I hear People come down on Google for keeping track of what one does, or for “listening” to everything one says while within ear-shot of a live microphone(1).
Besides the fact that this is largely misleading propaganda probably put forward by Those Who Can’t Honestly Compete with Google (so they use political tactics instead of offering a better product), here’s the real bottom line:
Cortana is (was(2)) listening to every thing you say.
Alexa is listening to every thing you say.
Siri is listening to every thing you say.
Google does not have to listen, because Microsoft and Amazon and Apple already have it covered.
So there…
And as for keeping track of what you did on the internet, all search engines do that. All of them. Yahoo is worse. Bing… very commercial. Duck-Duck-Go even keeps a profile on you at least until you close out your current session, then it resets.
If you’re really worried about Google keeping tabs on your searches on the Internet then use Google Chrome’s anonymous mode. Very simple. No more keeping track. Done.
Always question the Slam, the Blame and the Put Down, especially when it’s against a Very Large Target. Often it will be true. More often it isn’t, but is an attempt to get your to think it’s true.
[30]
(1) Interestingly, often people who will put tape over the camera on their laptop rarely think about the twin microphones every laptop has. Two, for stereo pick-up. So, blind the camera, but Alexa or Siri are still listening… Mua ha ha.
(2) Under Windows 11 Microsoft no longer does Cortana. They now include Alexa instead. Once again, Microsoft has backed down from one of its own products, to push some one else’s. At some point, Microsoft won’t have to continue to actually exist any more. Or they can fire everyone except this week’s CEO, because everything they used to do will have been out-sourced. Except the profits, no doubt.