erlingamble.com/ blogg

Turn your back to Google !

Most people are aware of the fact that when we are using commercial web browsers like Google Chrome, Microsofts Edge and Apples Safari and such search engines as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc, we are giving them sensitive information about who we are and what kind of interests and needs we have. We do also know that this information is being collected and sold as information parcels about each one of us to companies dealing with marketing and other kinds of manipulation. Despite this we continue to use these tools because we regard this collection of information about us as an inevitable part of the game, something we have to accept if we want to use the internet at all. But that is not true, it is not at all necessary to give away all this information.

Because there are web browsers and search engines based on open source codes and that do not collect and sell this information. Firefox is a such web browser, and DuckDuckgo is a such search engine. Unlike most other search engines, DuckDuckgo has as a principle not to collect and forward information about the identity of those using it. This is done by letting the search first pass through a server where the IP-adress of the unit that the search came from is encrypted so that it can not be identified later in the process.

As you know, companies like Google, Facebook, Apple etc has made incredibly much money and have gathered so enormously much power that they have driven whole branches of other companies out of business and have grown more powerful than the civil authorities in many countries. This is a serious problem for democratic societies. And they have achieved all this power basically by selling information about their users, that we have given them for free.

Employ rather DuckDuckgo !

Even if you personally are not very bothered by being drowned with refrigrator ads weeks after you did a search after a such thing, it will be in your interest to contribute to reduce the power and influence of these companies. Besides that, it is ridiculously simple to do it. It will not take you more than a couple of minutes:

1. In many cases you have already Firefox installed on your computer. If you don't, you can download it from here.
2. Then you choose Firefox as your standard web browswer.
3. In many cases it might be you even got DuckDuckgo installed, as this is the preferred search engine of Firefox. But if you don't, you can download it from here.

And there you are. You have now strongly limited the amount of information that can be gathered about you. But you do have to know that those companies also have several other ways to do this. For instance every time you ask Google to show you the way to an adress, or each time you allow one of the apps in your phone access to your position. And surely a lot of other ways we can't even imagine. But by employing Duckduckgo you have made a very important step. And the more people who do this, the more we can reduce the power of the big tech companies. So go on, tell your relatives and friends about it too, pass the word, make it a movement.