The Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement filed with the SEC and sent to stockholders contains this:

Q: How does the board of directors recommend that I vote?

A: Our board of directors recommends that you vote your shares [...] (4) "AGAINST" the stockholder proposal regarding Internet censorship, and (5) "AGAINST" the stockholder proposal regarding the creation of a Board Committee on Human Rights.

1. Data that can identify individual users should not be hosted in Internet restricting countries, where political speech can be treated as a crime by the legal system.
2. The company will not engage in pro-active censorship.
3. The company will use all legal means to resist demands for censorship. The company will only comply with such demands if required to do so through legally binding procedures.
4. Users will be clearly informed when the company has acceded to legally binding government requests to filter or otherwise censor content that the user is trying to access.
5. Users should be informed about the company's data retention practices, and the ways in which their data is shared with third parties.
6. The company will document all cases where legally-binding censorship requests have been complied with, and that information will be publicly available.

In the absence of the proposed disclosures and protections listed above, Google continues to be one of the biggest threats to privacy and human rights in the modern world.

And since there's just no getting away from the fact that Google Search really is godawfully useful, Google is, at least for now, for most people, a necessary evil.

Protect Yourself

So how do you avoid being profiled every which way, sliced, diced, hyper-analyzed and archived by Google for all eternity?

A couple of simple things can help:

• Don't Accept Google Cookies
  
  
  • Go into your browser's preferences and delete all cookies related to 'google'.
  • Then, set your browser to ask you before accepting any cookie.
  • Then, visit google.com, and when asked to confirm cookie acceptance, Deny the cookie, and enable "Remember this decision".
  • Then, visit www.google.com, and when asked to confirm cookie acceptance, Deny the cookie, and enable "Remember this decision".
  • Click on all the google apps (Images / News / Groups etc.) and Deny all the cookies, while enabling "Remember this decision".
  • Browse to sites with Google AdWords ads and reject all cookies, as above.

  The details of how to do this might differ from browser to browser, but you basically want to make sure you never accept a cookie from Google.

  If your browser doesn't offer this ability, switch to one that does.

• Use an Anonymizing Proxy. Hide your real IP address from Google, as well as from other sites you visit. Your real IP address is none of their business, and only helps to tag you in the absence of cookies. For best protection, use a proxy that also offers encryption, so that your local ISP and other intermediate points can't use your Google searches to profile you.


• Use a plugin or proxy to randomize the client name your browser sends to servers on a per request basis.


• Don't create a Google account.


• Don't Use Google Apps. The more apps you use, the more data you're giving Google for their profile on you. There are plenty of alternatives to Google Apps / GMail. Use them.


• Don't send messages to GMail addresses, or accept incoming mail from GMail addresses. All such messages are still subject to Google's analysis and archival, even though you don't have a GMail account yourself.

                                       

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