Reviews for Don't track me Google
Don't track me Google by Rob W
Review by ExE Boss
Rated 4 out of 5
by ExE Boss, 8 years agoBlocking tracking on Google's search engine is a lot more complex than just changing the link (which on older browsers (FF49 and earlier) helps to prevent search leakage (further explained here: https://duck.co/help/results/rduckduckgocom))
After further analysis of the link, I've come to the conclusion that it has more information than a search leakage prevention link should have, and thus is one of the many ways that Google is using to track their users. (the link however does handle referer erasure, ex. pasting: 'https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=Google&source=web&cd=8&sqi=2&ved=0CFgQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismyreferer.com%2F&ei=Ej__TrCkJo2bOrSs2aIE&usg=AFQjCNG5-9Jej-ukVeakTgwonqt2narbYg&sig2=f9f1dWcZoj6ZUC2Zxy9y2g'
into the URL bar while having my referer cleaning extension disabled still shows no referer, while navigating to that website from DuckDuckGo shows https://DuckDuckGo.com/ as the referer (no search leakage happens on DuckDuckGo either, in case you are worrying about that))
There however are many other ways that Google uses to track their users, and the truly best way to prevent Google from tracking you is to just switch to another search engine that doesn't track you at all, ex. DuckDuckGo. (I have done a fair bit of research on my own, and came to the conclusion that DDG truly doesn't track you at all)
After further analysis of the link, I've come to the conclusion that it has more information than a search leakage prevention link should have, and thus is one of the many ways that Google is using to track their users. (the link however does handle referer erasure, ex. pasting: 'https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=Google&source=web&cd=8&sqi=2&ved=0CFgQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismyreferer.com%2F&ei=Ej__TrCkJo2bOrSs2aIE&usg=AFQjCNG5-9Jej-ukVeakTgwonqt2narbYg&sig2=f9f1dWcZoj6ZUC2Zxy9y2g'
into the URL bar while having my referer cleaning extension disabled still shows no referer, while navigating to that website from DuckDuckGo shows https://DuckDuckGo.com/ as the referer (no search leakage happens on DuckDuckGo either, in case you are worrying about that))
There however are many other ways that Google uses to track their users, and the truly best way to prevent Google from tracking you is to just switch to another search engine that doesn't track you at all, ex. DuckDuckGo. (I have done a fair bit of research on my own, and came to the conclusion that DDG truly doesn't track you at all)