patrick.net

Patrick says

all your searches (which can and have been used against people in court), etc.

Hmmm, I have an idea for a service. It will automatically conduct Google searches that make you look good in court like
- How can I help my country more?
- Where can I find people who love (insert name of your country) as much as I do?
- Charitable organizations I can donate to
- I love my wife and would never murder her. How can I show my appreciation?

Patrick says

* I use Yahoo Finance instead of Google Finance to track my stocks. It's still one part of Yahoo that's better than Google.

I've maintained this for years. Yahoo! Finance is superior.

APOCALYPSEFUCK_is_ADORABLE says

I'd pay $100 a year to make sure Google is completely fucked as far as using me for a data source.

I like this, but I'm certain that there would be legal challenges. Google would no doubt claim that doing bogus searches just to fill it with crap is a violation of its terms of use. The government would lament the loss of easy spying on political opponents, and would claim that anonymity is the soil in which ISIS grows. (Though of course they'd still have the CIA's Facebook Program to spy on everyone.)

So no commercial entity could probably be effective in ensuring public privacy, but maybe a loose affiliation of advice sites and tools could help a lot. I'll add privacy.patrick.net to the sites I'm planning to start soon.

rando says

CIA's Facebook Program

Yes, the CIA, TSA, FBI, and local LEOs love Facebook. But so too do other governments like Russia who can use it to highly influence our elections by targeting key voters in swing districts. The anti-privacy agents of our government failed to see that one coming.

Any tool that can be used by our government against our people can be used by hostile governments against our government. This includes Facebook, smartphone apps, Google data tracking, ad networks, constant location tracking, and everything else. Our government invited cyber warfare by eroding privacy rights.

jazz_music says

No, if you want to locate a business Apple maps are almost no help.

I found a nice ice cream parlor in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with Apple maps. I can't wait for self-driving cars by Apple. They may drive you to the wrong location or off a cliff, but you'll look cool in them, and that's all that matters.

Also, try to go to San Jose airport long term parking with Google maps. You will not get there.

Or the Getty Villa in LA. Google maps takes you to the back entrance, where you cannot get in. Front entrance is about 2 miles away.

Patrick says

* I use https://duckduckgo.com/ for searches and it seems almost as good as Google.

They proxy over google, so technically still google, although I believe they do hide your info.

Patrick says

* I use an iPhone partly because I'm pretty sure Google does not have access to its location data. Is there really any other alternative to Android?

No phone, or buy burners. Remember when we lived without cellphones?

Patrick says

* I use Apple Maps on my phone, and Bing Maps on my laptop. Apple Maps is about as good as Google Maps on mobile, but I have to say that Google Maps is better than Bing Maps on a laptop.

Mapquest is not bad, and was much better than google maps for a long time.

ThreeBays says

Your site Patrick is also insecure.

Please tell me in what way, and how to make it more secure.

ThreeBays says

Your site Patrick is also insecure.

Unsecured, not insecure. An unsecured system is open to a security breach. An insecure system needs a hug.

rando says

Please tell me in what way, and how to make it more secure.

Delete the accounts of trolls. They might attract the wraith of Anonymous.

Dan8267 says

Hmmm, I have an idea for a service. It will automatically conduct Google searches that make you look good in court like

- How can I help my country more?

- Where can I find people who love (insert name of your country) as much as I do?

- Charitable organizations I can donate to

- I love my wife and would never murder her. How can I show my appreciation?

That actually is a brilliant idea.

I just figure that if I ever want to do an internet search on the best ways to hide all the dead bodies, I'd go to the library and do it.

Shit, if you try to use the USA VPN in Opera and hit Google, Google sends you to the Ukrainian version of Google. Meaning that your traffic to Google is actually coming from the Ukraine, not the US.

Not good. So it seems Opera has been hacked. I'm not the only one with this issue either:

http://forums.opera.com/discussion/1885215/all-vpn-countries-via-ukraine/p1

www.youtube.com/embed/lMChO0qNbkY

Dan8267 says

Patrick says

all your searches (which can and have been used against people in court), etc.

Hmmm, I have an idea for a service. It will automatically conduct Google searches that make you look good in court like

- How can I help my country more?

- Where can I find people who love (insert name of your country) as much as I do?

- Charitable organizations I can donate to

- I love my wife and would never murder her. How can I show my appreciation?

OTOH:

-Best places to shit in public
-Fun things to add to the water supply
-How to hypnotize women to do anything in three easy steps
-How to make:
a. a nuclear bomb with easily accessible materials
b. an army of killer robots
c.thousands of clones of Nancy Pelosi

I use StartPage on both mobile and desktop

Anonymous12 says

I use StartPage on both mobile and desktop

It still uses Google, so it's tainted.

rando says

Anonymous12 says

I use StartPage on both mobile and desktop

It still uses Google, so it's tainted.

Yes but the recorded data comes from StartPage not you.

Why not Duckduckgo?

rando says

Why not Duckduckgo?

No issues with Duckduckgo. Just throwing StartPage out as another option. Any anything is better than direct searching with Google.

Patrick, if you can make hosting home email server as easy as using the microwave, i will pay 2K to get one.

Maybe you can start a business like that.

With google and the like mine people more and more, i think people would like to jump into home IT business to make privacy possible.

Could you please post a recipe to build a home email server and I will try to follow and build one for myself.

Thanks.

Thanks JZ! That's an idea I had not considered.

Making it simple is kinda hard, but I'll think about it. You need a static IP, an opening for email in the home firewall, an MX record with some DNS provider... All these things make it hard to just plug in a box and have it work.

* I use Apple Maps on my phone, and Bing Maps on my laptop. Apple Maps is about as good as Google Maps on mobile, but I have to say that Google Maps is better than Bing Maps on a laptop.

-------------

I've tried to use Apple Maps, but personally find google maps far superior. Google maps has their route times down to the second, and alternate routes are also accurate. I've used it often even when I know where I'm going, just to test the accuracy. Every single time, it's right on point. And I drive a ton, minimum of 1,000 miles a week on average.

I'm curious what it is yous fear about Google? What are you doing that you fear 'them' knowing about?

https://www.ipvanish.com/
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/

I am a user of synology storage products to solve the cloud problem of transferring files among devices. I do not want my data to be in the hands of google and the alike.
Their storage is quiet, low power, redundancy and back features are good.

They are developing email server solutions as well.

I sill feel their home IT business is still linux/windows like, NOT quite the style of steve jobs yet. If in deed, one can make these home storage and email server like apple products, it would attract at least people on this website, who do have concerns for privacy.

If you want to fuck centralized data mining on people's privacy, this is the campaign to go.

I think customers will get this. You do not even advertise it. If hilary clinton has one, you need one as well. you just have to remove Hilary's IT guy.

JZ says

I am a user of synology storage products to solve the cloud problem of transferring files among devices. I do not want my data to be in the hands of google and the alike.

Their storage is quiet, low power, redundancy and back features are good.

Yo JZ, I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but Amazon had one of the best storage solutions of all time…one of the best storage solutions of all time!

JZ says

Patrick, if you can make hosting home email server as easy as using the microwave, i will pay 2K to get one.

Already been done, it's called Linux. There are dozens of easy to follow tutorials online if you don't mind a bit of CLI.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/54960/how-do-i-set-up-an-email-server#55027

JZ says

I am a user of synology storage products to solve the cloud problem of transferring files among devices. I do not want my data to be in the hands of google and the alike.

Their storage is quiet, low power, redundancy and back features are good.

I'm gonna sound obvious, but guarding your data starts and ends with you. Anyone else you involve is a potential risk, because it's unlikely they'll care as much as you do about it's protection. Home servers and a serious safe, 'nough said.

errc says

I'm curious what it is yous fear about Google? What are you doing that you fear 'them' knowing about?

It's the feeling of being watched all the time that I really don't like.

Somewhat like having someone who works for advertisers watching everything you do, and being helpful, sure, but only in order to recommend products to you.

And there's the whole thing about their sharing data with the NSA. Ugh. I can totally imagine that in the long run political dissidents will be hunted down and killed based on the info that Google is continuously collecting about them.

It's already happening in Pakistan: http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/asia/pakistan-blasphemy-facebook/index.html

A Pakistan government crackdown on freedom of speech online has reached worrying new levels, activists say, after a young man was sentenced to death over a series of Facebook posts.

On Saturday, 30-year-old Taimoor Raza became the first person to receive a death sentence in a Pakistan anti-terrorism court for "using derogatory remarks ... in respect of the Holy Prophet" on social media.

errc says

I'm curious what it is yous fear about Google? What are you doing that you fear 'them' knowing about?

This is an oft quoted mis-conception put forth by rational people who don't truly understand government corruption, and totalitarian mindset. You think the millions of Cambodians killed by Pol Pot thought they were doing anything wrong by becoming teachers and business professionals? Or the Jews thought they were doing anything wrong by being born? You never know what the ultimate end could be for your personal information in the hands of someone who neither knows, nor cares about you. But shouldn't the fact that they neither know, nor care be enough for you to want to shield your life from their giant snozzers?

You know who now is truly living Google-free life? James Damore!

Too soon?

errc says

I've tried to use Apple Maps, but personally find google maps far superior. Google maps has their route times down to the second, and alternate routes are also accurate. I've used it often even when I know where I'm going, just to test the accuracy. Every single time, it's right on point. And I drive a ton, minimum of 1,000 miles a week on average.

Try Waze - it's even better than Gmaps. Even though Waze is now owned by Google it seems Waze has more aggressive routing algorithm. It also shows police on the route (and allows you to report police when you spot them).

SpecialSnowflake says

You know who now is truly living Google-free life? James Damore!

Too soon?

Actually did laugh out loud at that one!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-22/google-folds-restores-accounts-statistics-professor

Yesterday we reported that in a shocking, and explained move, statistics professor Salil Mehta, adjunct professor at Columbia and Georgetown who teaches probability and data science and whose work has appeared on this website on numerous prior occasions, had been banned by Google on Friday, with his email, blog and other Google-linked accounts wiped clean and no longer accessible.

As we discussed yesterday, it was not clear what Salil did to provoke Google:

On Friday afternoon East Coast Time by surprise, I was completely shut down in all my Google accounts (all of my gmail accounts, blog, all of my university pages that were on google sites, etc.) for no reason and no warning. A number of us were stunned and unsure, but clearly we know at this point it wasn’t an accident.

Blurtman says

c.thousands of clones of Nancy Pelosi

That should prompt an immediate visit by the DHS, clearly the biggest threat to humanity.

Actually besides your own privacy being violated one of the worst things is being bombarded with ads for designer shoes and designer handbags for your hottie.