Your online life will haunt you forever

[Great Cartoonist]

No matter what you do online, someone somewhere will have a record of exactly what you've done.

Now, I don't know about you, but I want to be sure that nobody I don't know (and sometimes people I DO know) will be able to remotely look up my browsing history or pinpoint exactly where I'm using the internet from, even when I'm not actually using the internet. So why is it that companies like Google are trying to make it easier for the opposite to happen?

What can we do to secure our online privacy in this day and age?

[Bells]

Well, the first weapon is knowledge. you see.. the last thing you want is to fall prey of Digital Paranoia.

It's similar to how Wikipedia is viewed. a Lot of people don't trust it because "anybody can change it" even though, they, themselves may have never found wrong information in it.

Same is with Digital privacy, a lot of people don't know how it actually works. What can actually be found, what sort of people can find these informations, what are the rules and laws in place. Because, a lot of the information on the web may undermine your privacy to some level, but it also may just as well prevent Crimes online. So you don't want to undermine that.

At some point, you just need to understand what sort of information these companies actually have (and in that case an answer like "evertyhing!11!!1one!" may not be enough) and what sort of people actually have access to the data... from that point on, it's a matter of trust really.

[Amake]

Basically, don't be evil.

[EVILNess]

Basically, don't be evil.

This and never look at anything that might even remotely construed as child porn are the two rules that govern my internet life.

Because, I am terribly afraid of somehow getting arrested for child porn. It's an irrational fear that makes me pause every single time I click an unknown link. Will this link have a virus that puts child porn on my computer?

Because I not only fear prison, I fear being the guy in prison who is in there for child porn.

[Great Cartoonist]

I understand certain sacrifices must be made in order to maintain a healthy society, it's just that some of them might be unnecessary for certain users and/or make their situation worse in some way, like secretly logging your search habits just so they can show you "personalized" ads, especially those that pop out when you move your mouse over certain words.
But then, I guess all bets are off when you're actively doing something you know is illegal.

On a related note, have a Cracked article (http://www.cracked.com/article_19029_6-things-social-networking-sites-need-to-stop-doing.html).

[ASlimeDrawsNear]

I understand certain sacrifices must be made in order to maintain a healthy society, it's just that some of them might be unnecessary for certain users and/or make their situation worse in some way, like secretly logging your search habits just so they can show you "personalized" ads, especially those that pop out when you move your mouse over certain words.
But then, I guess all bets are off when you're actively doing something you know is illegal.

On a related note, have a Cracked article (http://www.cracked.com/article_19029_6-things-social-networking-sites-need-to-stop-doing.html).

On a related note, that is not child porn.

[CABAL49]

On a related note, that is not child porn.

What about /b/?

[Bells]

You know that anything you google has a chance of turning up Porn right? Specially in Google Images.

...anything. at all.

Now, i don't get all neurotic about what i see... of course i'm also not checking the news feed of NAMBLA or anything like that...

[Magus]

One problem with surfing for porn is one is always tempted to look at crazy stuff that doesn't really match your personality. One could protect oneself by not trying to figure out if there is such a thing as gay furry yaoi bukkake, but you will die not knowing if someone managed to combine all these things into one hilarious comic page. Besides which, do people really respect you much more if you only look at lesbians? I think not.

I say don't be so terrified, I don't think Google is collecting a whole lot of porn data because it's not like they can start sticking that stuff into those little ads on the side of their site. I think they are more concerned with if you are buying something so they can stick that in your ads.

[Revising Ocelot]

Eh, I'm not worried about my online life haunting me. My real life is filling that niche quite happily already.