[PRIVACY] What Does Google Know About You? - Comments Page 2

And it's not just Google. I don't have a smart phone, but a friend told me that he and relatives were talking about controlling mosquitos on their deck - they were just talking, no searching/internet, etc. Within minutes he had an offer on his IPhone from Amazon trying to sell him an insect fogger, and then the targeted ads on web pages were also about mosquito control. He uses Siri, so she must have been listening.

Thanks for the article. I was able to delete everything EXCEPT for Location. Perhaps I missed on how to do that? Do you know how that is done?

As misterfish wrote, I too notice I get better search results from DuckDuck GO. Google is VERY intrusive. When I purchased a refurbished Android phone I was livid when I found that every photo I took was being uploaded to Google+. They want to know everything you are doing on your phone. Google is just plain scary.

Using session-only cookies and/or AdBlockPlus/NoScript Firefox plug-ins may give you that warm-and-fuzzy feeling for not logging into Google.
However [imho], the 600pound gorilla in the room is still your ISP and what it has the potential to know about your web shindigs!

Hi Bob,

I have not read all comments, but over the last month or so I been getting an email a day from different sources advertising stuff, but showing my full name. This has never happened before. Where are these low lifes getting my full name from? Could it be Google? I am thinking if they have my full name... what else they might have? Man this is getting scarey mate... so much so I feel like scrapping computers completely... or at least my online presence.

Wow, I didn't know my full name is posted here. Maybe I have just answered my own question. Gee Bob, me not a happy camper right now. Been following your stuff here a few years now but never realized this. Guess I am just a dill cause nobody else has put their full name.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Your name does not show up automatically here. Only what you enter on the comment form. And you're not the only person who use their full name in the comments.

Bob, I just recently opened a Gmail account. I haven't followed the instructions you gave above just yet. Why not? Because Gmail keeps changing things around. Something that works one way today may work entirely differently tomorrow. That has caused me a good bit of confusion and irritation. When I try to follow your advice above later tonight, I realize that what you saw may not be what I see but I should still be able to find it--perhaps having to stand on my head? (Gmail lumps AskBobRankin as if it's some ad that I've clicked on.) Thanks again for looking out for us.