then all you're doing is causing the derived profile contain inaccurate data. You'll still see Adsense ads and Amazon recommendations, but now they'll be timeshares in somalia or horse dildoes instead of anything you might be interested in. If you trust the search provider to not lie, then a better option is to use their history opt-out (e.g. Google's is at https://history.google.com/history/ https://history.google.com/history/). If you don't trust them, use Tor with either Incognito Mode (for Chrome and Chromium) or Private Browsing (for Firefox). The OP's link provides a false sense of security, which is worse than no security. > making it difficult for [..] other parties -- > such as anyone monitoring your web traffic over the > wire -- to gather information about you Google uses https, so if some third party has access to your search traffic then they've already solved a much more difficult problem than filtering out fake searches.

dombili 12y ago
I agree with everything you said, but I don't think the OP's link provides a false sense of security. This is a direct quote from the link: > This doesn't guarantee privacy or anonymity, but it should frustrate the efforts of those who would like to follow you, analyze you, and sell to you on the web. Also, this is not a tool for everyone who wants to stay private on the web. Only tech savvy people know what GitHub is and how to use a .py file and those people are already aware of what companies out there do to track you and how to stop them and which way is efficient or not.
- jmillikin 12y ago
  It doesn't, though. There is no adversary who is capable of recording search traffic but is unable to categorize searches as automated/manual with high confidence. The script defends against a category of attacker that does not exist. If you walked away from reading that page thinking installing that script improves your security profile or obscures your search history, then it has given you a false sense of security.
  - dombili 12y ago
    Right, I'm not disagreeing with you. Google can certainly find out what you've actually searched for, which makes this tool useless. But that wasn't my point. This is not a website that you go to and tells you that if you click this one big red button, it'll trick Google into thinking you've searched for things you didn't actually care about. This is a python script. People who are capable of using this tool are tech savvy people who know what Google does to track you and what ways are efficient or not to stop them from doing so. And those people are probably not naive enough to think that using this tool alone would help your privacy. But just in case they are, the author left that note I quoted in my previous comment.
simula67 12y ago
> better option is to use their history opt-out I found that Google Now recommends me stuff based on what I have searched before even though I have search history turned off.

dombili 12y ago

I agree with everything you said, but I don't think the OP's link provides a false sense of security. This is a direct quote from the link: > This doesn't guarantee privacy or anonymity, but it should frustrate the efforts of those who would like to follow you, analyze you, and sell to you on the web. Also, this is not a tool for everyone who wants to stay private on the web. Only tech savvy people know what GitHub is and how to use a .py file and those people are already aware of what companies out there do to track you and how to stop them and which way is efficient or not.

jmillikin 12y ago
It doesn't, though. There is no adversary who is capable of recording search traffic but is unable to categorize searches as automated/manual with high confidence. The script defends against a category of attacker that does not exist. If you walked away from reading that page thinking installing that script improves your security profile or obscures your search history, then it has given you a false sense of security.
- dombili 12y ago
  Right, I'm not disagreeing with you. Google can certainly find out what you've actually searched for, which makes this tool useless. But that wasn't my point. This is not a website that you go to and tells you that if you click this one big red button, it'll trick Google into thinking you've searched for things you didn't actually care about. This is a python script. People who are capable of using this tool are tech savvy people who know what Google does to track you and what ways are efficient or not to stop them from doing so. And those people are probably not naive enough to think that using this tool alone would help your privacy. But just in case they are, the author left that note I quoted in my previous comment.

simula67 12y ago

> better option is to use their history opt-out I found that Google Now recommends me stuff based on what I have searched before even though I have search history turned off.