Don't Google

[rhett o rick]

or Yahoo. Use Ask.com with askeraser which deletes your search data within hours. The others retain your infor for a significant period of time. Even if you think you have nothing to hide, always use askeraser to encourage the others to follow suit.

This isn't intended to be an ad but to help get big brother off our backs.

[demgrrrll]

1. I agree. I had no idea that they held the information for any length of time

How long do they hold the information?

[RuleOfNah]

8. The net never forgets.

If a site doesn't retain the data then a number of questionably legal government programs will (or illegal programs or international programs or other criminals). There are a lot of ways to track people (cookies, images, hostnames, packet timings, etc). Even those that try to remain untrackable become trackable via activity or noticeable inactivity.

Assume it is retained and adjust your behavior and intentions accordingly. Learn about "traffic analysis" and related topics.

[Faux pas]

2. Thanks for the tip, I had no clue. Too bad ask's layout is so

ugly. I'll take privacy over aesthetics any time though. :)

[rhett o rick]

3. Google and Yahoo may have to follow suit to compete. nm

[Faux pas]

7. They might have to when the word you're spreading gets out

there. :thumbsup:

[Lowell]

4. Firefox has a great plug in called Track Me Not

It performs random nonsense queries in the background. Thousands of them during a day. It fills google and yahoo with bogus tracks. I use it regularly and don't worry about big brother looking over my shoulder. If they want to read all my crazy automated searches then more power to them. On the other hand google and yahoo really suck for aiding the administration in their domestic spying.

[rhett o rick]

5. Thanks for the tip. I don't use Google or Yahoo because, as you stated, they helped the fascist

government in their violation of the Constitution.

[rhett o rick]

6. Here's some info on Track Me Not. No liberal should be without it.

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/TrackMeNot/

[stickernation]

9. could you link to some proof ?

i know google keeps search data but i haven't heard of them giving info to the Bushmafia. is that true? last time i paid attention to this they were energetically dissing Gonzales, which made me feel google-patriotic....

link would be much appreciated !

-s

[RuleOfNah]

10. Countrytap.

Here is a link documenting a situation involving something between you and search engines (and everything else) on the net.

http://www.eff.org/cases/att

[rhett o rick]

11. I would like proof also. I read an article months ago but haven't been able to find it again. nm

[rhett o rick]

12. Anyone know how long ISP's keep data?? nm