What is the crowd's opinion of TrackMeNot?

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I was thinking that too, so I checked their website.

>> To better simulate user behavior TrackMeNot uses a dynamic query mechanism to 'evolve' each client (uniquely) over time, parsing the results of its searches for 'logical' future query terms with which to replace those already used.

Neato.

Good question. I'm not really knowledgeable of currently available tools.

I did at one point have a (custom JS) script (running on a Node.js server) I used which would visit a list of 600 or website every now and then, but it's not really practical for everyone to use.

It seemed to work - Google Ads started serving up some pretty strange offerings.

Someone else may be able to provide a more useful answer.

EDIT: Added stuff in brackets to clarify why it's not fit for general consumption.

EDIT#2: You got me curious, so I went out and found this. It only works for web searches, but the principle is right.

TrackMeNot uses that exact technique for Google. It periodically sends bursts of queries to Google to hide your activity, and is very configurable. I use it whenever I have to use Google instead of DuckDuckGo.

This partly exists, trackmenot. It sends generic searches in the background, like: "miley sirus nude", "are aliens really real", "miley sirus nip slip", "why am I preggers", "no but really, why" and other things that normal people search for constantly.

>Far fewer people -- I've only ever met one who did this -- search for random things on Google to muddle up their profiles.

TrackMeNot 0.8.14

Also available through the Mozilla.org addons store (site appears to be down right now, or I would have linked to this as well).

Now you can obscure your search profile, too. Even includes an option (disabled by default) to run auto-search queries with keywords flagged by DHS

One way that you can partially mitigate search tracking is with a tool that automatically makes random searches in the background, like TrackMeNot. http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/

It isn't going to remove any terms you search for, but it will muddy the waters a bit.

"How it Works" from their website > TrackMeNot runs in Firefox as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and Bing. It hides users' actual search trails in a cloud of 'ghost' queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles. To better simulate user behavior TrackMeNot uses a dynamic query mechanism to 'evolve' each client (uniquely) over time, parsing the results of its searches for 'logical' future query terms with which to replace those already used.

I feed my google data a lot of junk-data generated by TrackMeNot. It sends a lot of queries to google on words taken from various newssites rss-feeds. Here's a few queries that was done while I typed this up: "eFacing need with" "eFacing increased" "Best Used Medical" "Best Equipment"

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