Blur Private Search Promises to Hide User Identities from Google
May 8, 2015
We advise you to not take this advice: ReadWrite purports to tell us “How to Blur your Search Tracks on Google.” The article profiles Blur Private Search from privacy company Albine, a shield service that works to hide your identity from Google’s prying databases. The tool does this by setting each user up with a fake, cookie-free identity for each search. Writer Yael Grauer tells us:
“Private Search provides a new made-up identity for each individual search. It then funnels the request through an SSL tunnel, so that the search is encrypted—even Abine can’t see what you’re searching for. And every phrase or topic you search appears as if it is unconnected to previous searches, since each query is sent through Abine’s server with an entirely different IP address (which is yet another avenue by which websites can track people).
“Your search requests are modified before leaving your browser in a way that breaks the identity connection between your searches and the rest of your tabs. That means you can keep your YouTube tab open with all of your videos, and stay logged into Gmail, all without allowing Google to link your search queries with your account (and identity).”
At this time, the tool runs only in Firefox, and they have not yet implemented the in-results visuals that let you know it is working. Those problems will be fixed, but the bigger issue lies in trying to hide the tracks of anything typed into Google. Even the folks at Albine admit that people with something to hide that could put them in actual danger (Chinese dissidents, for example) would be better off going through Tor. There are other engines that don’t track in the first place, too. At the same time, it is true that Google’s functionality is unmatched, so users must weigh their priorities; one might use a non-tracking tool for anything financial, health, or uprising-related, for example, and Google for everything else. Just a suggestion.
Boston-based Albine bills itself as “the online privacy company,” and their goal is to bring user-friendly security to anyone who goes online. Their other products include DoNotTrackMe, MaskMe, and DeleteMe. The company was founded in 2008.
Cynthia Murrell, May 8, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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Blur Private Search Promises to Hide User Identities from Google : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search
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Blur Private Search Promises to Hide User Identities from Google : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search
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