If you don't want Google scanning your emails, don't use Gmail. Don't want Google seeing all your queries, don't send them to Google in the first place. Use Duckduckgo or some other service.
"Some Search results may require additional settings, like Web & App Activity or Location History".
Reading more about Web & Web app activity explains it as follows:
"If Web & App Activity is turned on, your searches and activity from other Google services are saved in your Google Account, so you may get more personalized experiences, like faster searches and more helpful app and content recommendations."[1]
[1]: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?hl=en
Edit: reworded from personalized results to personal results
It's now at a stage where if you don't want to be tracked, you should just stop using the Internet.
I, like you, have turned everything off. I use Startpage for search, but on Youtube, I find I still get personalized recommendations if and only if I accidentally log out. If I'm logged in, I get a depersonalized Youtube page.
(Yes this is problematic and I'm not suggesting anything, just explaining.)
I'm just surprised because it really does work for me. But, I make a point of never voting/subscribing/commenting/queuing/etc. And the difference between when I'm logged out and logged in is very stark.
In addition to curating what I want to see with upvotes/subscriptions, I also use the "Not interested" and "Don't recommend channel" buttons heavily. For some reason YouTube always recommends those stupid "meditation music" videos, even though I have never watched one and I always block those channels. Honestly, YouTube's recommendation engine is shite; even when I tell them exactly what I like, it still recommends absolute tripe, and most of what I discover comes from external (personal) recommendations.
If it starts recommending the same videos to me I press the Not Interestes button.
I also use a VPN 95% of the time, only turning it off for Netflix occasionally.
The most annoying thing is that reCAPTCHA stop working: more website administrator should consider migrating to hCaptcha.
Point of the story is saying they already won in getting all your data is really what let’s them win.
If you use a VPN, which are getting more common, and stay away from using too many Google/Facebook products you’ll do pretty well.
GP was concerned about:
> filtered/tailored results based on my IP location and my interests
IP location is typically computed server side, based on the originating IP of requests. Your interests are recorded server side, based on what requests were made.
"Tracking" in JavaScript is a big problem, and disabling JS does help prevent third party tools from knowing about you, but the discussion here is about first-party tracking: tracking being by Google, whose site you're using.
Bah, I'm getting cranky tonight. I'll log off. Good luck with the privacy fight. I mean that genuinely; I don't think anyone really cares, beyond posting a few comments on message boards. Duckduckgo is a nice alternative, but how many programmers actually use it to find answers to programming questions? And even if a few do, I really don't get what the privacy crap is all about here.
Google added a feature that we can use to do neutral searches. That's awesome, and they deserve praise for it. But nooooo, the privacy is the ultimate altar.
At least one. I’ve been using DDG exclusively for two or three years now. If I’m really stuck, I go straight to StackOverflow.
Nonetheless, the thrust of it is something I feel at my core; "Google did a good thing" here, but "you won't acknowledge any good thing." Personally, I find that lame, especially with privacy arguments that seem very much like strawmen.
And yes, I agree good things should be acknowledged regardless of where they are coming from. I think people are generally just jaded with Google because they want something that Google will never be able to offer (that is, to be respectful of their privacy), so they lash out automatically out of frustration.
It mostly works well enough.
Since I use Vimium, when it doesn't, redoing the search on Google is just a few keystrokes:
gi<Control-a>!g Enter
That's 'gi' for 'focus text input', Control-a for beginning of line, add the DDG "google this" shortcut, press return.
It's in my spinal cord, and I don't need it that often anyway.
og<space> my-search<enter>
'o' for open and 'g<space>' to select Google as search engine.
- the settings for what data about your Google activity is retained are at https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization — in particular, "Web & App Activity" at https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity (for new accounts, it defaults to all activity being deleted after 18 months).
- the setting for whether your Google activity is used for ad targeting is at https://adssettings.google.com (the checkbox under "Advanced", if you're signed in).
- For non-Google activity, the setting for turning off Google ad cookies on random ad-carrying websites is to block third-party cookies in your browser. For Chrome, it is at chrome://settings/cookies
But if Google has the information and doesn't do anything with it... I guess I just don't care? Why should I care? I'm open to being convinced on this.
Sucks that it needs an Google Account (which is no option for me), but i can have a similar effect by using duckduckgo.
The point wasn't to illustrate that there's no way to produce the information without personalization, it's to illustrate that search queries can become much more relevant and straightforward with it in particular, common scenarios.
"ON" or "CAN." And adding 2-4 letters is hardly unwieldy.
It is like the backrest of your chair. You just recognize it, if you focus on it. Most of the time, you don't. So the question is, do you sense it all the time, just not being aware of it?
But after all, just because Google will not turn the collected data against you at the moment, it does not mean, they won't in the future. Or some of their contractors. Or some third party instrumenting google. Or some regulator ...
DDG is not a silver bullet. I use it, but only when combining it with a VPN or sometimes Tor for ultra private searches. DDG is a US company and the US doesn't have a good track record for spying and human rights. DDG's servers are all Amazon based too meaning the data is probably tapped and being spied upon. There's no way of knowing, so combine DDG with an anonymous proxy if you can.
I think most likely this is a sham "privacy" feature that Google is shipping solely for PR reasons
I try my hardest not to use Google products because I don't like tracking. Occasionally though I'm forced to use things like YouTube as it's the only source for certain information.
I turn off the personalised ads not because I think it stops them tracking me but because of the vague hope that if I still see the ads and they don't need to be personalised then just maybe Google would see the subservience as an unnecessary overhead.
...which is still just wishful thinking on my part.
For the record I would happily accept personalised adverts based on context if they would just packing in the forced tracking.
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en
duckduckgo is powered by bing search, no?
About not using Google, well they're even crawling data from Telegram Groups, they're everywhere pretty hard to escape.