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The Artful Todger
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The Artful Todger is offline
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19-09-2019, 12:10 PM
21

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by AnnieS ->
I heard of it a few years ago from a friend who works as an IT lecturer. I downloaded it to the phone but never ended up using it as it's less user friendly than others. Reading about it again I saw that it was somehow now linked to google. I thought the main thing with duckduckgo was that your identity was protected. But I think the search results are no better.
LOL. No, really, when i read that I did.

It's o in the same category as "I heard it from a guy down the pub"!
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19-09-2019, 12:46 PM
22

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by The Artful Todger ->
LOL. No, really, when i read that I did.

It's o in the same category as "I heard it from a guy down the pub"!
You think he was an unreliable source? Most of the best information comes from other people these days and not rubbish search engines. I can see the internet being so user unfriendly that people get rid of it and go back to normal life.
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19-09-2019, 12:50 PM
23

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by The Artful Todger ->
Anyone use VPN?

A VPN is a "virtual private network" that allows quite a bit of anonymising of what you get up to. Some are free, some paid for but a common feature is to make your location appear to be in other countries.

Very useful for accessing sites that are prohibited by the EU (!) or only available in certain countries usually by reason of copyright.

Then there's the "Dark Web". Very useful for nefarious activity. Just "Google" it on Google as a first step to start your drug dealing!
I was thinking about setting that up because I object to what's happening to the net, but it's a lot of hassle and of course you have fewer of the "lazy" features such as saved passwords or prepopulated forms.

I'm sure anyone who googles the dark web these days ends up being fast tracked to monitoring by MI5 & others.
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19-09-2019, 12:54 PM
24

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by Floydy ->
How do you know that's true, Annie?
You don't but that's how they sell the app. I think it's only using VPN that would really protect your identity. But you also lose all the features we have become used to. I guess it depends on what you want to do with it. I would just like a better search engine rather than worrying about being tracked. If VPN provided better searches as well as the ID protection then that would be a reason to use it. As I understand it, it works on a series of changing proxies.
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19-09-2019, 12:55 PM
25

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by Floydy ->
One thing we now have to be very careful of is pour past history on the internet.

For instance, if you are visiting the USA, you will now need to fill in a huge form about your internet use. What you don't disclose may be found by their 'detectives' and you will be refused entry to the country.
That's crazy. The net is just becoming a big liability.
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19-09-2019, 12:57 PM
26

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by mart ->
I mostly use Startpage as a search service but DuckDuckGo is set as the search provider on one browser that is installed.

Startpage retrieves its results from Google, but doesn't reveal to Google who was it that has sent a search request. As has been shown in previous posts, the choice is there if you look into things a little and don't follow the popular choice. It's easy to use a search service other than Google and not all of them log your searches.

All search engines do the same thing though. They send out their bots to explore any page that people put on the Internet and so the search results are always going to be more or less the same. Just a question of whether you mind the activity being logged or not.

Thanks for the tip Mart. Are there any ISPs you would recommend?
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19-09-2019, 01:51 PM
27

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by AnnieS ->
That's crazy. The net is just becoming a big liability.
AFAIK, there is no "huge form about your internet use" on the ESTA application site, just an additional question regarding applicants’ social media accounts.

https://www.esta-online.com/blogs/es...media-question

If you have applied for ESTA in the past, you’ll be familiar with the type of questions that appear on the form. As well as your passport and contact details, you’re also asked a range of security questions, which come in the form of yes/no boxes. From time to time, US Customs and Border Protection changes the information that needs to be provided on ESTA applications, and this particular change has been quite a controversial one.

Now, when you fill out the online ESTA application form, you are presented with an optional social media section. Granted, this is quite a broad request, given that ‘online presence’ can take many, many forms, and is certainly not restricted to the use of social media platforms. However, this is specifically focused on what social websites you use and have a profile on.

You are presented with a drop-down menu of different social media platforms. Some of these you almost definitely won’t have heard of, so the idea is that you simply select the ones that apply to you. At the moment, this list includes: ASKfm, Facebook, Flickr, GitHub, Google+, Instagram, JustPaste.it, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine, VKontakte (VK) and YouTube. There is also an ‘other’ option, if this list doesn’t quite cover it!

When you select a platform, you are then asked to provide your identifier for this platform. Specifically, your username, handle or screen name (or other). As you might expect, this does make the ESTA application a slightly lengthier process, particularly if you use many of these platforms. There will certainly be a lot of applicants who use at least three or four of these sites, and people don’t always know what their usernames or handles are off the top of their heads.

Nevertheless, the ESTA application does make it clear that providing this information is optional. For this reason, you might not necessarily feel inclined to provide information for all of these platforms.



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Floydy
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19-09-2019, 01:52 PM
28

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

When it comes down to it they are all interlinked. If they weren't, why do we see adverts about things we've searched for or even talked about on these places? If anybody wants info about you it can be found these days.
It's a sign of modern technology. Just be careful what you post that's all.
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19-09-2019, 01:53 PM
29

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by AnnieS ->
Thanks for the tip Mart. Are there any ISPs you would recommend?
I've been on cable for about 23 years. It is run by Virgin Media now but the system was put in and owned by CableTel to start with (bought by NTL and then Virgin Media). It has been satisfactory all in all and I haven't felt the need to go anywhere else. I therefore don't have personal experience of other ISPs.

Virgin Media can supply the fastest broadband speeds, along with cable television and a telephone line. As with other ISPs, some will say the service is good and others won't. Sorry I can't be more helpful regarding ISPs than that.

I don't think any ISP is more private than another but as far as any are concerned, they all preserve our privacy. They supply our IP address and that's all we are (without other research or information) to any site on the Internet. We can usually be traced to the town where we live or the nearest Internet node but only the ISP can match your IP address to a real name and address.
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19-09-2019, 02:13 PM
30

Re: Sick of social media and search engines and other dumbing down processes

Originally Posted by Omah ->
AFAIK, there is no "huge form about your internet use" on the ESTA application site, just an additional question regarding applicants’ social media accounts.

https://www.esta-online.com/blogs/es...media-question

I did wonder about that as I have never been asked about my internet usage.

An ESTA lasts for two years, The one I have runs out in Jan so maybe they never asked theses questions 2 years ago
 
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