Is that a strange way to say you got married after 2008? 
Isnāt DDG explicitly stating they donāt do that? Isnāt being outside a filter bubble the main point?
First of allā¦ be it that they do that or not, they did a huge campaign with billboards here in UK exactlyā¦
Besides thatā¦ if they actively base their results on the other stuff you use, then That is right to the point Iām making!
It is a shitty algorythm.
On that specific browser I have an amazon account logged in, for AWS dev.
I donāt do any shopping through that browser.
Yet, if DDG thinkg Iām constantly attempting to buy stuff, most likely because of my AWS account logged in. That is a shitty algo implementation.
Either way, I attempted exactly the same thing in another browser in another computer, and got exactly the same result.
So our differences are most likely region/IP based.
(which is less depressing)
Indeed. I think at one of my gigs, @anon3825968ās example is safer! 
Alsoā¦
Shiny!! 
(pun intended)
Well, if they say so, it must be true - and I have a bridge to sell you if youāre interested.
The thing is, youāre right.
Though I have to say itās rather easy to test. Weāll all get the same search results.
The thing that was screenshotted was an ad, I donāt see that either because such stuff is blocked.
The real search results are the same (I hope).
Iām kinda temped to make a poll about paranoia levels of users here.
It is kind of paranoia. But only partly.
Consider this: DDG is no different from Google. Their revenue stream is selling your data, since youāre not paying anything. So when they pledge not to maximize their revenue stream, they have a clear conflict of interest, and I donāt trust them anymore than I trust the crackhead down the street when he swears heās off the rock. Remember: a corporationās one and only commitment is to its shareholdersā ROI.
Itās not paranoia, itās just plain logic.
Yeah I mean paranoia in a good, logical way. If youāre kind of aware of whatās going on, how can you not get paranoid?
You know what they say: itās not because youāre paranoid that theyāre not out to get ya
Iāve been very protective of my personal data for decades, well before Big Data was even a thing. Well before Scott McNealy laid the truth bare and everybody thought he was crazy. And thereās a good reason for that: Iāve experienced first-hand what it is to have your life changed because of data mishandling. And that wasnāt even as bad as it could have been, because it was pre-Google. But I learned my lesson.
Iāve always refused to be photographed. Iāve always refused to give my name, address or details to anybody unless I absolutely had to. Iāve always covered my online tracks and poisoned the well any which way I can.
People have been calling me paranoid for years. But now that high profile cases of private data mishandling are starting to come up thick and fast, and we all get to see what happens when an entire state (China) goes in all the way with private data abuse, suddenly I donāt seem not so crazy anymoreā¦
What saddens me though is, people think about it, they get worried for 5 minutes, then they forget and go back to giving out all their personal data without a care in the world. Why society as a whole isnāt up in arms over this is totally beyond me. Theyāll all learn one day, but itāll be too late. It already is.
Me, Iād rather be overly suspicious and overly protective of my personal data than complacent. It has served me well in the past, and I have good evidence itāll serve me well in the future. Call me paranoid all day long, I donāt give a turkey.
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Not to be an ass, but Iām sure I could still find out a lot about you if I tried. Not to mention a determined adversary. Probably couldnāt be done automagically, tho
Me, I have the quite uncommon luck of sharing my first & last name with quite a famous personā¦ so there is literally no track of me anywhere. No picture, no profiles, nothing
Of course you could. Iām just trying to make it as hard as I can for you and make you work for it, which defeats automated surveillance. Thatās what Iām worried about, not determined individuals or bad actors with enough time and money on their hands, because my life isnāt worth the expense and Iām generally a nice guy nobody has anything against
POLL
Level of paranoia
Would you say you are:-
a. Higly Paranoid
b. Somewhat Paranoid
c. Not at all Paranoid
Rosco, you sound like a B
But your layers of protection sound like a B+ or A- to me
If B+ is paranoid but not without valid reasons to be, Iāll take it
Also, what the fuck is A- or B+ man? Canāt you grade in metric like the rest of us?
Iām 8/10 goddammit.
Yeah, I just changed your grade
80%
Much better
I canāt stand weirdo units.
Soā¦ Thatās .8 Rosco units of weirdness???
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Problem
Finding on the āsafestā search engine
Solution
Apparently the āsafestā search engine is
Happy Jeevse-ing
I canāt back that up
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I see your sarcasm, albeit feels kinda misplaced hereā¦
I meanā¦ no one is shocked that they lied. And the fact that someone lies is not a justification for someone lying.
They are not. I tested by changing my VPN. I also tested from another laptop at a friendās house.
It was ānotā.
It comes presented as a search result.
I meanā¦ it was an ad, but ad-blocks did not stop that.
Changing my location setting (with an UA spoofer / VPN) does.
Itās only paranoia if you are wrong. 
@anon3825968 has enough about himself on this forum alone that makes him kinda unique within his environment.
I would bet my money on you @anon7067117 ! 
As long as I believe I am right, I canāt be paranoid! 
Nah, jokes apartā¦ I do sound a lot more paranoid than I am.
- I can see where terrible things can happen.
- I can see how a conspiracy could be executed.
- I am fully aware, first handed, about a bunch of things people would attribute to conspiracy theories (ocupational hazard)
yetā¦ I just donāt have enough fucks left to give to actually stress about any of that. 
Also, most of the time, I can also see why said conspiracy would not yield as much returns to the conspirators as it would cost themā¦
And I tie paranoia levels directly to how much does your concerns keeps you stressed/occupied/hindered.
B. Somewhat.
My wife and I can talk about something over a few days, and then I will see ads for related stuff. Not sure if it is just odd coincidences though.
I (arbitrarily) chose 8/10 to define myself as a highly paranoid individual, but with solid evidence to justify the paranoia, who doesnāt take life-crippling actions as a result. 9/10 would be if started compromising my quality of life or that of my loved ones, and 10/10 if I was paranoid about silly things like aliens or government conspiracy theories as well.
Although I must say, now that Iām exposed to the DT mind control field, the world is a happy happy place
I give many fucks, but I donāt stress at all. You can be a paranoid, stress-free individual provided that:
- You apply critical thinking to anything you see or hear from potential sumbitches, with an emphasis on follow-the-money for corporate sumbitches (e;g. when DDG says theyāre not tracking you and makes money from tracking you)
- You assess the risk of interacting with said sumbitches, or letting sumbitches interact with you (e.g. what happens if I search for ring ointments on DDG)
- You decide on actionable items to mitigate the perceived risk (e.g. I might fire up TOR and switch browser to do certain searches)
- You donāt get complacent and you repeat the above cycle regularly
Provided it doesnāt overly impact your life, it simply becomes a habit. I see it as healthy personal data hygiene, and itās no more stressful than taking a shower every day to stay clean.
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