I’m sick of gutter

Get a browser like Firefox that respects your privacy and doesn't let everyone and their dog track you.

You've got to know how to use Firefox to stay private...

Clear cookies and history in Prefences before online Banking and such.

Google can only track you if you agree to cookies. This is EU law.

Minute you agree to use Google search engine they are onto you. I suppose it's the IP address.

They seem to know I am quite ancient. Stuff like Pensions, Funerals, Older ladies looking for Love! :D

I did some research on the Middle East a while back. Next thing I know is I am being bombarded with Ads about "Muslim Girls are looking for Love"!

They must think I am the original Lover Boy. :eek:
 
You've got to know how to use Firefox to stay private...

Clear cookies and history in Prefences before online Banking and such.
There's no such thing as privacy in a real sense, web browser fingerprinting doesn't need cookies to be enabled to track your browsing.

Google can only track you if you agree to cookies. This is EU law.
This is a loophole so big you could drive a bus through it.

Minute you agree to use Google search engine they are onto you. I suppose it's the IP address.

If you sign into any google service they'll track you that way otherwise its probably just cookies.

I just send all the google tracking stuff to 127.0.0.1
 
So you’re saying it’s basically impossible to buy a telephone that you can use for a private conversation anymore?

Sounds like a good reason to start building an entirely new independent communication network since this one is trashed, probably irrecoverably.
 
The telephone voice conversations are protected by your countries telephone intercept laws.

When it comes to web browsing or voice enabled commands however its the wild west and assume there is no privacy, more-so if you have signed into say a google provided service, you'll be tracked nine ways to sunday.
 
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I suppose it's the IP address.

It's much more sinister than that.

With dynamic IPs the norm for IP4 addresses, Google is now using an AI algorithm to add searches, browsing patterns and habits and cookie requests to work out what you've been looking at. Whether they bring it to your attention or not is another matter entirely.

The only sure way to keep it out of your life is to not have any Google service logged in into your browser, and use a private session for all searches. Many website providers use off-the-shelf plugins which actually have Google code baked into them, and when you search for something (regardless of ads), it gets logged and will be offered as a 'suggestion'.

If all you want is to block the ads themselves, its actually pretty simple. Pihole and an adblocker give you full control about where you get to see ads, and who can show them to you. You could (should?) allow an exception for diyAudio, for example.

Avoiding tracking, that's probably not possible any more. All those freedoms have been signed away. Avoiding all Google is one way to mitigate the hounding, but the free internet also has a price, and ads is one way to pay for it. If it's not Google, it will be someone else. Apple is not much better, but they're not as nosy and shrill.
 
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Such paranoia! If you are curious - monitor your phone's IP traffic. There is no offline voice data uploading. If enabled, the voice assistant will locally listen, but you can shut that off. I shut them off as they are not much use. Google, Amazon, Apple voice recognition is sh*te... Most so called "AI" are just algorithms, and poor too. whebn I've tried them, none of them come up with useful "you did this so you will like this" - far worse than a human 5 year old could figure out.
If you are worried, shut off mobile data on your phone and shut off wifi when you don't need it.
 
Nothing wrong with Paranoia! I assume everybody and everything is out to get me! Survival instinct. :D

So far, so good. :)

Thing I worry about is the Unscrupulous Crooks getting into my Bank Account.

A combination of Ubuntu Linux and Firefox and vigilance has kept me safe so far. Viruses and Hacks can only get past Linux with my permission.

A minority combination the Crooks find it unworthwhile to attack. They are after more dumb people. How it is.
 
Here's another way advertisers can track you, they use the mac address of the wifi or bluetooth modem in your phone and log this information as you walk around the shopping centre that have in-store wifi services and serve you up advertisements if your browsing the internet.

It gets worse, what is google doing as they drive around the streets to provide google streetview maps, they also log the mac addresses of all the wifi routers that they detect, so when you use google services they can log browsing history against an address (albeit as long as you don't change your router very often).

It's basically impossible to prevent from being tracked in some way or fashion on the internet all you can do is limit how much information they can gather.
 
That’s why the bank account access , credit card info, and federal taxes is on a separate computer that is only turned on when needed.

Unfortunately, later this year I’ll be making several large PCB runs. The trouble is getting the gerber files over from the design computer (my old XP desktop, that obviously sends what I’m writing about to Google) to the financial computer so I can order boards. It’s either going to be moving them across an air gap with some scrubbing in between, or just get a disposable debit card loaded with two grand - enough to cover the costs - and just using the residual for a Mouser order until is empty. Then burning it.
 
Thing I worry about is the Unscrupulous Crooks getting into my Bank Account.

A combination of Ubuntu Linux and Firefox and vigilance has kept me safe so far. Viruses and Hacks can only get past Linux with my permission.
.

That's a good start, but criminals can also use "targeted" social engineering to high-jack your phone account (sim-jacking) and intercept your banking password reset or temporary pin number that way, no need for viruses or malware. Fortunately phone companies and the banking sector are quickly catching up to these ploys and making it harder for someone to take control of your phone/bank account.
 
Google can only track you if you agree to cookies. This is EU law.

It's not like that at all here in the US. There is zero privacy and corporations have full reign to do pretty much whatever they want to do. Lobbies de facto run the federal gubment here. It's no secret.

Cell phones, your car, every public place you go, you are under surveillance 100% of the time, except when you're in the bathroom.

That's the price we pay for freedom, they say. :p

They seem to know I am quite ancient. Stuff like Pensions, Funerals, Older ladies looking for Love! :D

I did some research on the Middle East a while back. Next thing I know is I am being bombarded with Ads about "Muslim Girls are looking for Love"!

They must think I am the original Lover Boy.

I'm in the same boat. For me it's Buicks and life insurance. And young mail order Russian brides. :cool:

I'm not mad or offended. I'm amused. What kind of mindset thinks this level of intrusion is appropriate? It's creepy and the people that make this stuff happen are psychopaths. I was born into a totally different country than what I live in now. And I don't care because I'm old and will soon be dead. It's young folk that are going to have to deal with this.
 
20 year old programs still run on that machine, without the need to purchase/subscribe to new ones. My off-brand paid for PCB layout program, Virtual DJ, hornresp, speaker workshop, office 97, the woofer tester (v2), the controller program for the driverack 260, and some custom stuff I’ve written all run trouble free and would not work properly on 7 or 8. So I kept the old computer. Doing a PCB design on it right now. The web browser is not open. I’m using my tablet for this.