by Martin Brinkmann on June 02, 2014 in Companies, Google - Last Update: January 04, 2018 - 30 comments
Tracking is an essential part of online advertising. The more advertising companies know about users who visit web pages and services they display ads on, the better targeted advertisements can be displayed to those users.
When it comes to tracking, Google is without doubt the uncrowned king of it based on the popularity of some of its services and the sheer number of other services that are widely used.
It is not clear if and how the information are used by Google to track users across its services, but it is very likely that at least some information are shared across services, websites and applications.
In fact, it is rather difficult to avoid running into any Google service while you are on the Internet.
Google Search - The most used search engine in the world. Depending on which stats you look at, it captures about 90% of the search market globally. This includes Google custom search which webmasters use to power their site's search functionality.
YouTube - The world's leading video website. Users access it directly but also in form of embedded videos on third-party websites.
Google Apps - This includes a number of popular services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Drive, Google Earth, Picasa, or Google Sites to name a few.
Google Chrome - Google's web browser that has captured a large share of the market in just a couple of years. Chromebooks are rising in popularity as well.
Google DNS - If you have switched your DNS servers to Google, the company knows about every single website and service you visit regardless of program used to do so.
Google Adsense - The world's dominating cpc and cpm advertising service used on many web services. Installed by third-parties. Also included here are DoubleClick (ad management and serving solution) and AdMob (mobile advertising network).
Google Analytics - Another highly popular service that webmasters integrate on their websites to record visitor statistics. Installed by third-parties.
Google Plus - Is often displayed as a widget on websites to provide visitors with options to share the article or service on Google's social networking service. Installed by third-parties.
You can take care of advertisement using ad-blockers or script blockers such as NoScript. NoScript will not only block ads but also Google Analytics, Fonts, embeds and more automatically and with options to enable each script or embed individually should the need arise.
Log out of Google whenever you do not use your account, or use a secondary browser for specific Internet activities such as playing YouTube videos or searching on the Internet (or profiles in Firefox which works well for that purpose).
Google offers some means to opt-out of data collection for specific services. You can get a browser add-on to opt-out of Google Analytics data tracking or opt-out of personalized Adsense ads, but there is no option to opt-out of it all.
Did I miss a service that Google may use to track user activity on the Internet? Have another suggestion on how to avoid being tracked by the company? Let me know in the comment section below.
An analysis of the services and products that Google may use to track your online activities, and how to avoid being tracked.
Perhaps it may be interesting to note Google dedicated Firefox add-ons which aim to temporize, at least, Google tracking.
Alternative search engines of course, I’d forget unfortunately DuckDuckGo because if it struggles for a pretty layout it seems to forget fundamentals such as mainly a time filter. StartPage is interesting.
Thanks for this article and, for sure, taking into consideration the information it provides helps to aggregate a relative user’s privacy. Disconnect add-on is also essential, I believe. Etc. etc. …
This is also why I switched from Firefox to Pale Moon. Not only is code improved but also many extra gadget-features (some of which are mentioned by the articles you link to) have simply been removed from Pale Moon. The browser is swifter and far more inclined to respect the user’s privacy.
I have been with Firefox since its 2.x version. Australis happened to be the extra drop, the ignition of what I had to admit (and had refused to) : the fact I had simply lost confidence in Mozilla.
But the browser architecture remains good, when respected as it was meant to be and when improved within that respect. This is exactly what Pale Moon browser is devoted to.
Try blocking ajax.googleapis.com in Lightbeam/NoScript etc. and you’ll get a good sense of how integrated Google is in your internet experience.
I use FireFox as my main browser, fully locked down, and a second PaleMoon profile for those cases where I need to be more permissive.
Tell me about it, I’m always seeing TCP connections to Google IP addresses just by visiting normal websites with no obvious relation to Google/Google ads. It can be a nuisance when websites use googleapis because if you block googleapis.com quite often their websites wont work properly, especially ones that reply on googleapis’s JQuerys.
The thing is…all this tracking and privacy invasion is for the sake of advertising stuff…but…I never buy anything, so they’re really just wasting all those CPU cycles on me ;-)
Or, as Google’s eric schmidt said, they’re an “identity service”. Identity, while important for advertisers, can also be used for other purposes.
To avoid these trackings you can also use “Disconnect Search” this leads you to a search proxy for google.
Downside is that you can not personalize your search obviously, also the standard open in new tab setting is not available.
Very difficult to find trustworthy browser now. Don’t want my browser connecting to anything unless I specifically direct/authorize it. Google-Chrome (and derivatives) instantly connects to Google servers when merely opening that browser — with no way for user to block it. Simple NetStat queries on most “idle” browsers reveal quiet internet connections established right away.
Thought Pale Moon was a proprietary mainland Chinese product — but closer look indicates it as an open-source project by a lone Netherlands developer, now living/working in Sweden. Maybe there are even more good browser out there, but unknown to most people.
I’m using Pale Moon 24.5.0 (latest) in its 64-bit (PM has 32 and 64 bit) deployment on a Windows 7 64-bit platform, and I enjoy every minute of it, enabling Firefox architecture as I loved it before it became bloated with gadgets, disgraceful and less and less cutomizable.
This said, I’m bouncing on your word “Very difficult to find trustworthy browser now.”. I’d add, to surf in peace.
I mean, what has the Web become or rather, what is it becoming? If one starts being objective about the Web conditions nowadays, the picture is simply an amount of constant dangers, those related to security, those to privacy, those to advertisement (all three sometimes on the same vector). Blessed are the ignorant? At least if they get harmed they won’t have seen the danger arising, and that means no stress. Stress is harm as well.
The Web could be a wonderful world-wide platform. But am I being that dogmatic to wish a world which is not the real world, when the Web is, by its very nature, a reflection of the world and not that of an ideology, be it of peace and brotherhood.
I guess the Web is not the real problem, therefor. But it concentrates what dreamers sometimes tend to forget, that is the amazing sum of dishonesty within mankind.
I don’t see anything on the pale moon main page that addresses security/privacy, otherwise it looks nice
Martin, is there much of anything that can be done to privatize an Android device from Google tracking?
Well you can disable certain features such as Google Now, or prevent update checks, or root the device and install a firewall on it to monitor all traffic, or use the excellent NoRoot Firewall that I reviewed some time ago.
Yes there is… Check it out : Epic Private Browser . Especially for users not skillful in making plenty of tweaks and addons installing . It is Chromium based but even every ID’s are removed – Firefox has plenty ID’s hidden and perhaps can’t be removed (most obvious :unique alfanumeric profile name) .
@DGuru, Yes, I’ve been using Epic for several months now and love it. (Would like to see what Martin has to say about Epic browser.) Still occasionally using Firefox 28 but will most likely retire it shortly. I don’t care for the “new” version and definitely dislike Firefox’s incestuous relationship with Google. Also don’t see how Firefox’s new “bed-mate,” Yahoo, is going to be much different than Google. I recommend Epic to anyone with the possible exception for those who love to do a lot of customization. Epic only allows 6 add-ons as of this date.
Hmm, I use Google search, and many of their products and even have an Android phone, I use Adblock plus in conjunction with Ghostery, but I don’t have a problem with Google tracking me. If I use their products I should abide by their rules yes? So I don’t have a problem with it. It’s like buying an Jaguar XJS XII (expensive sports car) then removing everything about the car that makes it recognizable as that name brand like the Jaguar hood ornament the XJS XII lettering on the back and for that matter how about we swap out the body of the car so no one can tell it’s really a Jaguar. What is the point?
1)Google case : advertiser is the customer who pay to throw you ads, you consum products which show a lot of what you think (even some things you would probably not tell to anyone), what you like/dislike, who you know and which relations you have (gmail/talk in case you wonder not using g+). Everything is recorded ad vitam eternam and build a profile from which you can find an enormous amount of information. What make this profile the more threatening is it is not limited to that thing or that other, since there is an enormous range of google products to get infos from everywhere, thus even if there are for most of them better replacements. Also, from apparently inocuous data you can very effectively deduce private data you never directly shared.
2)Jaguar case : you are the customer who pay for the product. Once you have bought the car, it’s your, you do whatever please you with it and Jaguar know nothing about where you go with it or who you take onboard.
The messianic and monopolistic google behaviors are other reasons to stay aware of it. Inform yourself about those.
How accurate will this massive amount of data be? One day you search for the nearest animal hospital for your neighbors pet — does it mean you own one? You order a new fishing pole — is it a gift you buy once, or something you use? Someone else uses your computer – now you are a different sex. Unless the camera is on, and they have your photo handy, they really do not know who is typing anything. If they sell your life to some other company, they have nothing — no way to place ads which would be better than the company they sold your data to.
I guess you could go all in for Apple, and hope your data is secure. Not sure about Microsoft and their phone is not quite there yet — maybe it will be better soon.
As for Big Brother and 1984, it seems that Europe demanding that data be wiped is the closest thing to a Memory Hole which one could imagine :o
In reality, this advice is not all that useful. If you ever use any Google resources at all from a particular PC or IP address, Google knows about it. If you have ever logged in to a Google account from that IP or PC, Google can tie that account to any other activity, whether you were logged in or not, based on the IP, browser signature, etc. Simply logging out of Google or deleting cookies will not work and does not anonymize you.
Google needs to get your IP address for that though, and how will they do that if you block their services and don’t use the company’s devices and programs?
I just wanted to mention that the information regarding Google DNS privacy appears to be inaccurate. If you look at Google’s page for their DNS service (located here: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/privacy), they say that there’s temporary and permanent information storage. IP and location information is stored temporarily — up to 48 hours. It’s never combined or logged alongside your Google account; therefore, the data never gets linked to you after that period of time. Permanent information includes geolocation. But in reality, only a small, subsample is kept for permanent storage. Again, at that point, it’s not connected to you or your Google account.
Sorry, but how could anyone ever trust Google, or what they say? Look at the constant stream of revelations about them, and let us not forget: they are in the business of collecting as much data as possible about everyone—to believe them if they say in some cases that they voluntarily do otherwise seems to me naïve at best. I cannot even imagine using Google search, Gmail, Chrome, etc.–running Google DNS and trusting them is positively unthinkable to me.
Why even create a google login? If you log into google they track everything you do with ease. I NUKED my google account and Facebook accounts shortly after the Snowden revelations to take control of my privacy.
There are a ton of great privacy addons, like HTTP switchboard and ZenMate. The EditThisCookie and HistoryEraser are also fantastic for privacy.
I hadn’t used Google (not even as my web browser) for quite some time & when I tried to log on I forgot my password. They then wanted me to answer a multitude of personal questions so!!! guess what? I deleted this site. There are plenty of ‘user friendly’ sites out there. Anyway, here is the way to stop google from tracking you. http://techyuga.com/how-to-stop-google-from-tracking-you/
The Referees Association of Ghana (RAG) has acquitted 14 match officials, after concluding investigations on the “Number 12”, by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, which exposed series of match fixing scandals in Ghana and on the African continent.
According to a statement by Mr. Ayita Mensah, General Secretary of RAG, the 14 referees which includes Esther Awo Detse, Prince Coffie, Wiseman Ghansah, Joseph Laryea, Edward B. Quaye, Solomon Mordey, Joseph Ayambila, Freeman Awulo, Charles Ablor, Eku Boateng, Latif Adaari, Yakubu Nuhu Liman, Alhassan Yahaya and Emurana Salifu “were found not culpable and have accordingly been exonerated from any wrong doing”.
This acquittal according to them, was arrived after the Executive Committee of RAG reviewed the investigations by Disciplinary Committee instituted to look into the allegations made in the “Number 12”.
The statement added that, eight match officials which includes David Laryea, Reginald Lathbridge, Safo Adade, Samuel Sukah, Dally Gagba, Furella Bamie, Charles Dowuona
and Umar Teni were found culpable and have all received life bans, after breach the code of conduct and also ban in all related activities involving refereeing.
Notably, the above mentioned referees have already received respective bans from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in connection to the expose’ and are expected to receive further sanctions.
RAG in the statement also placed a 14-day deadline for match officials who intend to appeal their respective bans.