Do you know what the worst thing is about
Google's new no-privacy policy and attempt to collect data about everything you do online in one place no matter where you do it or on what site?
You have no choice but to go along with it, if you want to find the
information you're looking for. Intrusiveness is one thing,
intrusiveness to which it's impossible to say 'No' is another.
Especially when Twitter and the other services you use online are being just as intrusive.
If you use the Internet at all it's very
hard to avoid Google,
either searching it directly or using it indirectly as the embedded
search engine on someone else's site. And that doesn’t even include
Google Apps, which is the only reason some people ever log in to Google.
Even those
so offended by Google's decision to consolidate all the
tracking data it keeps in Picasa, Gmail, Search and all its other services into a single package
and appalled by its decision to sell that information, much of which
customers didn' t know Google was saving, have no choice but to use
Google some of the time.
Of course, they don't have to log in, so Google would be limited in the degree to which it could invade their privacy.
It wouldn't have their names and addresses, phone numbers and long-term search history.
It would just have one cookie that could identify the user's browser
and associate that individual with a list of Web pages, search queries
and other activities in which he or she has engaged while being tracked
by Google (which is always).
In
its own outreach plan to the media today, the day its new privacy
invasions are set to start, Google spokespeople tried to spin the truth
by making it seem less intrusive to be tracked less completely by Google
than might otherwise be the case.
As if simply following you around all day long, taking surreptitious
pictures, drawing maps of your wanderings and selling all that
information about you to people eager to use it to manipulate and
persuade you isn't bad enough to qualify as a stalker.
It is, but it's the Lite version of Google's efforts to track you.
There are bits of software, special settings on your browser and at
Google you can use to minimize the amount of data Google tracks on you.
Some work well, some don't, some are too much of a pain to worry about.
They'll all conceal different portions of your personal data, or
erase it, or anonymize it to avoid identifying you, personally, with all
the searches on SuperHotMoms.com or TickleYouWithAFeather.org.
They all require some extra work, some additional software running
with your browser, some time spent changing the configuration of your
browser so it automatically deletes all your tracking cookies every time
you shut it down.
What can you do if you don't want to waste time on freeware or
changing the setup of your browser in ways you may not understand?
You can lie.
Lie
to Google. Lie to Yahoo and Bing and Facebook and Twitter and any other
sites that not only want to track you but won't even do their most
basic mob – showing you content – without taking down information you
would indignantly refuse if you were asked by the corn-dog vendor at the
carnival, clerk at the car-wash or zombie behind the counter at a
convenience store that accepts only cash.
Just lie.
If you have to enter a name,
enter a name that is not your own.
Every time a site pops up a window asking for your birthday, pick one
that's not even in the same decade as yours (make sure you're still
claiming to be over 21 so the site doesn't turn you away).
When a site asks you to open an account, use a differerent login name
and address than you'd need to buy something. Tell Google you live in
Seattle; tell Bing you live in San Jose. Tell Twitter you live on a
different planet.
It won't save you from having all the searches you run or sites you
visit tracked. It won't assign a different IP address to your browsing
data to make you harder to find,
It won't erase any of your past history; it won't add any history that's less embarrassing.
What it will do is create a fictional, named persona to whom some of your searches and browsing can be attributed.
It will break up the global picture of all your activities online
into smaller chunks so no single vendor has the whole picture of
everything you do.
They don't have the right to demand that, anyway. They ask because
they know you'll usually go along with it, not because you're obligated
to tell them.
The only time you're obligated to tell the truth is when you're
buying something and the credit-card has to be yours, or signing up for a
service that depends on using your correct identity – at the DMV or
your bank, for example.
Don't make all the names random. Make up a couple of fake personas
and use them consistently so you don't waste time and get frustrated
while filling out online forms. Just paste the answers in and get on
with your business.
It's not a crime; it's not an ethical violation. It's not even
particularly rude, considering how intimate, complete and unwanted a
profile Google is building of you.
Protect yourself a little without hurting anyone; be someone else for a while.
I
f
it confuses anyone trying to keep track of you online, it serves them
right. No one has the right to follow you all the time without your
consent. No one has the right to know everything you do. No one has the
right to insist you always tell the truth when they're asking intrusive,
manipulative questions without answers to which they won't give you the
free service they promised when you hit their site in the first place.
And, with enough fake information in their databases, maybe Google
and the rest of the identity-data thieves will tone down their own
demands for information you wouldn't normally give your best friend, let
alone a disembodied representation of the advertising world.
It's impossible to hurt the feelings of a web site.
