haven’t used Google now for about a year – usually find something relevant in top page

I went quackers at least a year ago, as there was no way I was going to agree to Google 'preference' updates. Otherwise known as we rip off your private data, sell it to scammers, and innundate you with 'tailored' adverts. Yeah right! Totally laughable, where are the ads for aeroplanes and secondhand machine tools then?

On a practical note duckduckgo is fine, but seems a little sensitive to the exact search wording?

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 15/12/2016 19:52:39

Thanks Michael. I'm giving it a go.

Immediately I like the default to a UK search (it defaults to 'Any Country' in google).

Steve

Michael, I have used DuckDuckGo for a long time, and I like it.

Thor

I use Google, I never knew about the 'tracking' up till now but perhaps this is what gives me better results, I've just tried DuckDuckGo for the first time and although it showed a Union Jack logo at the top of the page, when I typed my home town 'Southport' in, it gave me 7 hits out of 100 in the UK, whereas Google gave me 100 out of 100, Yahoo was the same, when I used that most of the hits were in the USA, unless of course I've not set it up right.

John

Bit more to it than that Ady. Have a look at this advice, for example, How to Stop Google From Tracking You on the Web

What I find obnoxious is that so many internet and software services invade our privacy by default. It's a trend. Google are just one example, albeit a big one. The nature and scale of the privacy intrusion is never explained up front – it's our responsibility to carefully read the small print. So, we first have to be aware of the distinct possibility that our privacy is compromised and then work quite hard to turn it off. In my opinion it's a pile of poo.

Cheers,

Dave

Following the Regulatory Powers Bill becoming law in November we might as well forget any notions about online privacy. The UK Government now has huge powers to spy on it's own people.

Google et-al are merely small bit players in the information game, want your search history etc? Ask GCHQ!

Anyone wanting to find out more can look at these pages.

**LINK**

Edited By V8Eng on 16/12/2016 12:03:30

Call me stupid, naive, not street wise or whatever, but I personally couldn't care less if the GCHQ guys read my emails or know what websites I go on, unfortunately the way things have gone in the world we should be thankful that there are organisations on our side listening in, but that's my own view and I realise that many will disagree with it.

John

I am not going to call anyone naive etc, or involve conspiracy theories and such like.

Unfortunately states that take great powers to spy on the populace tend not to stop there,  people do not to realise what has happened until it is too late.

Edited By V8Eng on 16/12/2016 13:40:04

I find all this spying on people very creepy. I also use Palemoon sometimes it's getting better all the time