Saturday, June 8, 2013

Who ya gonna trust?

Ghost Busters! We should view that movie again this summer.

Startpage.com touts itself as the "world's most private search engine."

I doubt that there's any privacy any more on the World Wide Web. But I've started using Startpage.

5 comments:

  1. I went to Startpage. Told it to add itself to my browser. It said "you have Javascript disabled. Please enable Javascript to download Startpage".

    That's a problem. Javascript allows all sorts of stuff to be loaded onto your computer (one of the reasons that after you do a search for various items, ads for that same item will pop up on your page. It may not be the doings of the search engine, but rather the javascript on the page you viewed), so per my slightly paranoid son's instructions, I use "NoScript" - a program that can be annoying, but is definitely instructive.

    My son's paranoia about all things electronic is seeming less paranoid lately...

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  2. I'll do that. He's already working on some sort of a network that would be a private family access thing. He's in Tx and we're in Ca. I don't understand how that would work - but the idea is to allow private communication (yeah...like I'm likely to be sending anything the government would be interested in!). He also wants to set it up so that there would be automatic encryption. Like I said...he's a bit paranoid. However...as _they_ say...just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get you! And he's working in computer security - so he's definitely in the right field.

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    Replies
    1. Well, as you know, the point isn't that we are uninteresting. The point is that they are are schmucks.

      You must remember the "intra-net," which pre-dated the inter-net, which (if memory serves) was slightly before AOL (you've got mail) days. Sometimes, it's useful to revisit crappy old ways of doing things.

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  3. No...no memory of the pre-aol days. AOL was my introduction. Then the newsgroups, then the blog world.

    I must say though - if I had kids to raise today, I'd either learn a heck of a lot about how to limit their access very fast or I'd disconnect entirely. The stuff that's out there is scary - without a doubt.

    At the very least - I'd force them to learn a lot about computers if they wanted to avoid my safeguards!

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