How to Use Google Without Being Tracked
October 20, 2015
BGR - I
love how “evil” Google is. Do you hear that,
Google? I want you to
have all of my data, as long as you keep protecting it. I want you to learn everything you can about me, and I want you to
use that data to make my life better. I want you to
make my life easier.
I want services like Google Now to give me information before I even
know I need it. I want it all.
But many people aren’t in the same boat
as me, and there are plenty of very valid reasons to want to protect
your data and keep it out of Google’s hands. But should that mean you
have to stop using Google for searches?
Well
guess what: it only takes one step to stop Google from tracking you,
and you can still enjoy Google search along with several other Google
features. Plus, there are some great alternatives to Google search that
don’t track you, and we’ll cover them here as well.
VPN. It’s that simple.
What
is a VPN, you might ask? Virtual Private Networking is basically
technology that takes all of your Internet traffic and routes it through
a special third-party server. The websites you visit then see traffic
coming from that server instead of your computer, hiding all personally
identifying data in the process.
Virtual
Private Networks are great for a number of things, and stopping Google
from tracking you and your searches is one of them. We could go through
1,500 words of instructions full of Google settings you need to tweak to
stop Google’s tracking features one at a time, but a VPN will handle
everything in one shot.
The
other great thing about VPN services are the fact that they’re
remarkably easy to set up. Configure a VPN once on your computer and
you’re done. And on your phone, a VPN can be enabled and disabled in
seconds from within the Settings app. Good VPN services also often come
along with a companion app that makes it easy to turn them on and off,
and even to pinpoint the location of the server your traffic is routed
through.
There
are plenty of great services out there with prices that range from free
(be careful, read reviews) to hundreds of dollars each month. The
service we use and recommend is called Private Internet Access, and it
costs $6.95 per month or $39.95 per year.
If
you don’t want to use a VPN and Google’s tracking is off-putting, there
are still some great options for search engines that won’t track you.
Here are four you should check out:
DuckDuckGo: The clear leader in search engines that won’t track you
Disconnect: The best alternative if you want to search Google but don’t want to use a VPN.
ixquick: Bills itself as the world’s most private search engine.
StartPage: Very similar to Disconnect in that it only surfaces results from Google, but run by the same company as ixquick.
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