How can I keep Gmail from knowing about my Google searches?

August 11, 2006 9:01 AM

Whenever I'm actively browsing the web, I like to keep a tab open to my Gmail account. But I don't particularly want my Google searches to be linked to the Gmail account. Is there any way to prevent this?
posted by box to computers & internet (15 comments total)

Perhaps try using Google Talk logged in instead of the Gmail tab, then logging out when you're not using it?
posted by riotgrrl69 at 9:11 AM on August 11, 2006

Hmm....there is this site about anonymizing the google cookie just for searching, and still being able to use gmail. That might help. Also note they can, and do, track by IP number.
posted by zabuni at 9:13 AM on August 11, 2006

Oh, how about one of the international sites like this?
posted by riotgrrl69 at 9:13 AM on August 11, 2006

Oh, you could also use a web based pop mail client, like gmail lite, but that would require setting up a server, or using someone else's server that you may or may not trust, like this one.
posted by zabuni at 9:15 AM on August 11, 2006

Click Search History on the top right of the page.

On the left toolbar, click Pause.

The following message reads:
Your search history has been paused.
This service will not collect any history until you choose to resume.


Google will probably still track your searches transparently, but it won't display your search history to you...so you have that going for you, which is nice.
posted by nineRED at 9:16 AM on August 11, 2006

As far as I can tell from reading their help pages, you don't have any saved history unless you say you want to have their Personalized Search service. They also have directions to erase what they have stored.

I don't know if they save your history if you have this turned off, or if they track everything like AOL does.

Also, their privacy policy
posted by cathoo at 9:17 AM on August 11, 2006

Cathoo: They track everything, at least to a single stored cookie or IP address. You have to turn on the interface to it, but they store it just the same.

In fact the government sued das Google to get the information that AOL stupidly released, and won.
posted by zabuni at 9:21 AM on August 11, 2006

Google is storing all of your searches permanently, linked to your IP address, just like AOL did. They're also storing your Gmail accesses permanently, linked to your IP address. There is NOTHING you can do to prevent this, except lobby Google to change their policies, but you'll never be able to verify that they changed. No Google setting allows you to turn off this logging. Every search you've ever done is logged.

If you don't like the linkage, you have to diversify - use a different search engine or email provider.

At some future point we can expect a privacy ruckus about Google and search results - it will turn out that they've been feeding the data to Homeland Security or somesuch. One should point out that under current U.S. law, Google can be ordered to provide data, and ordered not to disclose that they're providing data. It is an extremely safe assumption that the U.S. intelligence agencies are taking advantage of this data gold mine right now.
posted by jellicle at 9:28 AM on August 11, 2006

add-on question: So, if I do a search from some place like DogPile and use Google or All, does Google see my IP or some IP from the dogpile folks?

That is, is this site (or others) acting as a search proxy?
posted by vacapinta at 9:35 AM on August 11, 2006

Errr, error on my last post, it should have stated that Google won the lawsuit.

Granted, I would assume that all search engines do the same recording of search results. To be totally private on the Internet would require something like Tor.
posted by zabuni at 9:36 AM on August 11, 2006

vacapinta: Yes, they act as a proxy, but given that Dogpile's privacy policy state:

InfoSpace collects some anonymous information each time you visit an InfoSpace Site so we can improve the overall quality of your online experience. We collect your IP address, referral data, and browser and platform type. You do not have to register with InfoSpace before we can collect this anonymous information.

The InfoSpace Sites do not require you to share information that identifies you personally, such as your name or email address, in order for you to use the InfoSpace Sites. The InfoSpace Sites assign an anonymous ID number to your requests and links the following additional data to that number: the date and time you visited the InfoSpace Site, your search terms, and the links upon which you choose to click. Like most standard Web site servers, we use log files to collect and store this anonymous user information. InfoSpace analyzes the information to examine trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

You're basically in the same situation you are with Google.
posted by zabuni at 9:41 AM on August 11, 2006

Ah sort of answering my own question, looks like Scroogle does this for you?
posted by vacapinta at 9:42 AM on August 11, 2006

Wow. On further reading...I think I'm switching all my bookmarks over to these guys.
posted by vacapinta at 9:49 AM on August 11, 2006

Looks like it. Especially with the whole "delete records every 48 hours". Of course, they could be lying.

All of this really comes down to who do you trust? Anonymous access on the Internet requires that you connect a third party that will not give your secrets away. Scroogle promises not to do this. Tor splits the communication between so many parties it's not feasible, although you still have to connect to a server to retrieve a node list, so you trust that initial node.
posted by zabuni at 9:54 AM on August 11, 2006

Well, the google watch guy has an ax to grind. He was initially pissed at the Pagerank algorithm, because his pages weren't high enough on the ratings.
posted by zabuni at 9:59 AM on August 11, 2006