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Showing posts from June, 2011

Don't let Google track your entire browsing history

So Google has recently publicized the "+1" button for websites, which "competes" [1] with the Facebook [Like] button and the Twitter tweet button. This is a much more worrisome phenomenon than we give it credit for. Notice how the Facebook like button is instantly able to tell you which of your friends have liked that page? That is because Facebook is able to correlate your Facebook login with every page you visit. In order to see if any of your friends have liked that page, Facebook has to correlate the URL to your friend list. So even if you haven't clicked [Like], even if none of your friends have clicked [Like], just to be sure of that fact, Facebook will send the URL and your Facebook login to its servers, building up your entire browsing history. And now Google has done it. Twitter did it even before Facebook. I implore you, do not let these corporations track you everywhere you go. This will only end badly. Fortunately there is an easy fix. Add