I've heard just about all the arguments about internet privacy. When rendered to the basics they appear to be something like "Hey, it is the internet. You've got no expectation of privacy." What isn't discussed is expectation of privacy from who (or whom). Americans by and large want to keep information private and out of the hands of the government. Europeans focus on information in the hands of corporations.
Meanwhile over at Casa de Google, we have a large and growing private corporation consistently taking steps to market information to corporations obtained by tracking tax paying units on the internet. Now Google has gone public with plans to integrate information culled from the internet about users of its services and sell that information to companies willing to pay for it.
http://www.google.com/policies/faq/At this point I find it advisable that I decline to participate. That said, what technical measures are available to me (as a representative of Joe and Martha Sixpack) to hinder Google's efforts to selling information about me (something for which I have not been compensated). Back o' the napkin I figger:
--stop using google and shift to, say, Yahoo
--use search engines which do not record IP addresses (e.g. IXQUICK)
--stop using Google alerts
--Unload gmail and change over to a service which appears to be unaffiliated with google
Google's announcement of its new terms and conditions is your basic "Move along, nothing here to see" approach. My problem is every time a privacy flap has shown up in the media, Google lands on the wrong side. Hence, I want to take the latest changes as an opportunity to go Google Free.
My question of APS internet propeller heads is simple. What other technical strategies can I use to minimize my foot print on the internet?
