[BCITMike]

Most of the time I use DuckDuckGo.com, but sometimes I use Google search. It's not tin foil by the way. It's called caring about my privacy. Maybe you don't know how to protect yours because you don't care, but I do. I take a lot more steps to protect my privacy than what I posted above. No website serves me ads. I block all ads and trackers. Google may have my IP, so what. Any website you visit has your IP. Google doesn't know what you are searching for when you search encrypted. There is a lot more but I don't need to explain myself to someone like you.
Trust me, Google knows very little about my search or browsing and they don't have an account to attach any of it to.

Ehrm, what? That statement still has me floored. Trust me, they know a lot more about you than you think. SMH

It's their server that searched for and returned the results. The encryption is between your browser and their webserver. They decrypt it at the webserver, send the word to their search infrastructure (which is now also encrypted since NSA was skimming this data for years), and then send the results back. There's also differences in how they refer your clicks to the websites you click on, but this is all third party stuff. The whole point is to prevent third parties from collecting this info through middleman sniffing (hotspots, NSA, ISP's, etc). It's not going to stop google from learning anything about you, and if anything, may help them learn more.

How would they be able to search the words and return the results back to you if they didn't know what you were searching for?

Why would Google implement https on all their webservers if they couldn't record what you searched for?

https://googleblog.blogspot.ca/2010/...encrypted.html

A few notes to remember: Google will still maintain search data to improve your search quality and to provide better service. Searching over SSL doesn’t reduce the data sent to Google — it only hides that data from third parties who seek it.

encryption - What is the difference between https://google.com and https://encrypted.google.com? - Information Security Stack Exchange

According to Google, the difference is with handling referrer information when clicking on an ad.

After a note from AviD and with the help of Xander we conducted some tests and here are the results

1. Clicking on an ad:

https://google.com : Google will take you to an HTTP redirection page where they'd append your search query to the referrer information.

https://encrypted.google.com : If the advertiser uses HTTP, Google will not let the advertiser know about your query. If the advertiser uses HTTPS, they will receive the referrer information normally (including your search query).

2. Clicking on a normal search result:

https://google.com : If the website uses HTTP, Google will take you to an HTTP redirection page and will not append your search query to the referrer information. They'll only tell the website that you're coming from Google. If it uses HTTPS, it will receive referrer information normally.

https://encrypted.google.com : If the website you click in the results uses HTTP, it will have no idea where you're coming from or what your search query is. If it uses HTTPS, it will receive referrer information normally.

The same topic was covered in an EFF blog post.

[sorinv]

I always find it strange so many people point out how Google uses your personal info yet no one complains about Facebook.

Well, most people who worry about Google do not use Facebook at all.
It is very easy to use the Internet every day without Facebook.
It is almost impossible to do so while avoiding data collection in some way from Google.

Contrary to what some people (who seem to be defending Google's data collection more vigorously than Google itself) write in this thread, these days we are being forced by companies and governments which provide basic services, increasingly only online, to use the Internet or one of only two phone platforms, and thus get our data collected.

Unless you are prepared to go into a cave somewhere in the wilderness and live off the land, it is almost impossible to avoid Google.

Phone companies and Internet providers are just as bad.

For example, I am now travelling in Australia and use a vodaphone dongle for Internet access. My macbook warns me immediately I attach the dongle that Vodaphone wants to access my contacts. Luckily I have no contacts on my mac as I do no use imessage or have an apple account...

[sorinv]

Most of the time I use DuckDuckGo.com, but sometimes I use Google search. It's not tin foil by the way. It's called caring about my privacy. Maybe you don't know how to protect yours because you don't care, but I do. I take a lot more steps to protect my privacy than what I posted above. No website serves me ads. I block all ads and trackers. Google may have my IP, so what. Any website you visit has your IP. Google doesn't know what you are searching for when you search encrypted. There is a lot more but I don't need to explain myself to someone like you.
Trust me, Google knows very little about my search or browsing and they don't have an account to attach any of it to.

I agree. I do the same and I have been connected on the Internet since 1991. Google knows very little about me, but very few people are like you and me.
I do it out of the principle that Google, BlackBerry, microsoft, apple, and governments have absolutely no right to my data, unless I agree to share it every single time I click on a website and unless every single time I am given an option to choose between paying for the service with cash or with my data.
This is highway robbery. Your data or no service!

[lift]

I agree. I do the same and I have been connected on the Internet since 1991. Google knows very little about me, but very few people are like you and me.
I do it out of the principle that Google, BlackBerry, microsoft, apple, and governments have absolutely no right to my data, unless I agree to share it every single time I click on a website and unless every single time I am given an option to choose between paying for the service with cash or with my data.
This is highway robbery. Your data or no service!

I agree 100%. Just because companies have the technology to track and collect data does not mean that they should be allowed to. I am against big govt., don't get me wrong, but where are the regulations that protect peoples privacy on the internet and over cellular networks?
I really believe that NO ONE has the right to your data unless given permission to it. Google's privacy policy should be against the law because too many people don't read it, or don't understand how bad it is. People just click and click until the phone or the app works and then find out later they gave away everything to Google and app developers.
It's my data, whether it's personal or not. It's mine.

[sorinv]

And in case you thought Apple did not sell out to Google to ensure that Google collects your data on iphones, think again and read today's technology news:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35380696

[sorinv]

I agree 100%. Just because companies have the technology to track and collect data does not mean that they should be allowed to. I am against big govt., don't get me wrong, but where are the regulations that protect peoples privacy on the internet and over cellular networks?
I really believe that NO ONE has the right to your data unless given permission to it. Google's privacy policy should be against the law because too many people don't read it, or don't understand how bad it is. People just click and click until the phone or the app works and then find out later they gave away everything to Google and app developers.
It's my data, whether it's personal or not. It's mine.

Indeed, just because I can bully or harm someone or some company (hacking Google anybody?) does not make it acceptable or legal.

[lift]

And in case you thought Apple did not sell out to Google to ensure that Google collects your data on iphones, think again and read today's technology news:
Google 'paid Apple $1bn in 2014 to keep search on iPhone' - BBC News

That doesn't surprise me. One of the first things I did though on my iPhone was to change the default (Google) search to DuckDuckGo.
There are some new articles around that says that Apple is trying to now kill off Google's advertising platform. Apple is trying to hurt Googles ad revenue. One of the ways is with the ability to now use plugins in the Safari browser to block ads.

[sorinv]

Assuming that DuckDuckGo is harmless...