Using it as your engine results in your every online move being tracked and being sold by google to companies trying to get your money nevermind the targeted ads, etc. use another search engine. Plenty work just as well. I personally like DuckDuckGo. Make it your home page and preferred search engine on every device (phone, tablet, laptop and desktop). Unless you eliminate it everywhere you’re still being stalked recorded and your personal information. I’m not referring to your passwords, credit cards, social security number, etc. Companies are using your buying, searching, considering buying, travel, considering travel to try to control you with targeted ads after they pay google for it. You lock the house door when you go out. Why leave your internet history exposed ready to exploited?
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SW-User
I'm not any more paranoid about Google "tracking me" than I am about drinking fluoridated water
Seriously, their "tracking" doesn't amount to sh*t, so why would I lose sleep over it at night?
Seriously, what "personal information" did you actually GIVE to Google?!?!?!
Seriously, if Google, Facebook, etc. gives you "targeted ads" what difference does it make if the ads are generic and not based on your browsing history? Moreover, if you're concerned about ads dragging you out of your bed in the middle of the night and making you disappear, why aren't you using an [i]adblocker[/i], at the [i]browser[/i] level, rather than worrying about details at the [i]site[/i] level (Google)?
Did you ever worry about your tv killing you, because your local NBC affiliate showed ads during the newscast, to make that newscast free to you? Or because basic cable did the same to make Duck Dynasty somewhat free to you (beyond the cost of basic cable itself)?
Can you give me specific examples of how Google has actually harmed you when you used any of it services without providing a credit card?
Moreover, you can disable "history" in certain parts of the Google ecosystem as well
And any site could track you, regardless of what they SAY they are doing. You have to take DuckDuckGo's word for it that they aren't tracking you. That's the nature of a wide area network.
I'm happy with Google's Search results, and being able to fine tune Google News as a news [i]aggregator[/i], and Gmail, and Google Voice, and Google Calendar, and Google Drive, and Google Apps, and YouTube, etc. so I have no incentive to switch to anywhere else for any of this functionality, particularly since any "tracking" they may do of me in return for giving me all this for free does not harm me one bit. And since I have an adblocker active in general, I don't even see ads in the first place, on [i]any[/i] site.
@SW-User I used to use an ad blocker, but I got tired of some sites asking me to turn it off. I'm with you, I don't care if they track me and show me targeted ads. And it's weird that people are all worked up about a search engine when their internet provider has a record of every site they visit. If someone is doing something illegal, law enforcement will go to their IP for records, not google.
SW-User
@Lila15 I used to use AdBlocker Ultimate, then whitelist the one or two sites that actually prompted me to turn it off AND simultaneously reduced functionality of the site. The only one I really remember not working as well with the adblocker on was weather.com ... so with Weather.com, I experimented with trial and error using the NoScript extension to find with domains needed to be blocked to prevent the annoying ads, without losing functionality
But lately, I've started using uBlock Origin, and I've disabled the previous two extensions while I see how uBlock Origin does ... and it just seems to work, even on Weather.com ... I don't get prompted to turn anything off, I don't lose any functionality, and I don't have to experiment with each of the 100 domains that Weather.com retrieves third-party content from
