Safer Internet: Browsing: Search Privately

Quotes

Summary

"Free" search services are big business,
e.g., Apple may have been paid $9.5B by Google in 2018 to stay default Safari search option
[1] Change Search Provider, e.g., DuckDuckGo or StartPage
to eliminate/minimize search profile stored by provider
[2] Turn Off Search Suggestions to further improve privacy
[2] Check Local Search Settings
[2] Unclutter search results with a browser extension?
References

[1] Change Search Provider

Most 'free' search providers (aka 'engines'), e.g., Google, Bing, store identifiable search history remotely on server
Change search provider to one that does not collect your search data, e.g., DuckDuckGo
macOS: Safari > Preferences > Search
macOS: Firefox > Preferences > Search
macOS: Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > History > Location Bar
macOS: Chrome: duckduckgo.com; click button: 'Add DuckDuckGo to Chrome'; help
macOS: Chrome > Preferences > Search > Manage Search Engines > Make Default
note: if using an ad blocker, you might consider allowing DuckDuckGo
to show a few ads; section: Browsing : Block Ads
iOS: Settings > Safari > Search Engine
If you relied on Home page or new window to access search site, e.g., google.com, be sure to change there also
macOS: Safari > Prefs > General > New Window Opens With & Homepage [screenshot]
If you find that you don't like the new search results (format, number, etc.),
you can easily switch to a different search engine -- just be sure to read the privacy policy
If you'd still prefer Google searches for some results, use startpage.com, which is more private
Other private search sites/engines: search.brave.com; ecosia.org; peekier.com; qwant.com
Deleting Search History or using Private Browsing -- see earlier section Browsing : Managing Data
FrogFind (powered by DuckDuckGo) is optimized for vintage computers and browsers,
including the Newton, by converting the search result pages to extremely basic HTML.
[2] Some search engines support "right to be forgotten" (content about you) -- submit a form on Bing or Google site

[2] Turn Off Search Suggestions

If you're not using Private Browsing, do you want to share your searches or see others' phrases?
Maybe speed things up, reduce crashes
macOS: Safari > Preferences > Search > Include Safari Suggestions
iOS: Settings > Safari > Search Engine Suggestions
If you're using a smart home device, e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Home, check search engine settings;
also settings for search history & suggestions

[2] Check Local Search Settings

Allow internet searches in 'local' search results; settings only in older versions < macOS 10.12, < iOS 10?
macOS: System Preferences > Spotlight > [list] Spotlight Suggestions [off]
macOS: System Preferences > Spotlight > [checkbox] Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Look up [off]
iOS: Settings > Siri & Search > Suggestions in Search [?], Suggestions in Lookup [?] specify by app
iOS: access Spotlight search:
1) while on the Home screen, pull down from anywhere between the status bar and Dock;
2) from the Lock screen or first page of the Home screen, swipe right to enter the Widgets screen,
which features a Spotlight search box
It's unclear if Spotlight still uses Bing rather than your preferred search engine
Allow Siri request logging?
iOS: Settings > General > Siri > About Siri and Privacy (read)

References

{TCYOP-4: 101-102; TCYOP-3: 83-85}
sections: Refs: AI; Apple; Bing; DuckDuckGo; Google; iOS; macOS
also Browsing:Correct Site:Web Archives, Newspapers
Wikipedia: internet search engines: Yahoo
Wayback Machine 475 billion web pages saved over time
HowStuffWorks: How Internet Search Engines Work
Ethical.net: Search engines
Hunters, Dancers, and Busybodies: New Study Examines the Three Main Internet Research Styles MF; 11/4/2024
The 8 Best Search Engines of 2024 LW; 5/6/2024
The text file that runs the internet robots.txt and web crawlers; Verge; 2/14/2024
Go Beyond Google: The Best Alternative Search Engines PC; 12/21/2023
Private and Secure Web Search Engines: DuckDuckGo, Brave, Kagi, Startpage Wired; 11/26/2023
Neeva, the would-be Google competitor, is shutting down its search engine
privacy first, ad-free, $5/mo.; Verge; 5/20/2023
The Ask Jeeves-ification of online search Verge; 5/12/2023
Five Things Scammers Are Hoping You Google [Company] customer service number;
Free credit report; High paying remote job; Free people finder; Best crypto wallet; LH; 5/4/2023
There's Already a Better Search Engine Than Google. It's YouTube. NYT; 2/3/2023
8 Google Alternatives: How to Search Crypto, the Dark Web, and More
how to surf in more private and more environmentally friendly ways; Giz; 2/1/2023
A New Chat Bot Is a 'Code Red' for Google's Search Business NYT; 12/21/2022
How to Use ChatGPT and Still Be a Good Person NYT; 12/21/2022
The New Chat Bots Could Change the World. Can You Trust Them? NYT; 12/10/2022
The best search engines to use, if you're tired of Google
Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, Ecosia, Startpage, Ask.com, Yahoo; ApIn; 11/10/2022
How a Burner Browser Hides My Most Embarrassing Internet Searches
Firefox Focus, DuckDuckGo, Tor Browser; NYT; 5/17/2022
This Extension Lets You Finally Play YouTube in the Background on Mobile Vinegar; LH; 12/1/2021
This Digital Library Contains Answers to All the Mysteries of the Universe, If You Can Find Them LH; 10/18/2021
How to Set Ecosia as the Default Search Engine on iPhone & iPad OSXD; 10/9/2021
How to Make Your Web Searches More Secure and Private
Brave; DuckDuckGo; Limiting Google; Wired; 7/11/2021
How to Opt Out of the Most Popular People Search Sites LH; 3/4/2021
Brave Is Launching a Privacy-First Search Engine to Take On Google Giz; 3/3/2021
6 Privacy-Focused Alternatives to the Apps You Use Every Day Signal for Messaging; Firefox for Web Browsing;
DuckDuckGo for Search; OsmAnd for Maps; ProtonMail for Email; Jumbo for Social Media; Wired; 12/13/2020
9 Browser Extensions to Help You Search the Web Better Wired; 12/6/2020
US Library of Congress launches AI tool that lets you search 16 million old newspaper pages for historical images
dataset includes more than 1.5 million newspaper photos: Newspaper Navigator; TNW; 9/16/2020
How Link-Begging Became the Most Annoying Search Engine Tactic MB; 8/3/2020
US federal and state authorities are asking detailed questions about how to limit Google's search business,
as part of antitrust investigations according to DuckDuckGo CEO; Bloom; 6/4/2020
How to change your default search engine on Google Chrome TNW; 3/13/2020
Is Yahoo's [Verizon's] New 'OneSearch' Engine Good for Privacy? LH; 1/16/2020
Verizon offers no-tracking search engine, promises to protect your privacy
with "OneSearch," Verizon promises no cookie tracking or personal profiling; Ars; 1/14/2020

AI

OpenAI's ChatGPT LLM (Large Language Model); GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer)
Google's Bard LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications)
5 Easy Hacks for Getting AI Out of Your Google Search Results MF; 11/11/2024
How to Run Llama LLM on Mac, Locally OSXD; 8/22/2024
How to Tell If What You're Reading Was Written By AI LH; 8/12/2024
Ray Kurzweil Still Says He Will Merge With A.I. NYT; 7/4/2024
A Brief History of AI LH; 6/18/2024
A Glossary of AI Words Everyone Should Know LH; 6/18/2024
Examining Apple Intelligence TB; 6/17/2024
DuckDuckGo offers 'anonymous' access to AI chatbots through new service
DDG offers LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral; Ars; 6/6/2024
Once "too scary" to release, GPT-2 gets squeezed into an Excel spreadsheet spreadsheet; Ars; 3/15/2024
OpenAI Unveils A.I. That Instantly Generates Eye-Popping Videos NYT; 2/15/2024
These Are the Biggest Differences Between Google Gemini and ChatGPT LH; 2/8/2024
The Best Free AI Art Generators, Ranked Giz; 2/2024
Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine [Perplexity] Replace Google? perplexity.ai; NYT; 2/1/2024
Chatbots and Human Conversation 1/2024
The Problem of Misinformation in an Era Without Trust
Elon Musk thinks a free market of ideas will self-correct.
Liberals want to regulate it. Both are missing a deeper predicament; NYT; 12/31/2023
Why AI is a disaster for the climate
Amid all the hysteria about ChatGPT and co, one thing is being missed:
how energy-intensive the technology is; Guard; 12/23/2023
How to Check If Something Online Was Written by AI Giz; 12/22/2023
AI and Trust Schneier; 12/4/2023
Ten Ways AI Will Change Democracy 11/13/2023
The Humane AI Pin is a bizarre cross between Google Glass and a pager Ars; 11/10/2023
Chatbots May 'Hallucinate' More Often Than Many Realize
when summarizing facts, ChatGPT technology makes things up about 3%
of the time, according to research from a new start-up.
A Google system’s rate was 27 percent; NYT; 11/6/2023
An Industry Insider Drives an Open Alternative to Big Tech’s A.I. Allen Institute for AI; NYT; 10/19/2023
IBM Tries to Ease Customers’ Qualms About Using Generative A.I.
NYT; 9/28/2023
Doomsayers, Reformers and Warriors: The Bitter Battle for the Future of A.I.
a contest about control and power, about how resources should be distributed
and who should be held accountable; NYT; 9/28/2023
The Internet Is About to Get Much Worse
AI vs. human content creators; NYT; 9/23/2023
What OpenAI Really Wants Wired; 9/5/2023
A New Worry for a New College Year: A.I.-Generated Admissions Essays
A.I. chatbots could facilitate plagiarism on college applications or
democratize student access to writing help. Or maybe both; NYT; 9/1/2023
The A.I. Revolution Is Coming. But Not as Fast as Some People Think. NYT; 8/29/2023
AI Glossary: Basic Terms All ChatGPT Users Should Know CNet; 8/28/2023
What’s the future of generative AI? An early view in 15 charts McKinsey; 8/25/2023
How Schools Can Survive (and Maybe Even Thrive) With A.I. This Fall NYT; 8/24/2023
A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work Ars; 7/31/2023
'A certain danger lurks there': how the inventor of the first chatbot turned against AI Joseph Weizenbaum & Eliza; Guardian; 7/25/2023
Google Tests A.I. Tool That Is Able to Write News Articles NYT; 7/20/2023
We're Using A.I. Chatbots Wrong. Here's How to Direct Them.
to mitigate the production and spread of misinformation from chatbots,
we can steer them toward high-quality data; NYT; 7/20/2023
'Human Beings Are Soon Going to Be Eclipsed' NYT; 7/13/2023
AI Fatalism Won't Help Us Deal With Its Actual Risks
What is AI? Challenges posed by today’s AI systems;
Is AI really an existential risk for humanity? Giz; 7/2/2023
Uncensored Chatbots Provoke a Fracas Over Free Speech NYT; 7/2/2023
The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence digital neoliberalism; NYT; 6/30/2023
The Huge Power and Potential Danger of AI-Generated Code
programming can be faster when algorithms help out, but there is evidence
AI coding assistants also make bugs more common; Wired; 6/29/2023
How Christopher Nolan Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI Wired; 6/20/2023
America Is Dangerously Lonely Ezra Klein on Her; NYT; 6/20/2023
AI shakes up way we work in three key industries
professional services, filmmaking and coding are among the
first to use the technology in everyday operations; FT; 6/17/2023
Humans Aren't Mentally Ready for an AI-Saturated 'Post-Truth World'
the AI era promises a flood of disinformation, deepfakes, and hallucinated "facts."
Psychologists are only beginning to grapple with the implications. Wired; 6/18/2023
The Optimist's Guide to Artificial Intelligence and Work
A.I. can complement human labor rather than replace it; Workers can focus on different tasks;
New technology can lead to new jobs; NYT; 5/20/2023
Silicon Valley Confronts the Idea That the ‘Singularity’ Is Here NYT; 6/11/2023
A Univ. of Vienna philosopher used ChatGPT to create a 40-minute church service
including the sermon, prayers, and music, led by four AI-generated avatars; AP; 6/10/2023
How Could A.I. Destroy Humanity? NYT; 6/10/2023
The A.I. Revolution Will Change Work. Nobody Agrees How. NYT; 6/10/2023
Big Tech Is Bad. Big A.I. Will Be Worse. political and economic oppression by tech giants; NYT; 6/9/2023
Marc Andreessen Is (Mostly) Wrong This Time Why AI Will Save the World; Wired; 6/8/2023
New A.I. Chatbot Tutors Could Upend Student Learning
children as test subjects for A.I. experiments? NYT; 6/8/2023
Not Just Math Quizzes: Khan Academy’s Tutoring Bot Offers Playful Features
Khanmigo allows students to chat with simulated historical figures or co-write stories with the software; NYT; 6/8/2023
'The machines we have now are not conscious'
Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang:'intelligence' vs. applied statistics; FT; 6/2/2023
ChatGPT took their jobs. Now they walk dogs and fix air conditioners WaPo; 6/2/2023
AI researchers say ChatGPT and rival chatbots are significantly less capable in languages
other than English, exacerbating the bias against non-English speakers Wired; 5/31/2023
Big Tech Isn't Prepared for A.I.'s Next Chapter open source is changing everything; Slate; 5/30/2023
A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn NYT; 5/30/2023
The Race to Make A.I. Smaller (and Smarter)
BabyLM: teaching fewer words to large language models; NYT; 5/30/2023
Is Generative AI Bad for the Environment? carbon footprint; Giz; 5/28/2023
We Blew It With the Internet. Let's Not Blow It With A.I.
distraction and division; reliability, trustworthiness; filtering the noise; deeper insights and connections;
Beyond the 'Matrix' Theory of the Human Mind; Ezra Klein; NYT; 5/28/2023
Get the Best From ChatGPT With These Golden Prompts
privacy, accuracy caveats; "Act as if." "Tell me what else you need to do this."
"Use the framework of (a book)"; NYT; 5/25/2023
AI Is Steeped in Big Tech’s 'Digital Colonialism' Wired; 5/25/2023
A.I.'s Threat to Jobs Prompts Question of Who Protects Workers NYT; 5/24/2023
The incredible creativity of deepfakes -- and the worrying future of AI TED 2023
ChatGPT Is Already Changing How I Do My Job journalism; NYT; 4/21/2023
A.I.-Generated Content Discovered on News Sites, Content Farms and Product Reviews
Findings in two new reports raise fresh concerns over how AI may transform
the misinformation landscape online; NYT; 5/19/2023
A.I. Is Having a 'Netscape Moment'
allow people to recognize the possibilities around an existing technology, leading to new innovation; NYT; 5/19/2023
To See One of A.I.'s Greatest Dangers, Look to the Military NYT; 5/19/2023
In Battle Over A.I., Meta Decides to Give Away Its Crown Jewels
is it dangerous to publicly release its latest A.I. technology so people can build their own chatbots? NYT; 5/18/2023
Another Side of the A.I. Boom: Detecting What A.I. Makes
identify whether photos, text and videos are made by humans or machines; NYT; 5/18/2023
10 Signs That the AI 'Revolution' Is Spinning Out of Control Giz; 5/17/2023
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to tell Congress that AI regulation is "essential"
stress the need for government flexibility, and recommend safety measures; FinTimes; 5/16/2023
Microsoft Says New A.I. Shows Signs of Human Reasoning NYT; 5/16/2023
Help! My Political Beliefs Were Altered by a Chatbot!
AI assistants may be able to influence users without them being aware; WSJ; 5/13/2023
You’re Probably Underestimating AI Chatbots
Just as the first iPhone reviews mostly missed the device’s huge potential,
it's folly to draw conclusions from today’s unrefined technology; Wired; 5/12/2023
Law firms and companies' legal teams are experimenting with AI tools
that can handle work done by entry-level lawyers potentially reducing billable hours; WSJ; 5/11/2023
Google's answer to ChatGPT is now open to everyone in US
Bard; many features, more languages, image inputs; Ars; 5/10/2023
The disappearing computer -- and a world where you can take AI everywhere
Imran Chaudhri; TED 2023; video, transcript
AI gains "values" with Anthropic's new Constitutional AI chatbot approach
list of guiding AI values draws on UN Declaration of Rights -- and Apple's terms of service; Ars; 5/10/2023
What if AI could rebuild the middle class? NPR; 5/9/2023
AI machines aren’t 'hallucinating'. But their makers are
Hallucination #1: AI will solve the climate crisis;
Hallucination #2: AI will deliver wise governance;
Hallucination #3: tech giants can be trusted not to break the world;
Hallucination #4: AI will liberate us from drudgery;
wealthiest companies in history unilaterally seizing the sum total of human knowledge that exists in digital,
scrapable form and walling it off inside proprietary products, many of which will take direct aim at the humans
whose lifetime of labor trained the machines without giving permission or consent; Naomi Klein; Guardian; 5/8/2023
What Does Sentience Really Mean?
the fact that AI isn't alive doesn't mean it can't be sentient,
the sociologist Jacy Reese Anthis argues; Atlantic (paywall); 5/8/2023
ChatGPT is powered by these contractors making $15 an hour NBC; 5/6/2023
AI text generators are quietly authoring more of the internet
possiblty fewer clients buying human-written content; WaPo; 5/6/2023
Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?
as it's currently imagined, the technology promises to concentrate wealth and disempower workers.
Is an alternative possible? Ted Chiang; New Yorker; 5/4/2023
Can We Build Trustworthy AI? motives, incentives, capabilities; who trained it and benefits? Giz 5/4/2023
A.I. Could Actually Be a Boon to Education Khan; NYT; 5/3/2023;
The Amazing AI Super Tutor for Students and Teachers Sal Khan; Khan Academy; TED; 5/1/2023
Meta warns malware actors are increasingly spreading their infrastructure across platforms
it has blocked 1,000+ ChatGPT-themed malicious URLs since 3/2023; Wired; 5/3/2023
My Weekend With an Emotional Support A.I. Companion
"Pi" assists people with their wellness and emotions; NYT; 5/3/2023
UO experts to weigh in on the use of AI in higher education 5/3/2023
We Must Regulate A.I. Here's How. Lisa Khan, FTC; NYT; 5/3/2023
We Are Opening the Lids on Two Giant Pandora's Boxes Friedman; NYT; 5/2/2023
This company adopted AI. Here's what happened to its human workers NPR; 5/2/2023
How Do We Ensure an A.I. Future That Allows for Human Thriving? Gary Marcus; NYT; 5/2/2023
AI is being used to generate whole spam sites fake news stories and blog posts; Verge; 5/2/2023
When A.I. Chatbots Hallucinate NYT; 5/1/2023
'The Godfather of A.I.' Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead Geoff Hinton; NYT; 5/1/2023
Quiz: Can You Tell the Difference Between ChatGPT and a Doctor?
a new study found the AI answers online medical questions better and more empathetically than real doctors; Giz; 4/30/2023
Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but ...
Jane Austen and Shakespeare; Federalist Papers; transcripts of the TV show “Star Trek: The Next Generation”;
“Moby Dick”; Harry Potter novels; NYT; 4/27/2023
6 Tips for Using ChatGPT to Brainstorm Better Wired; 4/27/2023
10 of the First Things You Should Try With ChatGPT
quickly convert time zones; book recommendations;
plan your next holiday; solve programming problems;
write (or punch up) your resume; summarize long YouTube videos;
quickly create calendar events; solve math problems;
discover new music; summarize long articles, e.g., summarize .pdfs; LH; 4/25/2023
How Artificial Intelligence Can Aid Democracy Slate; 4/21/2023
Want More Out of Generative AI? Here Are 9 Useful Resources Wired; 4/18/2023
How 35 Real People Use A.I.
"It's like collaborating with an alien."
"Everything is becoming much easier."
"It feels like I've hired an intern."
"What used to take me around a half-hour to write now takes one minute."
"It’s enormous fun."
Plan gardens, workouts, meals;
Make a gift (book); Design parts for spaceships; Organize a messy computer desktop;
Write a wedding speech, write an email Get a first read; Get feedback on fiction; Play devil’s advocate;
Build a clock that gives you a new poem every minute; Organize research for a thesis;
Skim dozens of academic articles; Cope with ADHD and dyslexia; Sort through an archive of pictures;
Transcribe a doctor’s visit into clinical notes; Appeal an insurance denial; Write Excel formulas;
Get homework help; Learn Chinese; Get help when English is your second language;
Create an app when you’ve never coded before; Fix bugs in your code; Play Pong or 3D games;
Build entirely new games; Teach people to curl like a pro; Create new proteins in minutes;
Identify diseases in banana plants; Draw like Sol LeWitt; Describe entire Dungeons & Dragons worlds;
Make a Spotify playlist; Play with language; NYT; 4/14/2023
Can Intelligence Be Separated From the Body? NYT; 4/11/2023
Why A.I. Might Not Take Your Job or Supercharge the Economy Ezra Klein; NYT; 4/7/2023
Why ChatGPT and Bing Chat are so good at making things up Ars; 4/6/2023
ChatGPT vs Google Bard: Which is better? we put them to the test in 7 categories; Ars; 4/5/2023
NYT tech series:
How to become an expert on A.I. part 1; 3/27/2023;
How Does ChatGPT Really Work? part 2: large language model (LLM), Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT); 3/28/2023;
What Makes A.I. Chatbots Go Wrong? part 3: hallucinating software; 3/29/2023;
How Should I Use A.I. Chatbots Like ChatGPT? part 4: LLMs are already good at a wide variety of tasks; 3/30/2023;
What's the future for A.I.? part 5; 3/31/2023
Tinkering With ChatGPT, Workers Wonder: Will This Take My Job? NYT; 3/28/2023
Can a Machine Know That We Know What It Knows? theory of mind; NYT; 3/27/2023
A.I. Is Being Built by People Who Think It Might Destroy Us NYT; 3/27/2023
If We Don’t Master A.I., It Will Master Us Yuval Harari; NYT; 3/24/2023
The Best ChatGPT Alternatives Worth Checking Out Giz; 3/23/2023
The A.I. Chatbots Have Arrived. Time to Talk to Your Kids.
experiment together; talk about how chatbots make you feel;
get to know the technology and its limitations; stay on top of new developments; NYT; 3/22/2023
The Age of AI has begun Bill Gates; 3/21/2023
Our New Promethean Moment Tom Friedman; NYT; 3/21/2023
A.I. Is About to Get Much Weirder. Here’s What to Watch For. Ezra Klein; NYT; 3/21/2023
Testing Google Bard NYT; 3/21/2023
10 Ways GPT-4 Is Impressive but Still Flawed NYT; 3/14/2023
This Changes Everything Ezra Klein; NYT; 3/12/2023
The False Promise of ChatGPT Noam Chomsky; NYT; 3/8/2023
The Chatbots Are Here, and the Internet Industry Is in a Tizzy NYT; 3/8/2023
Why Chatbots Sometimes Act Weird and Spout Nonsense NYT; 2/19/2023
ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web
lossy vs. lossless compression; blurriness vs. fabrication;
'hallucinations' as compression artifacts; NewYorker; 2/9/2023
The Chatbot Search Wars Have Begun Wired; 2/9/2023
OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic Time; 1/18/2023
Artificial Intelligence and The Matter with Things
Dr. Iain McGilchrist, keynote video; AI World Summit 2022;
neuroscientist McGilchrist's latest book: The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World
Knowledge Navigator video about intelligent assistant; Apple; 1987

Safer Internet: Browsing: Search Privately

Quotes

Summary

[1] Change Search Provider

[2] Turn Off Search Suggestions

[2] Check Local Search Settings

References

AI

Apple (generally)

Bing

DuckDuckGo

Google

iOS

macOS