What Google knows about you | Hacker News Reader

What Google knows about you

google.com

169 pointsudp51 comments

Google Search has bigger privacy issues. IP Addresses are anonymized after 9 months, but your search history is stored forever in anonymized form. If you have ever searched for yourself on Google, or for a unique set of information that can identify you as the origin of your searches, then you have to trust Google's security team and future lawmakers to keep your information private.

Yes, most people don't care, and I'm not any better. I don't have anything incriminating or too embarrassing in my search history, so I use Google and grit my teeth whenever privacy comes up. I tried DuckDuckGo for a week, but I eventually fell back to Google.

Sources and relevant links:

http://www.google.com/privacy/faq.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal

I agree that I could care less about all of this stuff, it's the search data that matters. Imagine taking a look at a month of someone's search data, it would be revealing (it might even be revealing to look back over years of your own search history).

But as for the question of forever anonymization I think you have misunderstood:

The data will not be traceable back to a single computer or user. The link between searches is the IP address, and it would be pretty hard to identify a single IP address without the final two octets (ie 255.255.255.255 -> 255.255). It definitely wouldn't be impossible (nothing is), but I would bet it would be within the level of difficulty that many other more privacy-violating things would.

Furthermore, my ISP changes my IP address very frequently (my guess would be about every 48 hours), and even if it was static, I would not have had the same IP for a very long time (moved frequently, etc).

The cookie is the only link between the IP addresses, once you've ambiguated the IP's it's pretty hard to connect the numerous IPs one person would have to people.

The sources you submitted were not very explanatory and have nothing to do with Google, respectively.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/03/google_to_anony/

The other data stored with your searches could be way easier to track you from than your IP address: http://panopticlick.eff.org/

It would (theoretically) be easy to determine which searches are all by the same person using data like that, and then you just have to find one of those searches that reveals their identity.

You are mostly correct. According to an Ars Technica article from last year [1]:

* Google anonymizes the last octect of your IP address after 9 months. (So there are 254 possible IP addresses for each search.)

* The search cookie is kept intact for 36 months (3 years).

When I posted before, I incorrectly remembered reading that the search cookie is stored forever. Thanks for catching my mistake.

Edit: Regarding the sources, I think that Google's FAQ deliberately skimps on the details. I posted the AOL link because it is a good example of what can happen when search data is leaked.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/google-keeps...

am I missing something with that 36 months? from the ars article:

"After 18 months, Google anonymizes the unique cookie data stored in these logs."

a 2.5 year old searchengineland article also says they use a hash function using keys that are discarded every day, which means that search streams will be 24 hours long apiece:

http://searchengineland.com/anonymizing-googles-server-log-d...

Urgh. I was severely sleep deprived last night and I am starting to feel that I shouldn't have posted at all. You are correct about 18 months.

> Furthermore, my ISP changes my IP address very frequently (my guess would be about every 48 hours), and even if it was static, I would not have had the same IP for a very long time (moved frequently, etc).

This isn't true for everyone. I have cable internet from Time Warner, and my theoretically "dynamic" address hasn't changed in at least a year.

You will be truly ANON, if you Install TOR and set preferences to delete all the cookies with each browser instance.

Imagine taking a look at a month of someone's search data, it would be revealing

Please explain to me how would any random person get that? Actually how would anyone get that data if you have not already done something which throws suspicion on you.

> ...and future lawmakers...

I figure in the far future some giant AI will probably be reading the data, for anthropological or historical reasons. Reconstructing all our lives as well as it can to understand us better, or maybe out of boredom. So whenever I'm going to do some really off-the-wall searches, just to see what there is out there on the web, or because of some strange conversation at the pub, I search first for something like "these next few aren't really about me".

Wonder if that might help at a trial too.

What about bing? If they have better privacy, then they can use it as a selling point to capture market share. A quick google search on google vs bing privacy policy seems to favor bing. I have the disconnect chrome extension to block google tracking.

I have Disconnect and there will still a lot of categories. They seem to direct you to the IBA extension to permanently opt out. There's another that supposedly works on more sites, but last time I tried it, it and Disconnect got into a race and crashed Chrome immediately, even after restarting it several times.

IBA Opt-Out: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gbiekjoijknlhijd...

Keep My Opt-Outs: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hhnjdplhmcnkieca...

Do I need both?

OK, this was more fun than freaky.

It thinks I'm male (I'm a girl).

It knows about my horrible novelty YouTube habit (tons of humor/comedy/tv comedy categories). #guilty

It thinks I have pets/cats. (Nope. but given how many novelty youtube vids probably involve cats, not crazy.)

And yeah, lots of finance/tech/business categories.

For now, I'm leaving them all in and not removing.

And sidebar to those who say this isn't everything Google knows about you. You're right. But this is just about ads.

The main Privacy Dashboard for account stuff is here: http://www.google.com/dashboard

Funny... my listed interests are in business and tech (true), and I've been identified as a male (not true). From Google: "Based on the websites you've visited, we think you're interested in topics that mostly interest men." Ouch!

I wonder what Google thinks about my searches for shoes :)

Oh the irony

  Google Ads Preferences
 
  Cookies are disabled

  Your browser's cookies seem to be disabled. Ads Preferences will not work until you enable cookies in your browser. How do I enable cookies?

This is why it should be off by default and opt-in only.

A better title might be "Some of what Google admits to know about you".

There's really no way to verify the sum of what they know is you like ponies, especially when they have so much data to draw conclusions from.

At least Google gives you a way to Opt Out =) (http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/html/opt-out.html?hl=e...)

Apparently they where tracking me.

Google thinks I have a split personality:

In Firefox: Humor, Venture Capital, Computers & Electronics, Handhelds & Mobile Devices, Internet Software, Operating Systems - Mac OS, Currencies & Foreign Exchange, Smart Phones, Technology News, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias.

In Chrome: Movie Reference, Music & Audio, Rock Music, Online Video.

As my main browser I use Firefox, without Flash plug-in. When I need to view video, I open Chrome, which has Flash built-in. That explains why the information from the two Google cookies differ so much.

I have no cookie and I don't want one :) they also complain that I don't let them execute JavaScript in my browser:

You cannot view or edit interests when you do not have an 'id' cookie. Opt-in to get a cookie. JavaScript is disabled. Enable JavaScript to be able to edit your preferences.

"No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

I use AdBlockPlus, Ghostery and OptimizeGoogle in FF to reduce the amount of crap I get served, as well as to rewrite e.g. Google search results to remove their link tracking.

"No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

Same here, but only adblock plus, and I have google history disabled. I've used ghostery for some time. I also delete all cookies from time to time.

I love how the first thing so many people do is post their results here, where they can be associated with their YC handles. Opt-out privacy, I guess.

That being said, I suspect there's not a lot of variance among most of the commenters on here, so maybe it's not that interesting.

Apparently someone who's interested in "Superhero Films" has been using my Google account.

Am I the only one where it says to Opt In instead of Opt out by default? It don't have any categories for me even after Opting in. I'm signed into my account. Adbllock Plus working great?

I use Google on a daily basis and I'm always logged in. Still, "No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far"...

Maybe it's because of adblock+?

And around 60 other companies know about my browser: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

It seems to be machine-dependent? I remember opting out a while back at work, but my mobile phone definitely shows me a profile, albeit one that isn't totally accurate.

In any case, you guys should also checkout Bynamite. They've got this interesting mission to give users more control over what advertisers see. I'm all for that not just from a privacy standpoint, but also from a relevancy one.

Pretty accurate actually, at least for me.

I read the title of this post as a cliffhanger, promising a shocking ending, but it doesn't really do it for me. I'd rather have them show me relevant ads than random ones, personally. I opted out for a while but found opting in to be the better experience for me. To each their own, I guess.

It had American Football and Cooking for me, neither of which I can remember ever expressing interest in.

It nailed the programming stuff except for conflating Java the language and Java the virtual machine, but hey, even humans often make that mistake.

I wonder how much of that is due to a simple misinterpretation of some of the sites you visit. For example, if the fairly recent article on Google's "beatbox" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1952356) and my subsequent searches led to my purported interest in "Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Urban & Hip-Hop - Rap & Hip-Hop".

It's probably just a generic one if HN is referrer ;)

Computers & Electronics - Software - Business & Productivity Software

Computers & Electronics - Software - Open Source

Computers & Electronics - Software - Operating Systems - Mac OS

News

Online Communities - File Sharing & Hosting

Online Communities - Photo & Video Sharing - Photo & Image Sharing

Demographics - Gender - Male

Oops! This link appears to be broken.

I wonder if they know I've got doubleclick in my hosts file.

The URL redirects through a doubleclick domain. That's why it's broken for you.

Nothing.

I have 'google analytics opt-out plugin' firefox addon, as well as adblock plus.

"Cookies are disabled

Your browser's cookies seem to be disabled. Ads Preferences will not work until you enable cookies in your browser."

"Google does not associate sensitive interest categories with your ads preferences."

Does this really mean "We know more about you, but we're not going to tell you what it is?"

It means, even though they could figure out who is more likely to click on, say, BDSM ads, they don't, because that's how classy they are.

Same URL gives me different results on the phone and on the desktop. Apparently Google doesn't link them? I'm using the same GMail-Account on both though.

It says "You have opted out of Google's interest-based advertising. No interest categories are associated with your browser." Sounds good to me.

Apparently nothing - I have no id cookie. I assume this means I'm not tracked at all? Maybe I've just never clicked an ad on this laptop.

I don't think its related to ads clicked necessarily, I never click them, but my results seem to be related primarily to the searches I perform.

according to http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/ads/ the "interest categories" are based on the sites you actually visit that have doubleclick ads, not from search terms (though there's an obvious correlation between the two, I suppose).

It's blank for me - looks like AdBlock Plus is doing its job.

"No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

Thanks to adblock, noscript, greasemonkey and Google history deactivated.

All interests associated with me are entirely accurate. Well done Google, I applaud you.

Odd - I wonder why it thought I was into "Home improvement/Flooring".

I like both coffee and tea! The introspection possibilities!

Interesting...it can be nice tool : )

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