On Tue, May 13, 2014 13:25, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote: >> Sorry for top posting. Gmail default settings. > > On a related note, I now *really* dislike google's accounts. After > avoiding it for years, I needed to get to a support group for a package I > was trying to install for a user, so I had to create one. > Q: > Can anyone give me any good reason that I ->could not<- create an account > without giving them a full birth date? I mean, other than a) advertising, > and b) making identity theft easier? I was almost surprised they didn't > want part or all of my SSN.... A: Marketing. Which by now should be accounted one of the most loathsome and accursed words of the 21C.; right up there with surveillance. Suggestion: Pick a standard date that bears no discernible relationship to you and over or understates your age from ~5-20 years (or more) and use it whenever a BD is required (for security reasons and/or account recovery). I use 1901/01/01 or, for sites where that date is out of range, 1950/01/01. If your sex is also required then use transgendered and let them sort it out. <--- RANT follows P.S. Never, ever stay logged into your Goofle(sic) Account while using the Google search engine unless you desire to have a permanent record of your web searches and visits. I have also been informed, but I am not certain of the veracity of the report, that if you use the Google search bar browser add-in then you are always logged in to your Goofle account for the purposes of tracking web activity. I do know that if you use Google maps from a registered IPhone then these activities are logged as well. You can see what information Google has about your web browsing by logging on to your Goofle account and visiting: https://history.google.com/history/ . Google admits to the following: What is stored in your Web History Google Web History saves information about your activity on the web, as well as details about your browser, including: Searches on Google Pages you click on from the search results page Results that appeared, including private results from Google products like Google+, Gmail, and Google Calendar Ads you respond to by clicking the ad itself or completing a transaction on the advertiser’s site Your IP address Your browser type and language Your searches and other activity on Google Maps, including maps around the web You can lock your history from public viewing but that is not quite the same thing as having it kept confidential. And you may be sure that Google Inc. is busily running algorithms on it and those of other Gooflers with whom you have any known association - say Goofle group memberships. You are supposed to be able to delete your histories but exactly what that actually deletes and how irrecoverably it does it is not clear to me. I now user Startpage or DuckDuckGo for all my searches in consequence of this incessant prying into my activities. I also use the Tor Browser bundle for all sensitive web activities, including banking and online purchases. And do not even get me started on Goofle Docs. . . P.P.S. Read 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers. End RANT ---> -- *** E-Mail is NOT a SECURE channel *** James B. Byrne mailto:ByrneJB at Harte-Lyne.ca Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca 9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241 Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757 Canada L8E 3C3