I noticed today that Google has begun to use an old redirection trick in order to track not only what its users search for, but also which results they select. This is a privacy issue of which to be wary.
For example, when I look up this blog on Google, the main link on the top search result does not point to http://blog.anta.net/, but to the following address:
If you click on that link, your browser does not go straight to the blog, as one might assume and as would be normal. Instead, the link points to Google, which then redirects you to the blog. In other words, you do end up at your intended destination, but you pass through a Google server, allowing it to log which destination you chose.
Fortunately, it is easy to work around this practice. Instead of clicking the link, copy the destination address (URI), and paste it into the address bar of your browser, deleting all the Google surplus before hitting Enter. Alternatively, you could use another search engine instead of Google; as an example, the corresponding result over at Bing simply links to http://blog.anta.net/, quite as it should.
What do you think of Google pulling this redirection stunt? Please post your comments!
I also noted in June 2010 that if one allows Google to run client-side scripts (such as JavaScript) on one’s computer, hovering over the link may quite deceptively cause the direct URI to be displayed in the browser’s status bar even though clicks are redirected through a Google server as described above. This can be particularly confusing in combination with certain browser features; as an example, the “yellow bar” file download protection in Microsoft® Internet Explorer® is often unable to follow the redirection after the user has allowed the download.
17 Comments
When I went to this site, http://blog.anta.net/, the author is wrong, I got this instead:
http://blog.anta.net/2009/01/29/509/
I think they might be doing it to improve future similar searches. If someone types in “Tiger” and they get some sort of product brand instead of an animal, they would skip the 4 or 5 top links and click on one which is relevant. If loads of people do that, the one relating to the animal will be at the top after a while.
But there are obviously privacy issues too.
THIS TOTALLY SUCKS.. FUCK GOOGLE
>you pass through a Google
>server, allowing it to log which
>destination you chose.
ya google keeps log (know as google web history ) for each search words u type against ur name if u have logged in to other google accounts (gmail,google groups,gtalk)
otherwise it will be logged with ur IP address…
it is used for improving the performance they say…
Google reserves the right to do anything they want on their website. It’s up to the user to use Google.
Uhm… Well… I hate to inform you of this, but all search engine services, as well as most websites and blogs keep track of things in this way. It is not something that Google is doing alone.
Your Internet Service Provider keeps track of everywhere you have been too. Some ISP’s keep the information for a short time, but some log everything you do. The Patriot Act gives the FBI and other agencies “In the name of National Security” the right to go through these logs.
Also try actually reading the TOS agreement you clicked on indicating that you read and agreed to the terms.
Part 7 of Google’s reads this way.
“7. Privacy and your personal information
7.1 For information about Google’s data protection practices, please read Google’s privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html. This policy explains how Google treats your personal information, and protects your privacy, when you use the Services.
7.2 You agree to the use of your data in accordance with Google’s privacy policies.
In the Google privacy policy it clearly states…
Log information – When you access Google services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.”
You agreed to this when you set up your account. Like most people, myself included, I never read these things. I just click and set up the account.
They also state in this Privacy Policy…
“Information sharing
Google only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google in the following limited circumstances:
* We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
* We provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
* We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.
If Google becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will ensure the confidentiality of any personal information involved in such transactions and provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as the number of users who searched for a particular term, for example, or how many users clicked on a particular advertisement. Such information does not identify you individually.
Please contact us at the address below for any additional questions about the management or use of personal data.”
So, when I find something I object to, I go and read the agreement. 9 times out of 10 I find that I agreed to let them do it.
So for me I guess it really comes down to what these entities do with the information. As long as they don’t use it to target me directly I don’t care.
i read those Google Terms of Service for the first time http://identi.ca/notice/13274810. Google really respects *our* personal information
It’s a shifty way to grab an extra hit.
I am looking for a redirect that I can use with google adwords for my blog but google stopped my adwords campaign. Apart from that I personally know other sites that do redirect with google adwords and google is allowing them. Can you give me better guide on this?
I just checked it its working fine. Google is directly opening your blog rather showing results in google. Actually from my experience I saw that more popular sites are directly getting opened whether they have .com, .net or org tld’s.
Well if it was one of the top links on the page then it might have been one of googles paid results. It would make sense for google to redirect in this way to track the visitors clicking on the paid link. I think this is probably just part of their adwords system, nothing really suspicious about it.
I am also having difficulty in this. Can anyone help me?
I am also have difficulty in this. Looks like no one is ready to help Chris and same will be with me.
Try using javascript to redirect after some seconds. It works for me.
My adwords account is blocked and the reason looks to be the redirection I was doing.
What makes you think that Bing didn’t track the fact that you clicked your result? If you look at the Bing page source, you’ll note that it has a javascript function that’s called when you click your hyperlink: onmousedown=”return si_T(‘&ID=SERP,5041.1′)”. Odds are, the method si_T() identifies your search result with the text “SERP,5041.1″, and tracked the fact that I clicked your results a few moments ago. All modern web search engines are going to track what choice was the right one – that’s one of the main ways they rank results.
I noticed something even more annoying when I was checking this… Bing apparently is checking my FaceBook account. I noticed one of the “sign in” options on the upper right corner of Bing’s home page shows FaceBook. If you know your recent FaceBook news, that means that Bing is probably grabbing details not only of me, but my friends as well… Creepy.
Salty Geek, thanks for your comments. I think I did check the Bing search result page at the time I wrote the story, but that was almost two years ago. Since then, Bing has launched a service that allows webmasters to view clicks and click-through rates.
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