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Why Google knows exactly every page I visit?

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  • 3 have this problem
  • 333 views
  • Last reply by philipp

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I know I use cookies, but when did I give the right to Google to read every cookie in my pc, from every page I visit to show me ads? Is this written in any of your policies and I didn't see it? Pls advice Thanks

I know I use cookies, but when did I give the right to Google to read every cookie in my pc, from every page I visit to show me ads? Is this written in any of your policies and I didn't see it? Pls advice Thanks

Chosen solution

yes, on the one hand that's through ad networks like the google owned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoubleClick that are embedded on websites you visit - on the other hand google will record your search history on their site by default as explained in the resources linked by jscher2000 before.

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Hello!


This is a result of ad networks tracking you. It is for everyone and it is completely evil. Basically it affects every browser but big ad agencies try to collect information about you and sell it. I am not trying to scare you however there are easy solutions to protect your privacy! :)

Take a look at the following to help protect you!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disconnect/?src=collection&collection_id=4a02c848-8be7-44ff-bc1c-f1c2d8dddf86

Another thing I want to point out. If you are further concerned with your privacy consider using a search engine called DuckDuckGo

http://www.duckduckgo.com is the site

Anything you search for on Google is not private and is stored right onto Google's servers. Already you being a Firefox user is a great start. Chrome that is by Google is heavily filled with things to track you and is not open-source like Firefox so no one knows what kind of code was added. Firefox is so trustworthy that anonymity networks such as Tor use a Firefox modified version.

I hope it helps you and if you have any questions please ask! :)

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You can disable third-party cookies completely or only from visited websites.

  • Tools > Options > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history"

You can set the network.cookie.thirdparty.sessionOnly pref to true on the about:config page to make third-party cookies behave as session cookies that expire when you close Firefox.

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I don't know if you have noticed this, but when you click a result on Google, that click is tracked by Google. This is independent of ad networks (Google itself is a huge ad network).

If you are using Google while logged into your account, this accumulates in your "web history" (https://www.google.com/history/).

This is Google's help article on how you can reduce its tracking of you: Search and browse privately - Search Help

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paidikesaggelies said

I know I use cookies, but when did I give the right to Google to read every cookie in my pc, from every page I visit to show me ads? Is this written in any of your policies and I didn't see it? Pls advice Thanks

Thanks for your replies I know about Google policy. But what I am talking about is Firefox policy. Google knows what pages I visit and shows me ads, WITHOUT having searched from Google. In other words, what I don't understand is, how Firefox allows Google to gather the info.

Modified by paidikesaggelies

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google is operating one of the largest advertising and tracking networks - they gather the data from websites that embed those into their pages. you can use the https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/ addon to visualise the trackers on the pages you visit. firefox isn't sharing your browsing history with google!

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philipp said

google is operating one of the largest advertising and tracking networks - they gather the data from websites that embed those into their pages. you can use the https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/ addon to visualise the trackers on the pages you visit. firefox isn't sharing your browsing history with google!

That is a very interesting tool! So it's due to the rights pages I visit give to google, if I understood correct?

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Chosen Solution

yes, on the one hand that's through ad networks like the google owned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoubleClick that are embedded on websites you visit - on the other hand google will record your search history on their site by default as explained in the resources linked by jscher2000 before.