If you sign out of G Mail does google still track you?

self | Dec 25 | self

[dennisw]

One of my New Years resolutions is to not stay signed into Google mail or Google anything//

Does this help with the tracking google does? I use track me not on Firefox and Chrome.

I am using Bing and Google for searches

Thanks

[a fool in paradise]

If you are on facebook and ebay, I’d suggest logging out of those when you aren’t using them either.

Many “media” and blog sites now grab your facebook info in case you try to post a comment/reply.

And I’ve seen an ebay (sidebar, not newsfeed) ad on facebook that displayed a previous item I’d looked at there with a line like “you still have time to bid on this”.

If you aren’t using a website, you may want to rethink being logged in.

Isolating browsing activity might also thwart any tracking cookings (use one browser for the tracking sites and another for other activity).

[RedStateRocker]

Do you have an anonymous surfing feature? I think newer versions of Windows do. Mac has “private browsing” (nicknamed ‘porn browsing’ if you ever see it referred to that way) that seems to stop ads from tracking me everywhere; without it every darn page seems to have ebay and other ads for stuff I've looked for.

[9thLife]

You can sign out, shut down, move to the North Pole and change your name and google will still track you. imho.

[upchuck]

Some tracking can be good. For example, FR uses Google Analytics to track which links you click on, how long you’re on the site, etc.

Try Ghostery to stop tracking:
https://www.ghostery.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery

Try Startpage instead of Google. Same results with no tracking:
https://startpage.com/

Personally, I stay away from all social media. Have better things to do with my time. Like posting this on FR :)

[dennisw]

Thanks for all answers....And Merry Christmas!

[TheStickman]

If you use the internet, you are being tracked. Period.

[Georgia Girl 2]

If you are on the internet you are being tracked by somebody.

[upchuck]

Your welcome. Happy to help.

[TomGuy]

Many websites put tracking cookies on your computer.

One program that helps eliminate many trackers is:
http://www.superantispyware.com/

SUPERAntiSpyware has a free version that has limitations

[mac_truck]

If you're using Firefox consider adding Privacy-Badger to identify and block invisible trackers.

[buckalfa]

"If you are on the internet you are being tracked by somebody."

Except of course if you are logged into Free Republic and your beeper is set to stune. Right ? RIGHT??

[TomGuy]

Firefox Anti-Tracking Extensions:
These are some anti-tracking add-ons for Firefox/Palemoon, IE, etc.

DoNotTrackPlus
https://www.abine.com/

Ghostery
https://www.ghostery.com/

Disconnect
https://disconnect.me/

I also found another extension that first tries to load an HTTPS website, as that is a ‘secure’ website:

https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

[dennisw]

I wish I had a beeeber i could put on maxi-stune to stune google and other trackers

STUNE them from orbit its the only way to be sure

[Mr. Jeeves]

I'm not worried about Google any more. Essentially, the situation hasn't changed in seventy years - if you begin to acquire personal power or influence within your sphere to a level that attracts their notice, just like the mafia a government will make sure you are compromisable. They'll get something on you some way, whether Google is involved or not.

If your power and influence remains below their threshold of notice, they will collect data but will never look at it. You just aren't important enough.

Go ahead and use Google and GMail - they are convenient tools that are far more useful to you than harmful. Unless you are planning to run for the Senate - then quit everything immediately. :)

[TomGuy]

“private browsing” does not prohibit a website from putting trackers, etc., on your computer. It does delete/remove those and ‘history’ when the private browsing feature/window is closed.

[Georgia Girl 2]

LOL!

[ViLaLuz]

Bump

[PieterCasparzen]

I just try to do the simple obvious solutions.

Most sites “track” you - certainly the popular search tools.

“How” do they track you ?

Most leave “cookies” “in your browser” - meaning, your browser puts them in local files on your PC.

The next time you go to the same website it will look for cookies stored by your browser.

This is the obvious thing you can mitigate. You can set configure your browser to not accept cookies - except on a case by case basis. So YOU tell your browser which sites you want to save cookies for, and the rest will be rejected.

A few websites, LOL, do not display correctly, but when I see a “blank” page, if I really want to see the site, I allow cookies for it, look at it, when I’m done, I disallow cookies for it again.

You can also tell your browser you ONLY want to keep the cookies for the SESSION - that is, until you close all your browser windows. That is my default for allowing cookies - session only. The only site I allow permanent cookies for - biblegateway, so it can remember my defaults for searching the Bible.

This way, any time you log in to any website where you have a login, such as where you buy things, log in to FR, etc.... the cookies they leave will be wiped clean when you close your browser.

Adobe flash has it’s own kind of “cookies” that it allows websites to save:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_shared_object

I use a Firefox plugin, BetterPrivacy, to wipe those things clean. If you don’t clean out those “flash cookies”, MANY websites save them and a HUGE amount of data about what you’ve been doing on the web will be saved on your computer.

The real danger, of course, is malicious websites and any malicious software that you inadvertantly install on your computer looking at OTHER website’s cookies and flash cookies, even though they didn’t leave the cookies there.

If they’re serious, the webserver hosting the website you are looking at knows your IP address. It has to in order to communicate with you !

So a webserver can keep its own log on the webserver of everything everyone does on their site - and include the browser IP address in the log. Since it’s the webserver (the website) writing to its own files - there’s no way for a website visitor to control this.

This is why some people use an “anonymizer” - it provides a different IP address to webservers than your own. Of course, the anonymizing service knows your real IP address. So, if NSA, etc., wanted to know a lot of these IPs, all they’d technically have to do is establish a front company that runs an anonymizer service. Or, even more simply, just go to an anonymizer company with a court order to turn over data to them.

[TomGuy]

If you use the internet, you are being tracked. Period.

Many times I have awakened in the middle of the night and noticed my modem/router rapidly flashing. Then, even though they are/were in sleep mode, my laptop and/or desktop drives were running furiously.

I just ignore it and figure NSA is collecting its nightly data dump.

:)