What I’ve been trying to figure out is if I always have my VPN on, use Safari, and use Google search without being signed in to Google, what can Google even do with the search information?
I’ve searched this and the privacy sub but people always ask if Google can track them with a VPN and everyone says yes and to use Firefox, Duck or Startpage, etc. They can track it, but if they never have my real IP address and I’m not signed in to any Google products then aren’t they just getting some info to advertise to me during that browsing session but have no way to actually connect it to me?
For example let’s say I have a VPN IP in Brazil and do some Google searches for socks in Safari and I’m not signed in to any Google products. Google tracks this to advertise socks to this IP I assume during that browsing session.
After I’m done I close all tabs and quit Safari. The next day I have a VPN IP in Germany and do some Google searches for pants. From Google’s perspective would this just be one data set they tracked about socks from the first IP and then a completely different data set for the pants on the second IP, with no connection between the two and no connection from either to me? Wouldn’t it just look like two separate people with no identity beyond their IP addresses that Google saves to build a profile for with the hopes of connecting it to a Google account someday if that IP logged in to a Google service?
Another question then would be if the above is true, but then I have a Safari browser extension for something like Evernote and I save an article I find to the web clipper, does that change anything (from the Google connections standpoint)?
I can answer form a machine learning Perspective at least. When you are looking to identify something (call it Person_A) you can do it quite effectively by evaluating many different categories of information , browser id, time or day, general ip (ex: all vpn related), connection speed, etc. I am stretching a little but it’s not hard to do when combining EVERYTHING else that is know about you even if you don’t know one or a few of the above
One thing I don’t see mentioned here is DNS leakage. A VPN creates a secure tunnel to anither server but not all VPNs use that tunnel for the DNS request. Meaning your browser sends a request to resolve a domain THEN routes traffic through the VPN. So unless you’re also configured to use an anonymous DNS service then yes google and your ISP and anyone else can still find your location and gateway IP.
Like someone else previously said, fingerprinting. Even if you remove you cookies, Google can uniquely identify you by the browser language, browser supported languages, browser type and version, OS type, browser resolution, browser plugins, time and zone (CET/UTC), screen orientation and some more things.
Just out of necessity i am logged into google at all times on the phone and laptop, and basically i have my VPN on always. So i have wondered the same thing, it doesnt seem to make any difference to google that i am coming from a handful of countries, and a lot of the times i am making payments through my mobile apps, and because they have 2fa they dont give a hoot either. I still dont like browser fingerprinting, and we ought to have some extension built into chrome that simply denies websites to be able to fingerprint me uniquely.
I have Firefox with ublock origin and a 1080p screen. That’s I think an extremely common combination. Is this fingerprinting still capable of more things to track?
Your first point is interesting. When first learning about privacy that’s what all the threads are about, the most private search engines. But I hadn’t considered actual search results beyond convenience.
Doing some quick searches and everything talks about Google alternatives but not because of biased results. Can you point me in the right direction?
As far as I can tell, a web page / javascript in the browser can’t get the SSID, you’d have to install a browser extension to hand that info over explicitly.
Yes! I was assuming OP was using a private browser window which would mitigate the cookie issue but if they weren’t then, yes, cookies and especially 3rd party cookies could track you.
If you do a search, you’ll find some tools that will help you test your setup (it’ll try to track you). Do you browse in full screen? Yes, there’s so many setting they can track.