We once pondered whether Google was the devil. One of the issues that we raised was one of privacy. If you’re worried that Google is tracking your searches by cookie ID or by IP address, you have some options to thwart Google. One of those options is Scroogle.
Scroogle is a proxy of sorts, intended for users who don’t want Google to track their searches. To use Scroogle, you enter your search term on the Scroogle site (look for “Scroogle scaper” in the Scroogle sidebar to find the search page). Scroogle then “scrapes” Google’s search results, returning the results to you, minus cookies and ads. The search is sent via Scroogle, so Google won’t be able to log your IP address, either.
This raises the bigger question about whether the opinions of the Scroogle team are nutty, or a good example of being cautious about a powerful company. As some would point out, a tool like Scroogle also could be helpful if you don’t trust the government. Scroogle’s access logs are deleted within 48 hours, and Scroogle doesn’t retain search-term records, so a government subpoena wouldn’t help too much.
If you want to make it easier to use Scroogle, you can also try out a Firefox add-on or a Chrome extension.
What’s your take? Is this all conspiracy-theory nuttiness, or are these tools we should be using?
Tony Scott says:
I think that scroogle is ok. I mean, there is no harm in being a little cautious since we know that information is the hottest commodity right now. better be safe than sorry.
October 13, 2011 — 11:42 pm
Lynchf says:
Its not a bad idea to be generally cautious about leaving your electronic fingerprints across Google (or any other public internet web service) however I’ve noticed that Scroogle seems to give different results to Google for the same search terms
October 14, 2011 — 7:47 am
Evan Kline says:
That might be because one factor that Google uses in its search results is what it knows about you. I can get slightly different results by searching in a “clean” browser, as opposed to one I’ve used for a while.
October 22, 2011 — 2:27 pm
Klara says:
i find it a useful thing, too. sometimes it can be dangerous, that you have all-around your fingerprints on the internet. if this app works, it will reach a great success.
October 14, 2011 — 11:02 am
Cristian Balau says:
I don’t really care much about Google tracking my results and why should anyone care?
If you don’t want to be tracked just log off from your google account, clear cookies and search away as much as you want.
October 14, 2011 — 10:24 pm
Dave says:
Nothing to hide so nothing to fear. Whats the big deal?
October 16, 2011 — 1:32 pm
Evan Kline says:
Depends on who you trust, Dave.
October 22, 2011 — 2:28 pm
BobD says:
I use a program called No Script (noscript.net). It lets me see what is trying to open when I’m in Firefox. (I then have the simple click option of letting any or all of them to open (temp or permanently) on that site.) You’d be amazed how many (sometimes up to a dozen) “items” are trying to look over my shoulder when I’m on the Internet!
October 17, 2011 — 8:45 am
Evan Kline says:
I’ve used No Script before. I eventually relented, choosing convenience over security because it broke so many pages.
October 22, 2011 — 2:29 pm
Cody says:
I kind of agree with Dave. I haven’t exactly got much to hide.
October 19, 2011 — 5:30 pm
Evan Kline says:
Although it is more looking at it from a “hide from the government” angle, here’s an interesting article discussing the “nothing to hide” viewpoint that many espouse:
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127461/
October 22, 2011 — 2:32 pm
jimmy Fan says:
I actually like GIbiru.com better than scroogle, the uncensored news is awesome. Sucks though that scroogle.org finally shut down, Heard that there is a clone at http://scrogle.org only one o instead of 00?
February 25, 2012 — 12:29 pm
Evan Kline says:
I had heard about Google shutting Scroogle down (I think), but I hadn’t heard about GIbiru.com. Thanks for the tip!
February 27, 2012 — 1:04 pm
Gary says:
Google knows more about you than you think and makes quite a bit of money selling this information. A seemingly innocuous web search on for example – prostate cancer can follow you and have very unwanted future consequences.
“Nothing to hide so nothing to fear. Whats the big deal?”
“I don’t really care much about Google tracking my results and why should anyone care?”
At the very least, what Google knows about you affects the results returned to you on your web searches. More disconcerting – Google employees may access this personal information. Are all Google employees honest ? Google gets hacked – yes, it does happen.
There are Google alternatives
Ixquick
DuckDuckGo
Gibiru
StartPage
There are many more, some you need to know something about what you are trying to do to use them effectively, so I won’t include those.
Or, pay a few dollars a month to use a proxy server. It’s money well spent.
March 18, 2012 — 12:00 pm