Blackspot

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?

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

95 comments on the article “Can We Unclick Google?”

Displaying 71 - 80 of 95

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eiland

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...

eiland

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...

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

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.

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