If you use Google, you may want to switch to Scroogle

Scroogle (http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm) sends your search terms to Google, so that Google sees and saves their information rather than yours. Scroogle promises "no cookies, no search-term records" and "access log deleted within 48 hours." So you're still getting the same Google search results, but without the advertising that accompanies their search-results pages . If you feel that denying Google revenue in this fashion amounts to stealing their service, and you feel bad about that, you can always send them a voluntary donation to compensate them for not viewing their ads.

  Below is a message from the organization that goes into more detail explaining what they do and why it's a good thing (they're seeking donations, but I forward this mainly to encourage people to bypass Google and its privacy-invading practices). While Google is a publicly-held for-profit company and not a government, its data is potentially seizable by government, and the mere existence of such a massive repository of information on individuals represents a potential threat to liberty no matter who currently controls the information. Power corrupts, and libertarians should be wary of any one company becoming too powerful or market-dominant, no matter how legitimately they achieved that position.

  It has been argued that monopolies don't arise under free market conditions, and I think this may well be true. One of the reasons it probably is true, however, is that as people become aware that a monopoly may be looming, they deliberately shift their business away from it. Thus I believe Scroogle's efforts, and this email, should be seen not as anti-market, but as part of the natural process of the free market at work in preventing potential concentrations of power.

Love & Liberty,
        ((( starchild )))

Message from Scroogle:

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Wouldn't it just be easier to turn off cookies for google.com and
reboot your dynamic-IP broadband modem/router every 48 hours (or
release/renew your DHCP or PPPoE if you know how to do that)? Same
net effect, and doesn't require trusting someone who "promises" that
they don't have cookies and forget your IP address within 48 hours.

I predict that Scroogle will be hacked within a matter of weeks, with
all 48 hours' worth of logs posted publicly for anyone on the internet
to see. They're too small-time to have the security infrastructure of
Google, and by putting out this press release, they've just invited
the nastiest hackers to come after them.

I'd say that they're the least safe alternative (if you're one who is
concerned about cookies and access logs) now that they're in the
hackers' crosshairs.

Rob