{Beware}: Google accused of giving personal data to advertisers

[bitmover]

Privacy has become a very expensive commodity, at a time when everyone is collecting all the possible information about every internet user. Some do it for profit only, but it should not be forgotten that all security agencies are spying internet users in ways that are largely unknown to us today.

I read an article by  Jameson Loop where claims that his privacy set up costs him 30k USD and more 15k USD per year.
This includes renting a fake house (to receive goods bought on the internet for example), buying pre paid credit cards, vpn, hardware, and tons of other stuff

https://blog.lopp.net/modest-privacy-protection-proposal/Pricing people out of privacy

Before we begin, I want to be clear that many of the techniques come at a cost. I had to fill out hundreds of pages of paperwork, spend around $30,000 in legal/banking/service fees, and endure a four-month process in order to achieve my goals. I estimate annual recurring costs of over $15,000 for my extreme setup.

Ofc this guy is a really extreme situation, but it is really a shame that we have come to this situation, where protecting our privacy has that high cost.

[1714992604]

1714992604

[o_e_l_e_o]

Ofc this guy is a really extreme situation, but it is really a shame that we have come to this situation, where protecting our privacy has that high cost.

Lopp made himself a target, which is why it cost him so much to disappear again. If you plaster your real name, face, location, daily activities, habits and so forth across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, then it's going to take a significant amount of time, effort and money to undo that. Similarly, if you send selfies of yourself holding your passport or driver's license to various unknown strangers running scam ICOs or shady exchanges, then you might never be able to undo the damage you have done to yourself.

If, however, you don't use any Google products, Microsoft products, any social media, always use a VPN +/- Tor, use a properly configured and secure browser, don't willingly post details about yourself all over the internet, etc., then that goes a long way to protecting your privacy in the first place. Linux + Firefox with essential add ons + ProtonVPN + Tor can all be set up and used for free. There are privacy respecting sites and software alternatives to everything you regularly use, and almost always for free. Check out the following resources:
https://www.privacytools.io/
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki/de-google

Now obviously, if you are a person of interest to a three letter agency and they want to track you down, they above measures are unlikely to stop them. But they do stop Google/Microsoft/Facebook/your ISP spying on you and building a profile on you, and they do stop the kind of blanket surveillance that is becoming common around the world.

[bL4nkcode]

I've noticed it myself that sometimes Youtube starts recommending videos about something that I've just read on reddit. And I use Firefox with some adblock, noscript and a few other addons.

There's a turn off function or pause on google account settings, which records all the activity on your browser while browsing (while login or not) whether its G-products or not. The rest, I don't know, its either they have control all the data (cookies) site you commonly visited.

[o_e_l_e_o]

There's a turn off function or pause on google account settings

This does nothing. At most, it just stops you seeing what they are recording about you in your account settings, and stops them serving you ads based on your browsing history. They are 100% still collecting, collating, and selling your data.

It's like when users turned off the option for Google to track their location. All that happened is they could no longer see their location history. Google was still tracking every move they made. Don't worry though, they said they promised they would stop doing it.

[hatshepsut93]

A better option would be to use an entirely separate browser for Facebook/Google/Youtube, and another browser for everything else. An even better option is to not have a Facebook or Google account at all.

That's what I've been doing lately, but my ultimate goal is to flush all my accounts and start with a clean slate, so that I can break all the links that these companies were building. But for that I need to also change my ip with a VPN, and maybe even change devices, so it's something that I can't do easily right now.

I read an article by  Jameson Loop where claims that his privacy set up costs him 30k USD and more 15k USD per year.
This includes renting a fake house (to receive goods bought on the internet for example), buying pre paid credit cards, vpn, hardware, and tons of other stuff

That's not just the cost of privacy, it's the cost of vanishing and fixing your mistakes. If you make sure that your personal info doesn't touch the Internet - no KYC, no personal photos, no real names, etc., then the cost of privacy is much lower.

[hulla]

Use Firefox or Brave Browser or even TOR. The new 69.0 version of Firefox comes with a built-in option to block tracking cookies.
Google is making money selling your online activity to anyone willing to pay for it.

From the 3 browsers, you mentioned Firefox and TOR are the only anonymity browser cause the brave browser which offers pay ad cant be trusted either.

Honestly, the issue about Google giving their browser user personal information to advertisers don't catch me off guard because this is not the first time they were accused of this situation and they also don't hide it either which is why they implemented the incognito browser for the user which care about their privacy. Besides, they even stated it in the incognito browser page.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Which is why they implemented the incognito browser for the user which care about their privacy.

No. Just no.

Incognito mode does absolutely nothing to protect your privacy. The only thing it stops is your history and cookies being stored on your local machine, which only protects you from other people who use the same computer as you do. It does nothing to stop websites tracking you, it does nothing to stop Chrome gathering all your data, it does nothing to stop your government/ISP/WiFi provider from spying on you, it does nothing to hide your IP, it does nothing to protect your privacy.

Chrome with incognito mode enabled is still Chrome. Google know every site you visit whether or not you are in incognito mode.

[bitmover]

That's not just the cost of privacy, it's the cost of vanishing and fixing your mistakes. If you make sure that your personal info doesn't touch the Internet - no KYC, no personal photos, no real names, etc., then the cost of privacy is much lower.

I mostly agree with you. He made his mistakes.

However, don't you have a verified account in an exchange? You cannot even sell your Bitcoin for fiat without handing over your personal documents. You can't live without doing some kyc from time to time (in real life and virtual life)

Don't you use Google products? Gmail, Google, Android?
Facebook products? Instagram, WhatsApp...

We are surrounded by those services, and we can't avoid them. Browsing the internet on tor is a pain in the ass, blocking cookies is even dangerous because you need to enter you password Everytime, and so on.

[hatshepsut93]

I mostly agree with you. He made his mistakes.

However, don't you have a verified account in an exchange? You cannot even sell your Bitcoin for fiat without handing over your personal documents. You can't live without doing some kyc from time to time (in real life and virtual life)

Don't you use Google products? Gmail, Google, Android?
Facebook products? Instagram, WhatsApp...

We are surrounded by those services, and we can't avoid them. Browsing the internet on tor is a pain in the ass, blocking cookies is even dangerous because you need to enter you password Everytime, and so on.

His mistake wasn't that he used any of those services, he had weak real-world privacy - the person who called SWAT on him managed to easily find his living place from his full name. You can be a public person and still have privacy, like celebrities or famous entrepreneurs do, and that's what Lopp has fixed - now it's harder to find his house or track his movements.

As for KYC and Google, Facebook, etc., you don't have to give your real name, just use a made up one. If you absolutely have to do KYC, do it with an account that is tied to an email that isn't used anywhere - even if KYC data will leak, it would be hard to connect it with your existing accounts.

[airdropdude]

For me, This is expected. I'm used to being scared of this sometimes ago. But now, I noticed that Google gives everything for free and if personal data is leaked, I would not blame them much because we get some things for free for sharing our personal data. Most time, we find it easy to get back our personal data because of Google and can we stop using it? It will be hard. Also, if anyones  personal Data is leaked. He can stop using Google if he likes.
I personally prefer Google for now.

[o_e_l_e_o]

However, don't you have a verified account in an exchange?

Nope. I have exactly one exchange account, opened under a brand new email and fake name not used for anything else.

You cannot even sell your Bitcoin for fiat without handing over your personal documents.

I spend most my of bitcoin directly with the vendor, but if I do need to change to fiat, I do so peer-to-peer without any documents or verification.

Don't you use Google products? Gmail, Google, Android?

Nope, nope, and nope.
Instead of Gmail use Protonmail, Tutanota, or Disroot. Instead of Google use Duckduckgo, Startpage, or Searx. Instead of Android use GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or Ubuntu Touch.

Facebook products? Instagram, WhatsApp...

Again, nope, nope, and nope.
There is no need to actually ever use social media.
Instead of Whatsapp use Signal.

Browsing the internet on tor is a pain in the ass, blocking cookies is even dangerous because you need to enter you password Everytime, and so on.

You don't need to use Tor, although it is obviously the gold standard. You can get a lot of the same benefits from using a good VPN and Firefox with the correct add ons and security/privacy/tracking tweaks. It's perfectly acceptable to block all cookies by default and just manually whitelist the small handful for websites which you log on to daily (such as this forum).

[bitmover]

However, don't you have a verified account in an exchange?

Nope. I have exactly one exchange account, opened under a brand new email and fake name not used for anything else.

And fake documents? Is this exchange really reliable? Would you send 10k usd there ? I doubt you could do that in bitstamp or coinbase for example.

Don't you use Google products? Gmail, Google, Android?

Nope, nope, and nope.
Instead of Gmail use Protonmail, Tutanota, or Disroot. Instead of Google use Duckduckgo, Startpage, or Searx. Instead of Android use GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or Ubuntu Touch.

Facebook products? Instagram, WhatsApp...

Again, nope, nope, and nope.
There is no need to actually ever use social media.
Instead of Whatsapp use Signal.

Use signal and talk to whom? To only 3 nerds from bitcointalk? Do t you have a personal life? Don't you meet people in parties and they ask for your WhatsApp? Don't you rent a house in airbnb and talk to the hoster via WhatsApp? You may even be bad rated if you cannot be contacted.

I am sorry but what you are describing is just a shitful internet experience.not only a shitful internet experience, but this even interfere in your personal life.

Living without WhatsApp and sending sms again like in the 90s and 00s?
Searching ddg is like searching in Altavista.... Using bugged and broken Android versions..

Take a read in this  article. It is about a guy who had this broken internet experience you are describing, and he just gave up. He has a similar setup that you are describing. Worth reading, recommended by proton mail blog:

https://slate.com/technology/2014/02/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-a-less-private-internet.html

I used to play a little game called “Let’s See How Completely I Can Ruin My Internet Experience.” I used a Firefox browser with about 50 privacy-related plugins. Any website I visited had large chunks missing due to blocked JavaScript (thanks, NoScript). Once I’d allowed the barest number of scripts necessary, I had to talk my zealous cookie managers into allowing me to log in. That is, of course, after I closed the alerts of analytics packages tracking me, since they typically covered up login forms. Browsing the Internet was, frankly, a chore.

 I treated myself like a criminal, obsessed with keeping a very low online profile. I deactivated my Facebook and ran a Diaspora node instead (no one ever friended me), I left Twitter for Identi.ca (you wouldn’t know her; she’s from Canada), and I ran an unstable build of CyanogenMod on my Android phone that let me remove permissions from applications. I was a ghost in the shell, communicating only in dark alleyways of the Internet like a nerdy drug dealer.

 Regular Internet users rolled their eyes at me when I said, “I don’t use Facebook,” or “I won’t see your tweets; just find me on identi.ca.” In my righteous stand against being tracked online, I became an Internet hipster. And like a hipster, I was pretty smug about it.

I was fighting the good fight, ready at the drop of a hat to offer my cool, insidery 2 cents. “Oh, you’re using Google Chrome? You know, Google knows everything about you now.” “You allow scripts? You’re letting Facebook know every site you’ve visited.” “Do you know how many ad networks you’re plugged into when you visit the Wall Street Journal online?” I felt that if everyone did what I was doing, the big companies would learn their lesson. They’d change, and the Internet of the mid-2000s would come back. We’d have our privacy.

[o_e_l_e_o]

And fake documents? Is this exchange really reliable? Would you send 10k usd there ? I doubt you could do that in bitstamp or coinbase for example.

It's a non KYC account for trading bitcoin to stablecoins or altcoins. I don't trade fiat on exchanges, so no need to do KYC.

Use signal and talk to whom? To only 3 nerds from bitcointalk?

Most people I want to chat with on a daily basis (wife, couple of family members, handful of friends) also use Signal. Anyone else I can email or phone.

Do t you have a personal life? Don't you meet people in parties and they ask for your WhatsApp?

Lol. I'm well past the age of going to parties to meet people.

Don't you rent a house in airbnb and talk to the hoster via WhatsApp? You may even be bad rated if you cannot be contacted.

I've used Airbnb a couple of times, and always communicated through the website, never through WhatsApp. I've never been rated poorly.

I am sorry but what you are describing is just a shitful internet experience.

In your opinion, maybe. I'm sure I get more out of the internet than 99% of the population who are too busy sharing photos of their latest skinny frappuccino to care that everywhere they go, everything they say, and everything they do is being monitored, logged, and sold.

Searching ddg is like searching in Altavista.... Using bugged and broken Android versions..

If you really love Google so much, than you can use Searx and configure it to just search Google on your behalf and return the results to you. The exact same results as Google without any of the privacy invasion, data mining, and tracking.

I used to play a little game called “Let’s See How Completely I Can Ruin My Internet Experience.” I used a Firefox browser with about 50 privacy-related plugins. Any website I visited had large chunks missing due to blocked JavaScript (thanks, NoScript). Once I’d allowed the barest number of scripts necessary, I had to talk my zealous cookie managers into allowing me to log in. That is, of course, after I closed the alerts of analytics packages tracking me, since they typically covered up login forms. Browsing the Internet was, frankly, a chore.

Well then he configured it poorly. There is no requirement for 50 privacy related plugins, and I'm sure with that many, they would constantly conflict and interact with one another in unpredictable ways. I use 7 plugins, and I configured them so long ago I don't even give them a second though. I almost get nauseous when I have to use Internet Explorer on a computer at work and see what websites actually look like. The ads, the scripts, the pop ups, the autoplaying videos, not to mention the huge amount of third party cookies and tracking which goes on in the background.

[Chaki #diarize]

Use Firefox or Brave Browser or even TOR. The new 69.0 version of Firefox comes with a built-in option to block tracking cookies.
Google is making money selling your online activity to anyone willing to pay for it.

It is hard to believe either, but as you can notice that everything is like ver open like people can now make many links that may lead to phishing site that can penetrate your google accounts.

[bob123]

Use signal and talk to whom? To only 3 nerds from bitcointalk?

Signal is more popular than you think, it has over 10 million download on Google Play

I can confirm that.
The majority of my friends are using signal or threema. Only a small percentage (<10% still sticks with whatsapp).

I mean.. sure i still have whatsapp installed, but thats only for those few people who don't know how to switch to a dilfferent one.

Even one non-techy person i know is only communicating via signal with all of her friends (all of them are far away from being tech-savy).
Signal is steadily gaining more user. All of the data affairs of facebook are definitely good reasons to switch.

[Zionatin]

I just wish that DuckDuckGo and Gmail alternatives like Protonmail and Tutanota would step their game up. Gmail is still miles ahead of the privacy-focused email clients in terms of UI and UX.

I don't agree with this on proton mail.
I am a proton mail user for years, and their service is better than Google mail. Gmail ads are becoming annoying to me, also

They are now going to launch their calendar. When that calendar is done, and if it is good and easy to use (with some automatic update like trips ) there will be no reason to keep using gmail., Imo.

The only problem is that their service is expensive. Very expensive.

Additionally, their UI is amazing, their Android app is nice and clean.

Proton mail also allows you to use an email like bitmover@pm.me for free, which is very cool.

About duckduckgo, unfortunately, it is a shitty search engine. Can't find anything there.
Maybe some customization is necessary in a search engine, such as location based results... I don't know why, but ddg is useless to me.

I agree. I use protonmail too and I have never had any problem. Seems safe and secure. For search engines I use presearch which earns you crypto while promoting and supporting the crypto world.
I only use Gmail to have a gmail account for easy logins. Other then that I see no advantage.