[QUOTE=ewmayer;361767]Re. Google tracking, I attempt to combat that 2 main ways - other/better suggestions welcome:[/QUOTE]I use a plugin called "redirect cleaner". It works with more than just Google redirects, there are plenty of other websites that do this also.

I still have (had) a problem with Kayak (and have thus stopped using it) sending me to doubleclick for each link. Since I have blocked doubleclick in my HOSTS file I had to manually edit the URL to get to the proper place. [size=1]BTW: FU Kayak[/size]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;361767]Re. Google tracking, I attempt to combat that 2 main ways - other/better suggestions welcome:[/QUOTE]

3. Don't use Google at all. They've been turning slightly evil recently. Use some other search engine instead.

(I use Yahoo! search, but this is not an endorsement other than that I haven't noticed Yahoo!'s evilness yet.)

4. Firefox's Ghostery add-on can block Google tracking.

I think it's always wise to be sufficiently familiar with other search engines to have the ability to switch if the 'evil level' goes too high. Bing and Yahoo! are standbys, DuckDuckGo is good on the nonevil front.

I still find google handy for broad searches, and since every other big tech US-based firm is also in bed with the NSA, don't assume switching to one of the latter's search offerings will help.

I should have noted, however, that in addition to the link-tracking-cleansing, I have drastically cut my GOOG usage as well. Instead of using them to find e.g. a Wiki or IMDB page I now use the latter sites' built-in search features to find desired content. I've also gotten fairly proficient as guess-the-Wikipedia-page-name, so around 80% of the time can simply type 'wik..' in my FF url field, wait for the autocomplete to bring up a short list of receent pages viewed, then replace the topic-name suffix with one that fits my desired one. If that fails to take me to a so-named page, I simply search the site or pick one of the proferred "did you mean?" offerings.

Overall, my rate of GOOG searches is probably less than 20% of what it was pre-Snowden-leaks.

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OT/Tangential: love how [i]Time[/i] magazine weaseled out of picking someone who displeases their corporate masters as their POTY ... Pope Francis, seriously? Ooh, he helped humanity by making a show of washing some dude's feet and making vague but nice-sounding noises about cleaning up the global pedophile ring he heads.

I'll agree generally with the first half of Ernst's last post. I've reduced my Google dependency a little bit.

Yahoo has the advantage of being so incompetently run that they can't be of much help to the NSA.

If I'm really concerned about data mining, I open up IE fire up the VPN and search away. That dude who uses IE out of Florida was a real whack-job. If they ever find him he is so screwed. I generally only do this during my web searches for my writing hobby such as during the month of November. When searches might be : "What is the easiest way to make ricin?" Or, "How long does the body twitch after a beheading."

The rest of the year my searches revolve around muffin recipes and Mersenne forum crap. And they are welcome to look at it all they want #boredNSAdrones. And is done on Chrome or Waterfox.

[url=pando.com/2013/12/14/team-omidar-world-police-ebay-puts-user-data-on-a-silver-platter-for-law-enforcement/]Team Omidyar, World Police: eBay puts user data on a “silver platter” for law enforcement[/url]

A.k.a. "More on the fellow Glenn Greenwald recently got into bed with."

h/t Naked capitalism - cf. reader discussion of the above (as well as other daily-roundup pieces) [url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/12/links-121513-2.html]here[/url]. (Most interesting to me, even though I avoid facebook like the plague on mankind it is, was the comment re. FB's interest in how users use their backspace/delete buttons. "Our surveillance partners would like to know why you chose not to post that snip after having taken the time to type it. D00d, r u a terrorist?")

[QUOTE] [B]$10m NSA contract with security firm RSA led to encryption 'back door'[/B]

• Flawed formula enabled agency to crack into products
• RSA and NSA decline to comment


[/QUOTE][URL]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/nsa-internet-security-rsa-secret-10m-encryption[/URL]

W.r.to the initialism "RSA", may I suggest a new corporate tagline?

[i]RSA: Scratch off the R and an N appears.[/i]

o [url=http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/12/fear-octopus-judge-says-nsa-phone.html]NY judge says NSA mass wiretapping is legal[/url] [via Mish]. This is clearly heading for the SCOTUS, which will likely rule 5-4 that "NSA mass-surveillance programs are people, too."

o Who needs the NSA when we have [url=http://www.zdnet.com/researchers-publish-snapchat-code-allowing-phone-number-matching-after-exploit-disclosures-ignored-7000024629/]Snapchat[/url]?

Comment from John le Carré in Der Spiegel (beginning translated into English, full article in German):
[URL]http://www.johnlecarre.com/news/2013/12/12/der-spiegel-interview-2013[/URL]

[QUOTE=Nick;363181]Comment from John le Carré in Der Spiegel (beginning translated into English, full article in German):
[URL]http://www.johnlecarre.com/news/2013/12/12/der-spiegel-interview-2013[/URL][/QUOTE]Just reading the English portion, I think that John Le Carré is exactly right.[QUOTE]Le Carré: First of all: well done lad! Snowden has taken what was surely a very difficult and life-determining decision: he has broken laws and betrayed his employer to unveil a much more serious breach of the law by the NSA itself. I wish he would get a medal, or at least win back his freedom.

SPIEGEL: That will not happen.

Le Carré: Right. I don’t think he’s in good hands in Putin’s Russia, and I think it is highly unlikely that he’ll get state asylum in Germany either. It would be a great gesture of your government, but the influence of Washington is too big.

SPIEGEL: John Kornblum, a former American ambassador to Germany has claimed nothing would have happened to Snowden if he had relied on the American Whistle-blower Law and turned to his superiors.

Le Carré: Utter nonsense. On principle an intelligence agency cannot let a whistle-blower go unpunished. So, Mr Snowden, make no illusions! They will persecute and probably even catch you, because you have committed a mortal sin – You have made the U.S. government and corporate America look like idiots. And for that they think the death penalty is too lenient.[/QUOTE]Some background on John le Carré:
[QUOTE]David John Moore Cornwell, pen name John le Carré, is a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for the British intelligence services MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under a pen name. [URL="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_Carré‎"]Wikipedia[/URL][/QUOTE]