Blackspot Blog

Can We Unclick Google?

A challenge to activists of the twenty-first century: how can we effectively fight back against Google's violation of our online privacy?

48 comments Micah White , 13 Mar 2009

Can we take back our online privacy? (Picture Source)

In a blog post earlier this week, I proposed an activist solution to Google's announcement that they would expand their tracking of users. In a post entitled unClick Google, I suggested that we undermine Google's business model, and their justification for creating behavioral profiles of the websites we frequent, by using a Firefox plugin to automatically click on all the Google AdSense ads. In so doing, I released a storm of debate over the possibility of forcing Google to adopt a pro-privacy corporate policy.

Google is a massive data warehouse that most internet users share personal information with, knowingly or not, every time they open a web browser. As many readers pointed out, even Adbusters utilizes Google's services on our website. Since 2007 we have relied on Google Analytics to analyze our website traffic. And by doing so we have shared our website statistics with Google.

The primary critique we heard of the idea I put forward was that Google's AdSense system has accomplished a "democratization of advertisers" by bringing many small shop owners into the business of placing online ads. Therefore, our plan to click on ads without viewing them, struck many people as harmful to the very people we want to help -- small, local businesses.

For others, the solution to rampant online advertising and Google tracking lies in a technological, not activist, praxis. They proposed that we use Firefox and install Adblock Plus which removes advertisements or NoScript which block trackers. Others pointed towards the ability to "opt-out" of Google's behavioral profiling by installing a piece of Google software in their browser. Or maybe we should all use alternatives to Google like Scroogle and Clusty.

The most important question that this tussle with Google raises is whether a fight against Google is even possible. Or is Google too big, too intertwined in the fabric of the internet, to be critiqued and forced to bow to our collective protest?

Clearly we are in a new era of activism and there are not any proven tactical answers. But one thing is clear: Google may be the culturejammer's toughest adversary yet.

Weigh in below and let's work together to build a strategy to jam Google and reclaim our online privacy.

Micah White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. He is writing a book on the future of activism. www.micahmwhite.com

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there is one alternative to

by Anonymous on April 02 2009, @02:51 pm there is one alternative to google as a search engine that is good enough: ixsearch.com. see also here for a review of it: http://www.linuxtech.net/reviews/ixquick_alternative_search_engine_to_big_brother_google.html

sorry, I obviously meant

by Anonymous on April 02 2009, @11:12 pm sorry, I obviously meant ixquick.com not ixsearch! please correct my mistake, thanks.

Has anyone else been using

by Wiki World on March 25 2009, @03:45 pm Has anyone else been using Wikipedia more and more, where previously you would have used google? I find myself using Wikipedia for maybe 50% of my info lookups these days - it's faster, way more balanced and comprehensive than 90% of webpages (for any given topic), and has no crackpots. Google gives ya the crackpot pages if they're popular enough. Wikipedia's search is google coupled with an editor. Indeed, imagine the web with an editor? (And Privoxy {a local proxy} + FF + NoScript helps)

I personally don’t care if

by Barry on March 25 2009, @03:38 pm I personally don't care if Google tracks my web habits. I love Google apps, maps, email and messenger. The stuff just works. Not only that, but if and when my current cell phone dies I will almost definitely be buying the new Google phone. I don't visit sites that I am ashamed or embarrassed of and I don't engage in illegal activity on-line. Who cares if Google knows and/or profits from knowing that the first site I check every day is Gmail, the second is BBC world news, and the third is Guerrilla News? Who cares? Not me. What exactly is it that you guys do on line that you are so worried about being made public? I don't think this is a problem with Google. All they do is consistently produce the best possible products. I think the real problem is that all of you fanboys are spending too much time looking for naked pictures of Britney Spears, and not enough time being a part of a real solution to a real problem. What if instead of keeping up on Paris Hilton you became a Guerrilla Gardener? What if instead of spending all day in Half-Life you organized a sit-in protest at your local Starbucks? What if you started a letter writing campaign fighting the building of yet another Super-Walmart instead of updating your MySpace page every 20 minutes? What if...

You’re kidding? I just

by rowan.b.m on March 24 2009, @11:34 am You're kidding? I just deleted my hotmail account and got gmail. That's ludicrous. Does anyone know an email program that's not hotmail or gmail?

Google!

by Anonymous on March 22 2009, @05:09 pm Google!

Ill beat you all down on

by Anonymous on March 22 2009, @05:15 pm Ill beat you all down on COD 4

GoodSearch is good and it

by Anonymous on March 21 2009, @09:58 pm GoodSearch is good and it raised money for charity.

naivete is rampant in

by Anonymous on March 21 2009, @10:29 am naivete is rampant in our society.

The only thing Google will

by Anonymous on March 20 2009, @10:29 pm The only thing Google will understand is a concerted movement to by-pass use of its search engine. I have read all the suggestions, but I still don't know the most efficient way to do this.

Track Me Not. End of

by Anonymous on March 19 2009, @11:00 pm Track Me Not. End of discussion. Fucking duh.

Anybody paying attention to

by Anonymous on March 19 2009, @08:12 pm Anybody paying attention to this PIFTS.EXE thing? Apparently Symantec has been hiding a file on Norton AntiVirus users computers, which mines data, and sends it to Symantec, a server in Africa, and a server in the U.S. government

Hi, For the geeks amongst

by eiland on March 19 2009, @11:59 am Hi, For the geeks amongst you, I thought of a way of adbusting googles advertising. In my theory it should work, it just needs some whizzkid to implement, see the idea at http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=1935 the difference is that it doesnt need peoples browser, because it could be embedded in blogs etc, and everyone visiting those pages would be "clicking" google ads. Thus there would be a totally more random pool of ip addresses, which would be harder for google to filter out!! Maybe if you vote for the idea, the Worpress techies will start considering it...

Start using IxQuick

by Tom Davis on March 19 2009, @02:38 am Start using IxQuick (http://www.ixquick.com/) - they don't even record your IP address, let alone any other personal information.

But they do display Google

by Anonymous on March 19 2009, @07:57 am But they do display Google Adsense ads, so google will still be able to collect information about you...

Anybody hear of

by Anonymous on March 19 2009, @12:15 am Anybody hear of scroogle.org? Maybe a techie can explain how/if it works...

Go here:

by Anonymous on March 19 2009, @07:59 am Go here: http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm I think Scroogle is the best option, it displays google's search results without revealing your personal information and with zero ads.

no wait google, “how to

by Anonymous on March 18 2009, @11:59 pm no wait google, "how to kill google"

yeah I think Googles got by

by Anonymous on March 18 2009, @11:56 pm yeah I think Googles got by the goolies. Besides Google is a great tool as well. It may be the only corporation that has an ability to bring down other corporation. I mean try Googling "how to bring down a corporation". haha

Great post! Where will

by amabayag on March 18 2009, @02:35 am Great post! Where will democracy and privacy will go?

you can just

by Anonymous on March 18 2009, @05:09 am you can just use IXQUIK. "Ixquick offers high quality meta-search results in full privacy!" "On July 14th, 2008 Ixquick was awarded the first European Privacy Seal. Ixquick is now the first and only EU-approved search engine." http://www.ixquick.com/eng/protect_privacy.html it works pretty much like google, i think it finds not that much like google.....but still enough. greetings from the netherlands

I Believe google is too big

by San17 on March 17 2009, @11:42 pm I Believe google is too big to challenge. Google is too intertwined in the fabric of internet that I think it would take millions of sites to protest a change.

I think Googles size is also

by Andrew in Ireland on March 18 2009, @08:05 am I think Googles size is also its vulnerability. Impact them by just 1% and they will really feel it on the bottom line. Especially now when investors are quite panicky.

CustomizeGoogle is a great

by børge / forteller on March 17 2009, @05:36 pm CustomizeGoogle is a great Firefox plugin which lets you remove ads and click tracking from Google-sites, anonymize Google cookies, not send info to Google Analytics, etc. http://www.customizegoogle.com/

1. Google is very practical

by tsdwfyam on March 17 2009, @09:10 am 1. Google is very practical for any kind of searches. 2. Google creates a register of your requests and tries to analyze it in order to gain user characteristics (and possibly sell it to advertisement companies). 3. There is a tool to completely corrupt this strategy: Use Firefox (as mentioned above) and the add-on "Track me not" (See: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/search?q=trackmenot&cat=all ). Maybe you will have to switch it on by right-clickung on the little logo in the lower right corner of your Firefox and selecting "Enabled". This will interrupt the profiling. And Google can't abuse your data/sell it to whoever.

1) Downloand and install the

by cargocult on March 16 2009, @06:35 pm 1) Downloand and install the Mozilla Firefox browser on your computer. 2) Next, get the add-on NoScript, freely available. 3) With the browser and add-on installed, click on the little S in the bottom right corner, you'll see a list of scripts being run on your browser. Forbid the following scripts: google-analystics.com You can also use this nifty add on to block all advertising - it's easy to do, but forbid the wrong scripts and you'll lose page functionality. Adbusting in action! P.S. anyone know what about:blank is? I block it, but have no idea... Only use Mozilla, and you should be fine.

This seems reasonable, if

by sunnyman on March 17 2009, @11:59 am This seems reasonable, if you really care about Google tracking what you are up to on the web. The strategy I saw mentioned in the article, making it so every AdSense ad gets clicked on, is really STUPID, since 1) all these poor webmasters would then be accused of clicking their own ads, and kicked out of AdSense - plus 2) it would skyrocket the ad costs for the advertisers. Would it hurt Google? Not really... There's no business like Google business.

The web has already become a

by amlisamiles on March 16 2009, @01:29 pm The web has already become a go to destination and so, advertisers will be the one who would find various other means to get eyeballs to their offerings. And then it would just spawn an army of search engines currently sitting in the sidelines and watching the google dance with a misty eye. I have finally hit on a strategy that seems to be working effectively in my effort to

On a personal level the

by What would Neil Postman do? on March 15 2009, @05:38 pm On a personal level the solution is easy. Turn off your computer. Spend time with your family and friends. Create real communities.