I realize I was stating the obvious....The government has for a very long time tracked folks, as have commercial trackers. If you have a social security number or driver;s license or bank account....if you pay your taxes....So many things have been tracked and logged and recorded. The books you check out of the library (or used to), the magazines you subscribe to....all of this data about you exists in someone’s file somewhere.
Maybe I am just cynical because my work has always required me to have a clearance so I have always figured lots of folks know more about me than I may even know about myself.
I've been aware of this sort of thing for decades (I used to have high security clearances too, until I 'retired' from the world, and even back then I was rather privacy sensitive.). This thing from google was just new to me, and a quick web search from an alternative search engine didn't turn up anything that seemed to mention what I experienced.
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On the bright side, a System Restore seems to have cleared up the problem with Spybot being locked out of the files and folders.
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Thank you , everyone, for your replies to my vanity thread.
I'm still never going to use google again, voluntarily, although I know that nearly every web page these days has embedded google stuff in them, and even modifying my HOSTS page won't defeat them all.