Time to break up Google?

[chimak111]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwzJlvx4ndk

Bryan Lunduke has a video suggesting that.

I didn't much mind Google "profiling" me ostensibly to push targeted ads; the Damore incident didn't seem to be handled well. But now I've seen them controlling what search results I see. That's most unfortunate.

[GreyGeek]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwzJlvx4ndk

Bryan Lunduke has a video suggesting that.

I didn't much mind Google "profiling" me ostensibly to push targeted ads; the Damore incident didn't seem to be handled well. But now I've seen them controlling what search results I see. That's most unfortunate.

If Google were merely profiling me in order to target ads reflecting my shopping tastes I wouldn't care, but they are doing more, either by collusion or by force. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until their recent censorship activities. Obama said on the Jay Leno show of August 6, 2013, that "We don't have a domestic spying program" and that "There is no spying on Americans". In another post on this forum I cited an article where the NSA and CIA, in an effort to identify the creator of BitCoin, took over a BILLION emails from Google and other vendors, plus a month of time on a super computer to run a word analysis program to discover who he was. Obama approved that effort and the use of Google and other emails in order to get as many samples of writing from as many people as possible in hopes that the creator of BitCoin would be revealed. It is claimed that the effort succeeded.

It wouldn't surprise me that the gov has cracked the 2048 bit RSA encryption key algorithm, which is why I use 4096 bits.

The current REAL problem with Google, Bing, Yahoo and other mainstream corporate search engines is that they are now filtering what they consider to be politically incorrect results. Since DuckDuckGo and StartPage use Google but disconnect your IP address from the search request to maintain your privacy, the result set that is returned is still devoid of any entries which they do not want you to see. Since the gov controls they are working for the government.

I've moved to https://www.qwant.com/
I set it to NO moderation or filtering at all.
https://help.qwant.com/help/overview/our-philosophy/

This is a list of search engines:
http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/

Yesterday I discovered a P2P search engine called YaCy. I installed it and played around. It suffered from all the problems of current P2P distributed network technologies. Used too much disk space, was slow searching peers if what you wanted wasn't already in your cache, etc... I have Tor installed, but the instructions for configuring Tor were rather old and convoluted, so I didn't reconfigure Tor. Also, YaCy docs said that if you installed YaCy first and then Tor, there is no documentation for how to revert or uninstall either. So, I uninstalled it.

Like Oshunluver says, if you don't want the gov to have any of your personal info, then don't put it on your computer. But, like him, I don't care what the gov thinks it knows about me. I have a history on the Internet that can be searched back to before 2002. It would be rather late to try and delete that mess. However, it is said that the average lifetime of a webpage on the Internet these days is about 100 days. Considering all the 404's I get I believe it.

[SumBloke]

Great post GG
Id like to learn more about using encryption on kde, could you recommend a good beginners guide please?

[GreyGeek]

I use KGpg and have a 4096 bit key. I have it linked to KMail so that all my emails are signed. I do this so that no one can insert anything into my email and claim I sent it. If course, the "sent" folder contains all my sent email, and my Btrfs snapshots back EVERYTHING up. I have Dolphin configured with a service that allows me to right click on a file and encrypted it. Another service allows me to email that encrypted file.

I never keep anything I want to be secret on my computer. Even if I encrypted my HD and/or all the personal files in it, there is no guarantee that the gov couldn't crack the password or crack my skull to get the password. Besides, the only personal info on this laptop is my banking business, and the Feds already know all about that. They probably keep records on me going back farther than I keep them on myself.

BTW, I've completed my research into P2P technologies and have concluded that none of them are currently useful. Even wireless mesh networks are of only limited use. I could see a useful network composed of radio transceivers with ranges of hundreds of miles that would allow bypassing ISPs but that technology has evaporated.

Over the years I've accumulated a significant PDF library of about every science, math and technology subject I can download, including SHTF stuff. But, I'll probably die of old age before I use any of it.

[chimak111]

...
I've moved to https://www.qwant.com/
I set it to NO moderation or filtering at all.
https://help.qwant.com/help/overview/our-philosophy/
...
Like Oshunluver says, if you don't want the gov to have any of your personal info, then don't put it on your computer. ...

Thanks for the qwant link and your views on YaCy.

As a long time Google user and supporter, I do hope they introspect. If they step way from being a meritocracy, they'll lose out. Time to dust off Atlas Shrugged.

[SpecialEd]

An old favorite...

[GreyGeek]

More truth to that cartoon that one realizes.

I was hired by the Nebraska State Hiway Patrol to break into an Bookie's software and expose the illegal gambling. They put me in a room with the laptop and a phone.

I noted the name and phone number of the corporation that wrote the software and phoned them. I told them that I was working for the NSHP and that we had an encrypted laptop containing a bookie's betting info. I assumed that the company put a back door into their program and requested the back door password. The guy on the other end of the phone didn't hesitate one second to tell me. It worked.

I walked out of the room less than five minutes after I walked in and told them the bookie's client list was available for inspection. The Lieutenant asked me how I did it so fast, since they had tried for days. I smiled and left him my bill for $100. That was back in the early 1980s.

[GreyGeek]

The sooner the break up the better.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/u...w-america.html

Wrong Think cost another Leftist his job because he displeased Schmidt.

[chimak111]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...-be-regulated/

[oshunluvr]

https://citizensagainstmonopoly.org

[GreyGeek]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...-be-regulated/

in May this year in which he criticized Google and Facebook for tracking users, Google retaliated two days later by suspending Vivaldi's AdWords account.

The Vivaldi creator says the ban came out of nowhere and the company had received no prior warning about anything that could have led to this radical decision. When Vivaldi's tech staff reached out to Google, the company had unreasonable demands to have their AdWords account reinstated, such as forcing Vivaldi to list all sorts of links on the Vivaldi download page.

Has Schmidt learned how to resurrect the dead? It appears that he has a Goring or a Himmler, or both, working for him at Gog.

[GreyGeek]

https://citizensagainstmonopoly.org

Signed.