Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly off-
topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL field
and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing URL
was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search hit and
present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The annoying
thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want google to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot see
any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into the URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus


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Markus Robert Kessler wrote:

Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly off- topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL field
and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing URL was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search hit and present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The annoying
thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want google to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot see
any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into the URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1213978

browser.fixup.alternate.enabled False

But I'm not convinced there is any working setting
for this now. This is probably the one needed.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries

browser.goBrowsing.enabled If a normal DNS lookup times out, try hitting Google

Note: No longer used

You could try tearing out all the search agents in
the browser. Maybe even that isn't enough.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-firefox-address-bar

"Disable new URL bar in Version 75"

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1283831

"Those update1 prefs are no longer available in Firefox 77.
You will have to use code in userChrome.css to revert the resize changes."

It's a kind of warfare I guess, against the user.
Duck your head... Stay in your foxhole.

Paul

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Op 21-09-2020 om 11:34 schreef Markus Robert Kessler:

Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly off- topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL field
and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing URL
was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search hit and present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The annoying
thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want google to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot see
any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into the URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus

There are ways to make Google 'forget' previous searches but it's better
to avoid them in the first place by setting DuckDuckGo as the preferred
search engine.

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On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:02:09 +0200, Dirk T. Verbeek wrote:

There are ways to make Google 'forget' previous searches but it's better
to avoid them in the first place by setting DuckDuckGo as the preferred search engine.

I thought I saw somewhere that google bought DuckDuckGo.

A week or so ago, I used google to lookup a phone number.
Lots of free useful links showed up. Same the second or third time I used it.

Next couple of times whole screen of different links all pointing to
same site checking numbers and social sites returning a hit and asking
a dollar for result.

Tried DuckDuckGo one time same search results.

Firefox is setup on my system to not store/save anything local or in
history. I use a separate Linux user account. I click a desktop shortcut
which runs a script to log me into the account, launch the browser,
and upon exit of firefox, submit an 'at' job to tar in a clean/pristine setup.


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On 21/09/2020 12:34, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:

Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly off- topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL field
and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing URL
was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search hit and present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The annoying
thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want google to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot see
any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into the URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus

Seems I don't understand what you're trying to prevent
If you do not want google accessing your address, have a look (not google, try DuckDuck) for robots.txt usage
If you dont want anyone or specific addresses accessing your address, use hosts.allow and/or hosts.deny
What access (telnet, ssh, http, ping) are you trying to avoid?

When you say "this URL is not public" do you mean e.g. 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x, or that you just don't want it known?


--
Mike R.
Home: http://alpha.mike-r.com/
QOTD: http://alpha.mike-r.com/qotd.php
No Micro$oft products were used in the URLs above, or in preparing this message.
Recommended reading: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#before
and: http://alpha.mike-r.com/jargon/T/top-post.html
Missile address: N31.7624/E34.9691

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Am Mon, 21 Sep 2020 15:53:05 +0300 schrieb Henry Crun:

On 21/09/2020 12:34, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:

Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly
off- topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL field
and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing
URL was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search hit
and present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The
annoying thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want google
to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot see
any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into the
URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus

Seems I don't understand what you're trying to prevent If you do not
want google accessing your address, have a look (not google, try
DuckDuck) for robots.txt usage If you dont want anyone or specific
addresses accessing your address, use hosts.allow and/or hosts.deny What access (telnet, ssh, http, ping) are you trying to avoid?

When you say "this URL is not public" do you mean e.g. 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x, or that you just don't want it known?

Hi,

let's assume you're loading the following URL into your firefox:

https://www.yourhealthassurance.com/diseases/John.Smith/ProstateCA.htm

Then only a DNS lookup is made and the whole URL, path and file, will be transmitted in an encrypted way.

If the DNS-lookup fails, then firefox will use the same URL you provided
and start a google search. Without prior warning, nor asking you.

If the URL exists, then google remebers it and everyone "googling" for
John Smith's diseases may find what he suffers from.

That's what is so annoying.

Best regards,

Markus

--
Please reply to group only.
For private email please use http://www.dipl-ing-kessler.de/email.htm

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On 2020-09-21, Markus Robert Kessler <dimke.fax@uni.de> wrote:

Am Mon, 21 Sep 2020 15:53:05 +0300 schrieb Henry Crun:

On 21/09/2020 12:34, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:

Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly
off- topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL field
and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing
URL was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search hit
and present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The
annoying thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want google
to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot see
any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into the
URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus

Seems I don't understand what you're trying to prevent If you do not
want google accessing your address, have a look (not google, try
DuckDuck) for robots.txt usage If you dont want anyone or specific
addresses accessing your address, use hosts.allow and/or hosts.deny What
access (telnet, ssh, http, ping) are you trying to avoid?

When you say "this URL is not public" do you mean e.g. 10.x.x.x or
192.168.x.x, or that you just don't want it known?

Hi,

let's assume you're loading the following URL into your firefox:

https://www.yourhealthassurance.com/diseases/John.Smith/ProstateCA.htm

Then only a DNS lookup is made and the whole URL, path and file, will be transmitted in an encrypted way.

If the DNS-lookup fails, then firefox will use the same URL you provided
and start a google search. Without prior warning, nor asking you.

If the URL exists, then google remebers it and everyone "googling" for
John Smith's diseases may find what he suffers from.

That's what is so annoying.

This was a result of google's (in Chrome) unifying the address box with
the search box. Everyone else eventually jumped on the boat since users
wanted it. It used to be that they were two separate boxes. If it
cannot find an IP address for the entry, it assumes this is a search
item and searches for it instead. This was done as a favour to the user,
so they would not have to juggle to different entries depending on
search or on address.

I have no idea what you mean. It does not AFAIK, remember the address as
a search term. You seem to be being annoyed by a straw man. Do you have
any evidence that google behaves as you imagine it does?

Also why don't you use a decent dns server, instead of the one your VPN
hands you?

Best regards,

Markus

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On 9/21/20 8:43 AM, Bit Twister wrote:

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:02:09 +0200, Dirk T. Verbeek wrote:

There are ways to make Google 'forget' previous searches but it's better
to avoid them in the first place by setting DuckDuckGo as the preferred
search engine.

I thought I saw somewhere that google bought DuckDuckGo.

From https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/what_is_duckduckgo.html

"Some people believe DuckDuckGo is owned by Google. We assume that was
because Google either sold or transferred Duck.com to DuckDuckGo in 2018
and allowed DuckDuckGo as a search option in Google Chrome. No one knows
(or isn't saying) why Google did this although we can assume to avoid
lawsuits over the name. Google was forwarding duck.com (acquired years earlier) to Google search. We assume that all of this was done to avoid possible monopoly lawsuits in the future, but we're just armchair geeks."

TJ

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On 9/21/20 8:37 PM, TJ wrote:

On 9/21/20 8:43 AM, Bit Twister wrote:

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:02:09 +0200, Dirk T. Verbeek wrote:

There are ways to make Google 'forget' previous searches but it's better >>> to avoid them in the first place by setting DuckDuckGo as the preferred
search engine.

I thought I saw somewhere that google bought DuckDuckGo.

From https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/what_is_duckduckgo.html

"Some people believe DuckDuckGo is owned by Google. We assume that was because Google either sold or transferred Duck.com to DuckDuckGo in 2018
and allowed DuckDuckGo as a search option in Google Chrome. No one knows
(or isn't saying) why Google did this although we can assume to avoid lawsuits over the name. Google was forwarding duck.com (acquired years earlier) to Google search. We assume that all of this was done to avoid possible monopoly lawsuits in the future, but we're just armchair geeks."

TJ

Numerous other references (admittedly from a DuckDuckGo search) say the
same thing: DuckDuckGo is probably more valuable to Google as something
to bring up as an independent alternative (to avoid antitrust problems)
than as an acquisition.

TJ

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On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 19:29:30 +0000, William Unruh wrote:

On 2020-09-21, Markus Robert Kessler <dimke.fax@uni.de> wrote:

Am Mon, 21 Sep 2020 15:53:05 +0300 schrieb Henry Crun:

On 21/09/2020 12:34, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:

Hi all,

there seems to be no appropriate group, so, sorry for this slightly
off- topic question.

Just encountered the following problem:

I was connected via VPN and got a DNS assigned. This one is
unreliable,
and so, at least one name-lookup went wrong.

Firefox (60.9.0) took the whole URL which I entered into the URL
field and started a google search with it.

Next, google proudly presented their "search hit" (great: an existing
URL was found...) but I suspect, that google may store this search
hit and present it to everyone searching for the key words there. The
annoying thing is, that this URL is not public and I do not want
google to have it.

I already searched through the preferences in firefox, but I cannot
see any setting that prevents firefox from using the URL entered into
the URL field for searching with google, if the DNS-lookup fails
again.

Maybe one names this paranoid, but I'd appreciate finding a way to
prevent firefox from beaving like this.

Any idea? -- Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Markus

Seems I don't understand what you're trying to prevent If you do not
want google accessing your address, have a look (not google, try
DuckDuck) for robots.txt usage If you dont want anyone or specific
addresses accessing your address, use hosts.allow and/or hosts.deny
What access (telnet, ssh, http, ping) are you trying to avoid?

When you say "this URL is not public" do you mean e.g. 10.x.x.x or
192.168.x.x, or that you just don't want it known?

Hi,

let's assume you're loading the following URL into your firefox:

https://www.yourhealthassurance.com/diseases/John.Smith/ProstateCA.htm

Then only a DNS lookup is made and the whole URL, path and file, will
be transmitted in an encrypted way.

If the DNS-lookup fails, then firefox will use the same URL you
provided and start a google search. Without prior warning, nor asking
you.

If the URL exists, then google remebers it and everyone "googling" for
John Smith's diseases may find what he suffers from.

That's what is so annoying.

This was a result of google's (in Chrome) unifying the address box with
the search box. Everyone else eventually jumped on the boat since users wanted it. It used to be that they were two separate boxes. If it cannot
find an IP address for the entry, it assumes this is a search item and searches for it instead. This was done as a favour to the user,
so they would not have to juggle to different entries depending on
search or on address.

I have no idea what you mean. It does not AFAIK, remember the address as
a search term. You seem to be being annoyed by a straw man. Do you have
any evidence that google behaves as you imagine it does?

https://spreadprivacy.com/what-does-google-know-about-me/

Perhaps you would check and comment on the above. Presumably there is evidence supporting allegations made.

Cheers!

jim b.


--
UNIX is not user-unfriendly, it merely expects users to be computer-
friendly.

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On 2020-09-22, Jim Beard <jim.beard@verizon.net> wrote:

https://spreadprivacy.com/what-does-google-know-about-me/

Perhaps you would check and comment on the above. Presumably there is evidence supporting allegations made.

That is an advertisement. I'm afraid that claims made in advertisements
are not evidence of anything for me.

But as I read it, his concern was that google would make the information
they collected be part of the google search so that anyone else in the
world could find out about that web page they connected to because of
the information that google collected.



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