What (appropriate) thing are you afraid to search on the internet?

[DisorientingSneeze]

I got unreasonably suspicious about some donuts we ate and wanted to search how long it takes for various poisons to take effect, just to put my mind at ease. I’m sure they were fine, but I realized there was no seal on the container.

I’ve watched enough Dateline and other true crime documenaries to know your search history matters. I heard about a man who shopped for rice cookers online too enthusiastically and was under suspicion of terrorism as a result. I’ve also heard writers lament that their search history makes them look most suspicious!

What things have you been curious about, but hesitated to search?

 

[Irishmom2]

Now, you know we can’t tell you that!

 

[ZMystiCat]

“how to control a slave” could just be an innocent search related to technology, but it also could give the impression that you’re running a modern slavery operation or are into BDSM.

I also wonder what kind of hilarity could ensue if someone found a search about exploding head syndrome.

 

[Saint_Prince_Caspian]

Just in general, an observation. This will illustrate on what “appropriate things” I’d search on a search engine, wherefore I had some fear.

But allow me to give background:
Google, and Bing, and Yahoo. Three most popular and most often used Search Engines. These platforms have what is called Big Data Analytics. This helps them to place cookies with spot on ads when you are doing a search. Those cookies are shared across Amazon, and to about any website you go to where they have advertisement pop-up.

That means, whatever you search, is being accounted by popularity, and you the particular user are searching on the web. With all that’s to do with Privacy Rights. The platforms have to know what you are searching in order to generate the best possible search results. That’s how Big Data Analytics is also used. Improving the platform/product.

For instance, if you lookup “poisons.” You might possibly get an ad for rodent deterrent. Or poisons for rodents or pests. Pest control products. Who knows how the Data Analytics creates a relationship to the Ads in order to place them with your search.

That said, I do searches, or visit sites dealing with High Tech stuff. When I log into my own personal email, the email platform (for example, yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc.) Those will have Ads generated based upon the sites I visited or the tools I searched even on Amazon.

It alarmed me. I was afraid that those Ads meant the company is monitoring my access to my persona email. And therefore, targeted Ads is tracking me. Revealing to my company.

 

[Beryllos]

Watch out if you ever shop online for a surprise birthday present for someone in your family. Then later on, you’ll be reading the news, and perhaps that person is walking by or sitting next to you, and they will see ads on your screen for the very item you were shopping for.

Could be worse. What if you were shopping for something really embarrassing?

I guess private browsing is the answer, but you have to remember to select it.

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

True, those targeted ads will get you. One time after we narrowly escaped flood damage in Hurricane Harvey, I was looking at various flood barriers and hurricane supplies. The internet decided I was a doomsday prepper and I had really weird ads for a while.

 

[FCS]

I was afraid to search up memes of Vladimir Putin (I think there might be some innapropriate stuff there-I add the word clean after the search to make sure). I think I thought someone would be monitoring my device. I know, weird, not sure why I thought that.

 

[angel12]

I think I thought someone would be monitoring my device. I know, weird, not sure why I thought that.

If anyone wants to monitor mine, they’re welcome to it. I hope they have a huge interest in books, otherwise they’ll be bored silly.

 

[FCS]

(10 characters)

 

[ZMystiCat]

(Disclaimer: I’ve work for Google and have worked for Microsoft, but I don’t know all the inner workings of Google or Bing. This is just speculation.)

These platforms have what is called Big Data Analytics.

As someone who has worked in big data, most of the concerns surrounding it are reasonable, albeit a bit tin-foil-on-head-y when the actual work is considered.

First, data is incredibly valuable. None of these companies want the data to get into the hands of a competitor. Not only does it completely erode trust, but it will cause them to lose a competitive advantage. As such, measures like encrypting at rest, ensured destruction of all data on unused disks, and having tightly controlled access to data for only well-defined job-related matters are pretty standard from what I’ve seen.

Second, big data is only useful in aggregate. One aspect of aggregation is that it, if done properly, makes data anonymous. At the same time, though, that data is incredible for guiding business decisions and directly affecting the user experience. It’s basically a win-win.

Third, access to this data is logged. None of us don’t want inappropriate access on our records.

That said, there obviously are privacy concerns, in that it leaves a bit more of a footprint than just connecting to the Internet. However, big data and data collection are hardly the boogeymen some make them out to be.

(cont…)

 

[ZMystiCat]

(cont…)

Those cookies are shared across Amazon, and to about any website you go to where they have advertisement pop-up.

I doubt Google or Microsoft are sharing cookies with Amazon. Both are directly competing against Amazon, including the ad space where this data is quite lucrative and helps in competing.

Furthermore, the content of the cookie itself is probably meaningless to Amazon. Even if they grab a Google cookie, it isn’t going to reveal to them all the YouTube videos you’ve watched and Google searches you’ve made. Cookies, by nature, should be kept small, possibly with only an id used to identify the user, with the bulk of the processed data living on the server. Amazon doesn’t have access to that for Google or Microsoft.

What is more likely is that Amazon manages to use cookies as a third party on sites. For instance, if a site’s ads go through Amazon’s ad network, they may, as part of the API, grab Amazon-related cookies and log that you visited X site about Y. If this is a concern, or if you just want to know what cookies exist as third party on a site, modern browsers should allow you to block third party cookies and only whitelist those you want to. I know on Chrome, the option is found under:

Settings → Advanced → Privacy and Security → Content Settings → Cookies → Block Third Party Cookies (might be on by default, can’t remember)

After that, third party cookies will appear in the address bar on the right near the bookmark star. It works well enough that it even blocks some of Google’s cookies on its own sites.

Those will have Ads generated based upon the sites I visited or the tools I searched even on Amazon.

Just like Google doesn’t share data with Amazon, I’m reasonably certain Amazon doesn’t share its data with Google. That said, if you want to know what Google has found out about you through Search, YouTube, News, account settings, etc. (GSuite apps like GMail aren’t tracked for ad purposes anymore), you can go to:

myaccount(dot)google(dot)com → Review Your privacy settings → Make ads more relevant to you

There you can view info and even make the ads better. The page before that is also great for managing privacy settings and seeing how data is used.

 

[ZMystiCat]

(I think there might be some innapropriate stuff there-I add the word clean after the search to make sure)

To avoid needing to add a word, you could set you settings to filter out naughty results. For Google, you can turn on SafeSearch in Search Settings. The last time I used Bing, I think they offered varying levels of filtering, though the strictest filtering was quite restrictive, which isn’t good for a search engine that already sucks as much as Bing. (No, I’m totally not bitter at anything Bing did to me.)

Then later on, you’ll be reading the news, and perhaps that person is walking by or sitting next to you, and they will see ads on your screen for the very item you were shopping for.

“Hey, what’s with your sudden fascination with chocolate? That’s all YouTube shows you anymore!”

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

@ZMystiCat
Thank you. That helped me with my tinfoil hat some.

 

[FCS]

Thanks! I didn’t know that.

 

[Joe_5859]

I guess private browsing is the answer, but you have to remember to select it.

Yeah, I use Private browsing, especially on my phone, if I’m looking up something and don’t want to get a ton of ads about it later on.

 

[HumbleIOughtToBe]

“Hey, what’s with your sudden fascination with chocolate? That’s all YouTube shows you anymore!”

Me using YouTube: Hey, what’s with your sudden fascination with Catholic Speakers, Steubenville Conference, Ascension Presents, Catholic Answers, FOCUS Catholic, {20 Catholic shows later}? That’s all YouTube shows you anymore!

Use this to your advantage to grow in holiness.

 

[ZMystiCat]

View Panopticlick from EFF. Their is a lot more than cookies. You probably know this being in that business.

I’m aware, but the initial complaint was regarding cookies, which have long been misunderstood when it comes to things like privacy. With that said, I’ve never personally seen things like browser fingerprinting used.

Even then, tracking isn’t really some magic fortune teller’s ball. You need some access to the user’s data in order to track them, and if a company like Amazon can’t get to you when searching on Google (which they can’t, as far as I’m aware), then there’s no way for them to track what you’re doing there.

 

[angel12]

What books you view are very interesting.

• Are the books you viewed commonly viewed by the rich or poor, (Big Money Economic Management vs Resume building for the service industry)
• Are the books you viewed about topics of recovery from abuse, weather, and so on. This labels you.
• Are the books you view religious, which one.
• You view these books(100 here), compare this to other peoples history to find books that will make you give more money to Big Publisher.
• We are the company that sold your book. We went broke. A data broker bought our company for only the user data. They add this data onto what they have.

Don’t care.