can you open a second google account for professional use, and keep your personal one for personal use? No nefarious intent, of course, but it makes sense.
I know that is not the point you were trying to make, but it seems to me that it is possible to do that, technically.
I was wondering about that, but then every time I went to gmail to test that, it always links me to my accounts. Because the State demands Google Account and not a gmail, I assume they will have access to anything Google under my name. Technically right now I have a biz gmail, personal and substack, but all are under my Google account.
Here's what you do. You don't need Tor. First of all, don't use the chrome browser. Use firefox. Make sure if you've ever logged into your google account(s) from firefox that you delete your cookies, or create the new account from a private browsing tab so there are no cookies (and remember to only and always use a private tab to access this account -- which is more of a pain than just clearing your cookies and following the below instructions). The best way to manage this so it's easy is use firefox only for this new account and never log into it from chrome, and never login to your other accounts from firefox.
Create the new account in your clean firefox browser (delete all cookies) (you can use a vpn as well if you like but not necessary) with any handle you want. This account will be isolated from your other google accounts since you will never log into it from chrome and never login to the others from firefox. Google will be able to see that all logins are coming from your public IP address if you don't always use a vpn when you login but but they won't know that it's the same person/identity logging into these different accounts.
Then use that new account as your google auth account for the state website. It will be a totally clean account with no contacts or links to your substack, etc. Just remember to isolate that account and never log into it from chrome.
Chrome was changed about 5 years ago so that the first time you log in with any google account, it will always remember this identification. This means chrome will know everything you do in that browser. Its completely insecure. That's why I only use chrome for websites that don't work on other browsers, which are very few. But if you use it now (or any browser based on chrome like, I think, Bravo) then you can either continue to use it for anything you don't care that google will see.
DDG uses the host OS's web rendering engine which means it is open to whatever security holes that engine has. On MacOS it uses the apple webkit engine and on windows it uses their webview engine. It's probably fine as long as they don't incorporate the google account id feature that chrome uses, which I don't think they do. The way google links your accounts to each other on a non-chrome browser is most likely through cookies. As I wrote above, keeping your accounts isolated is best achieved by using separate browsers for your linked google accounts and any you don't want linked.
I'm increasingly locked out of sports and entertainment pages on sites like Stuff.co.nz on a VPN. On one of my computers that block survives even if I'm not on VPN. But business or news pages on the same site, not an issue.
that's strange. not familiar with that site. what message do you get when you are blocked? chromium is another google core browser that's maintained by google. I recommend firefox. It looks like chromium doesn't have some of the functionality of chrome -- such as the DRM stuff -- which may be why certain sites block it.
I thought I might just use my middle name, as that is what I use informally, but then I would have to have a different device not attached to my google account, I think.
maybe.... or make sure you are totally logged out? I just think this is possible because I have access to my elderly parent's google account on my computer, because occasionally I need to use it for multi-factorial authentication (I help with the finances). I have to entirely log out of my google account and then I am able to log into his.
Oct 23, 2023·edited Oct 23, 2023Liked by William Hunter Duncan
As elsewhere. I'm half the time in Australia and half the time in NZ. I use a different browser for each (waterfox & firefox). I use another browser (Safari) for general searching and try and keep google & facebook away from the two foxes.
Chromium is also better than Chrome but I'm not sure by how much.
Oct 7, 2023·edited Oct 8, 2023Liked by William Hunter Duncan
William - Such impressive performative outrage here with this omnipresent annoyance.
Just a guess here, but you might need to complete forms the new-fashioned way - via Google Forms. That's a real thing.
Create a new Google account - burner phone, public wifi, VPN or tor, whatever.
And Google can be used to authenticate without giving whomever global access to account contents. It's not like they can't subpoena all of your information later anyway.
You won't appreciate the credit and background checks, tenant history. LexisNexus search, etc.
And why bother? They didn't want you the first three times you tried.
Much appreciated for the restack. Yeah, Minneapolis wasn't interested, but this rural school might actually be, though I've heard so many horror stories about substituting teaching we will see if I follow through.
Oct 8, 2023·edited Oct 8, 2023Liked by William Hunter Duncan
Sorry for the snarky remarks. If you don't like annoying people and situations, you're not going to tolerate teaching. And substitute teachers are mostly just there to be abused.
Even if the students were to be tolerable - parents! Some of them. What could be worse than an indignant, entitled parent?
No worries. I ran into an old umpire from my days playing baseball in high school. I asked him if the kids were about the same. "Hell no, they are so much worse, a bunch of coddled little brats who act like feedback is abuse. The parents are even worse!"
Oct 8, 2023·edited Oct 8, 2023Liked by William Hunter Duncan
Yep. So I've heard, and read - and seen a bit.
But back to the privacy implications - that kind of stuff is going to be difficult to avoid. And teaching. I assume that you are in favor of thorough vetting.
This may be a "missing the forest for the trees" thing, but from the limited use I do make of using Google to login to other services, the usual flow is you click on the button in the screenshot, and you login, and then it takes you to a page where it says something like "The State of Minnesota is asking for access to the following: * Your email address, * Your Calendar, * Your Darkest Secrets. Do you accept?" In other words, they tell you which specific items from the overall list the FAQ talked about they're explicitly asking for permission to access before you grant permission. Of course, in most cases, it's as much "your choice" as a terms and service aggreement.
Still, an account with minimal to no other associations is likely still the way to go.
You may not like the public schools here. In the last decade the high school... almost killed my anaphylactic daughter her junior year bc they would not grant her a 504 plan to protect her in schools. My middle son was denied a hearing aide after it being written into his IEP bc he was 18 and they could get away with it ... after diagnosing him with autism. His brother, who does have autism, was allowed to read chicka chicka boom boom his first day as a freshman. Our disabled students are treated like second class citizens by the admin of district 196. You can find a better place of employment...
Wow. Unreal. My dad has a friend who's son taught in the public school here. He loved teaching and the kids, but hated the dictates of the State and he said most of the teachers and kids don't really care as much about educating kids, as indoctrination them. He quit. Doesn't miss it, but I assume his is a very common story, so a lot of the best teachers I assume are not in the public schools.
Not anymore ... anyone with any standards is finding a way out of public education and the ones who stay delude themselves. When the director of special education lies to your face, you can assume that is a standard response encouraged in their “corporate culture”. I will tell you I am also mixed race ... they have a terrible reputation for being racist as well
It doesn't and never did. It is ideology defending itself no matter what the consequences are. That is the thing about Marxists, their utopia always looks like mass murder and degradation for the vast majority, but ideological purity is the only point.
Progressive types make the worst racists. In Minneapolis they instituted a bussing program hardly any parents wanted, right after their hideous covid policies. They even knew enrollment might drop 30%, but they did it anyway. It "only "dropped 15%, so they think that is success and are demanding more money.
I had no idea that signing on with Google meant sharing your life with the recipient. What a POS that is! Clearly the State of Minnesota is not good enough for you. I have avoided logging on with Facebook, which likely has a similar horror story attached.
I think it is valiant of you to want to bring your fabulous presence into the classroom. And yes, you would make a great teacher!
Many public schools around the nation use taxpayer-funded Go-Ogle Chromebooks for the students and teachers. Then they use Google apps for creating and sharing documents, etc. If you have a basically empty account to use for signing up on the application site, go for it. Like you said, they already have a shit-ton of data on all of us. Or so they say.
Your post inspired me to write about my substitute teaching stint on my Stack!
Well, you know by now to take my extreme-ish perspectives with your own grain of salt, haha. I have a big axe to grind with any govern-ment besides self-governance🪓🎸😆 (except when it comes to children, they need a lot of wise guidance).
I should have worded my statement better, since I was referring specifically to the purchase of Chromebooks. I'm sure some schools choose other laptops. And I have seen Apple products in schools.
I am well aware that the public school system is funded by both taxpayer money *and* by the teachers since they are also taxpayers (plus I wouldn't be surprised if there are black market funds involved).
And I know that private schools — as with corporations, institutions, and agencies — receive funds from the illegitimately and forcefully "acquired" tax coffers, and certainly participate in illegitimate, unethical, and often horrific practices.
But thank you for pointing out my less-than-precise syntax. I do like to improve my writing skills!
Well, I've had all day to think about this topic (privacy) and these thoughts come to mind: I split my career in two with a big 13 year break in the middle to raise my kids, so I had a decade of working, then a break, and now more than a decade working. The changes that had happened during my break really shocked me. But I can see how, if I'd kept working, it would have been incremental and I would have seen it as "progress." Instead, I am sometimes bemused but frequently dismayed. Privacy is one of the things. As it was before, no one really cared what you did in your private life, as long as you were professional at your job. And this meant keeping your personal stuff out of the workplace. I think this worked for conventional people, but it didn't work for people who had to hide their true selves in the closet. Now, it's completely the opposite, almost. What used to be private is now thrust in everyone's face, and employers think nothing of checking our social media in making hiring decisions. There used to be topics that were not spoken in polite conversation. But now, those topics are OK but expressing disagreement with the allowed viewpoint will get you shunned or fired.
I'm sure this is by design, but nonetheless I like to point out how much things have changed, how extreme they are now, and how my friends who did not take time off to raise the children were incrementally brainwashed by their daily interactions with the TV and one another into the self-reinforcing, progressive viewpoint, which is demanded in the blue area where I live in order to have social interactions and corporate employment. (the desire for these types of normal activities has been weaponized against us)
I used to be able to engage in lively debates with these friends, but no more -- they are so easily triggered and offended. And they are my age! It's even worse with the younger ones.
I wish we could all become substitute teachers. Find a way to sneak ourselves in.
Yeah, I have structured my life to avoid unpleasant people. I suspect substitute teaching would be a challenge in that regard. I would expect too to meet some great kids and adults too. I would hope too, with the need of teachers, there would be less ideological expectations.
Sadly we all know that The Education System here in the USA is as ‘broken’ (both for students and staff), as all the other ‘systems’.
And so digitally oriented.
I am older and am still ‘with it’ in the brain department!
I would love to have a part time ‘job’ just to get out of the house...but I would only consider working for an independent business not one of the corporate ‘retailers’ whom I have worked for in the past.
Yeah, the only reason I can handle working for Leviathan is I make my own schedule and there is next to no oversight. As to substitute teaching, I might love the idea of it much more than the reality of it.
Oh, if I went through with it, it would be a good excuse to dump Google, and quite the challenge/risk, without which there is no reward. And if it really was a tragedy in the making I wouldn't stick around long enough for that to take hold. It might even be healthy for me, being more sociable, but maybe instead I will look into teaching a community Ed class about something interesting....
naive of me, perhaps, but.....
can you open a second google account for professional use, and keep your personal one for personal use? No nefarious intent, of course, but it makes sense.
I know that is not the point you were trying to make, but it seems to me that it is possible to do that, technically.
I was wondering about that, but then every time I went to gmail to test that, it always links me to my accounts. Because the State demands Google Account and not a gmail, I assume they will have access to anything Google under my name. Technically right now I have a biz gmail, personal and substack, but all are under my Google account.
Here's what you do. You don't need Tor. First of all, don't use the chrome browser. Use firefox. Make sure if you've ever logged into your google account(s) from firefox that you delete your cookies, or create the new account from a private browsing tab so there are no cookies (and remember to only and always use a private tab to access this account -- which is more of a pain than just clearing your cookies and following the below instructions). The best way to manage this so it's easy is use firefox only for this new account and never log into it from chrome, and never login to your other accounts from firefox.
Create the new account in your clean firefox browser (delete all cookies) (you can use a vpn as well if you like but not necessary) with any handle you want. This account will be isolated from your other google accounts since you will never log into it from chrome and never login to the others from firefox. Google will be able to see that all logins are coming from your public IP address if you don't always use a vpn when you login but but they won't know that it's the same person/identity logging into these different accounts.
Then use that new account as your google auth account for the state website. It will be a totally clean account with no contacts or links to your substack, etc. Just remember to isolate that account and never log into it from chrome.
Chrome was changed about 5 years ago so that the first time you log in with any google account, it will always remember this identification. This means chrome will know everything you do in that browser. Its completely insecure. That's why I only use chrome for websites that don't work on other browsers, which are very few. But if you use it now (or any browser based on chrome like, I think, Bravo) then you can either continue to use it for anything you don't care that google will see.
Welcome to privacy land USA 2023.
Thank you! I typically use ddg, so I will work on that soon.
DDG uses the host OS's web rendering engine which means it is open to whatever security holes that engine has. On MacOS it uses the apple webkit engine and on windows it uses their webview engine. It's probably fine as long as they don't incorporate the google account id feature that chrome uses, which I don't think they do. The way google links your accounts to each other on a non-chrome browser is most likely through cookies. As I wrote above, keeping your accounts isolated is best achieved by using separate browsers for your linked google accounts and any you don't want linked.
Good luck.
DDG is also tied very much into Yahoo Inc.
Chromium?
I'm increasingly locked out of sports and entertainment pages on sites like Stuff.co.nz on a VPN. On one of my computers that block survives even if I'm not on VPN. But business or news pages on the same site, not an issue.
that's strange. not familiar with that site. what message do you get when you are blocked? chromium is another google core browser that's maintained by google. I recommend firefox. It looks like chromium doesn't have some of the functionality of chrome -- such as the DRM stuff -- which may be why certain sites block it.
I think that it's a cloudfront thing, not sure. But sports on Stuff.co.nz on a VPN is a definite no no.
I don't use Chromium or Chrome. Stick to Firefox, Waterfox & Safari.
Message is this "An error occurred while processing your request."
could try to delete all cookies in your browser and see if that fixes it
Are you using a computer or a smart phone? If the former you can use private mode, also some browsers let you create multiple profiles.
Ubuntu laptop
Umm - that would mean computer, then.
I'm impressed that you use Linux and don't know how to create a fresh browser profile, switch browsers or spin up a VM
Never had an occasion to bother learning much about that. But now I know. Necessity is a great teacher.
A friend of mine has managed to make a new identity via Paypal et al. Like a whole new identity.
Ubuntu is the easiest, and most mac like, of the Linuxes.
My Ubuntu is Xubuntu - because it sounds the most woke. But actually, because I just like XFCE.
The 'mac like' part comes largely from the DE and how you customize it.
Any Ubuntu user would know to just create another Google account, use a new browser profile, etc. - I thought.
If you slightly change your name, what then? For example, Bill Duncan, or William H Duncan. ?
I thought I might just use my middle name, as that is what I use informally, but then I would have to have a different device not attached to my google account, I think.
maybe.... or make sure you are totally logged out? I just think this is possible because I have access to my elderly parent's google account on my computer, because occasionally I need to use it for multi-factorial authentication (I help with the finances). I have to entirely log out of my google account and then I am able to log into his.
Didn't work. Used a different name as a business email, but Google still recognizes it as mine and houses it under my Google Account.
As elsewhere. I'm half the time in Australia and half the time in NZ. I use a different browser for each (waterfox & firefox). I use another browser (Safari) for general searching and try and keep google & facebook away from the two foxes.
Chromium is also better than Chrome but I'm not sure by how much.
How about if you download Tor and make a new google account from there?
too bad! Well..... I am curious to find a workaround. If I do, I'll be back in touch.
Hmmm. I'll give it a try. Thanks!
And I totally appreciate you helping out your elderly parents.
William - Such impressive performative outrage here with this omnipresent annoyance.
Just a guess here, but you might need to complete forms the new-fashioned way - via Google Forms. That's a real thing.
Create a new Google account - burner phone, public wifi, VPN or tor, whatever.
And Google can be used to authenticate without giving whomever global access to account contents. It's not like they can't subpoena all of your information later anyway.
You won't appreciate the credit and background checks, tenant history. LexisNexus search, etc.
And why bother? They didn't want you the first three times you tried.
Much appreciated for the restack. Yeah, Minneapolis wasn't interested, but this rural school might actually be, though I've heard so many horror stories about substituting teaching we will see if I follow through.
Sorry for the snarky remarks. If you don't like annoying people and situations, you're not going to tolerate teaching. And substitute teachers are mostly just there to be abused.
Even if the students were to be tolerable - parents! Some of them. What could be worse than an indignant, entitled parent?
No worries. I ran into an old umpire from my days playing baseball in high school. I asked him if the kids were about the same. "Hell no, they are so much worse, a bunch of coddled little brats who act like feedback is abuse. The parents are even worse!"
Yep. So I've heard, and read - and seen a bit.
But back to the privacy implications - that kind of stuff is going to be difficult to avoid. And teaching. I assume that you are in favor of thorough vetting.
I would expect to be vetted to work in a school. I did not anticipate having to give them ongoing access to all my gmails, docs, etc just to apply.
That was sad and not suprising. I think you would be a good teacher outside the government school system.
https://wholeamericancatalog.substack.com/p/how-education-was-destroyed-in-america
Nice piece. Well said. Worth the read.
This may be a "missing the forest for the trees" thing, but from the limited use I do make of using Google to login to other services, the usual flow is you click on the button in the screenshot, and you login, and then it takes you to a page where it says something like "The State of Minnesota is asking for access to the following: * Your email address, * Your Calendar, * Your Darkest Secrets. Do you accept?" In other words, they tell you which specific items from the overall list the FAQ talked about they're explicitly asking for permission to access before you grant permission. Of course, in most cases, it's as much "your choice" as a terms and service aggreement.
Still, an account with minimal to no other associations is likely still the way to go.
Note taken. Thank you.
You may not like the public schools here. In the last decade the high school... almost killed my anaphylactic daughter her junior year bc they would not grant her a 504 plan to protect her in schools. My middle son was denied a hearing aide after it being written into his IEP bc he was 18 and they could get away with it ... after diagnosing him with autism. His brother, who does have autism, was allowed to read chicka chicka boom boom his first day as a freshman. Our disabled students are treated like second class citizens by the admin of district 196. You can find a better place of employment...
Wow. Unreal. My dad has a friend who's son taught in the public school here. He loved teaching and the kids, but hated the dictates of the State and he said most of the teachers and kids don't really care as much about educating kids, as indoctrination them. He quit. Doesn't miss it, but I assume his is a very common story, so a lot of the best teachers I assume are not in the public schools.
Not anymore ... anyone with any standards is finding a way out of public education and the ones who stay delude themselves. When the director of special education lies to your face, you can assume that is a standard response encouraged in their “corporate culture”. I will tell you I am also mixed race ... they have a terrible reputation for being racist as well
I’m literally speechless ... how on earth does that make any darn sense
It doesn't and never did. It is ideology defending itself no matter what the consequences are. That is the thing about Marxists, their utopia always looks like mass murder and degradation for the vast majority, but ideological purity is the only point.
Progressive types make the worst racists. In Minneapolis they instituted a bussing program hardly any parents wanted, right after their hideous covid policies. They even knew enrollment might drop 30%, but they did it anyway. It "only "dropped 15%, so they think that is success and are demanding more money.
I had no idea that signing on with Google meant sharing your life with the recipient. What a POS that is! Clearly the State of Minnesota is not good enough for you. I have avoided logging on with Facebook, which likely has a similar horror story attached.
Thanks for this essay!!!
I think it is valiant of you to want to bring your fabulous presence into the classroom. And yes, you would make a great teacher!
Many public schools around the nation use taxpayer-funded Go-Ogle Chromebooks for the students and teachers. Then they use Google apps for creating and sharing documents, etc. If you have a basically empty account to use for signing up on the application site, go for it. Like you said, they already have a shit-ton of data on all of us. Or so they say.
Your post inspired me to write about my substitute teaching stint on my Stack!
Eager to read it and thanks!
Well, you know by now to take my extreme-ish perspectives with your own grain of salt, haha. I have a big axe to grind with any govern-ment besides self-governance🪓🎸😆 (except when it comes to children, they need a lot of wise guidance).
💖
"Many public schools around the nation use taxpayer-funded Go-Ogle Chromebooks for ..."
Correction - All public schools use taxpayer funded everything, for everything. Except for what the underpaid teachers pay out of pocket.
Most private schools receive plenty of taxpayer funds as well.
I should have worded my statement better, since I was referring specifically to the purchase of Chromebooks. I'm sure some schools choose other laptops. And I have seen Apple products in schools.
I am well aware that the public school system is funded by both taxpayer money *and* by the teachers since they are also taxpayers (plus I wouldn't be surprised if there are black market funds involved).
And I know that private schools — as with corporations, institutions, and agencies — receive funds from the illegitimately and forcefully "acquired" tax coffers, and certainly participate in illegitimate, unethical, and often horrific practices.
But thank you for pointing out my less-than-precise syntax. I do like to improve my writing skills!
Well, I've had all day to think about this topic (privacy) and these thoughts come to mind: I split my career in two with a big 13 year break in the middle to raise my kids, so I had a decade of working, then a break, and now more than a decade working. The changes that had happened during my break really shocked me. But I can see how, if I'd kept working, it would have been incremental and I would have seen it as "progress." Instead, I am sometimes bemused but frequently dismayed. Privacy is one of the things. As it was before, no one really cared what you did in your private life, as long as you were professional at your job. And this meant keeping your personal stuff out of the workplace. I think this worked for conventional people, but it didn't work for people who had to hide their true selves in the closet. Now, it's completely the opposite, almost. What used to be private is now thrust in everyone's face, and employers think nothing of checking our social media in making hiring decisions. There used to be topics that were not spoken in polite conversation. But now, those topics are OK but expressing disagreement with the allowed viewpoint will get you shunned or fired.
I'm sure this is by design, but nonetheless I like to point out how much things have changed, how extreme they are now, and how my friends who did not take time off to raise the children were incrementally brainwashed by their daily interactions with the TV and one another into the self-reinforcing, progressive viewpoint, which is demanded in the blue area where I live in order to have social interactions and corporate employment. (the desire for these types of normal activities has been weaponized against us)
I used to be able to engage in lively debates with these friends, but no more -- they are so easily triggered and offended. And they are my age! It's even worse with the younger ones.
I wish we could all become substitute teachers. Find a way to sneak ourselves in.
Yeah, I have structured my life to avoid unpleasant people. I suspect substitute teaching would be a challenge in that regard. I would expect too to meet some great kids and adults too. I would hope too, with the need of teachers, there would be less ideological expectations.
Definitely start a second account.
Sadly we all know that The Education System here in the USA is as ‘broken’ (both for students and staff), as all the other ‘systems’.
And so digitally oriented.
I am older and am still ‘with it’ in the brain department!
I would love to have a part time ‘job’ just to get out of the house...but I would only consider working for an independent business not one of the corporate ‘retailers’ whom I have worked for in the past.
Yeah, the only reason I can handle working for Leviathan is I make my own schedule and there is next to no oversight. As to substitute teaching, I might love the idea of it much more than the reality of it.
Yes but you’re still apart of The Education System. And that’s no so great…IMO.
Depends on what aspects of your privacy you wish to keep private.
I'd grant them access and see what comes of it, but that's just me.
Definitely NOT!
Note taken. I kind of like the madness of the idea though....
🤔 Probably not a pretty mess... I have a self-destructive tendency as well.
Oh, if I went through with it, it would be a good excuse to dump Google, and quite the challenge/risk, without which there is no reward. And if it really was a tragedy in the making I wouldn't stick around long enough for that to take hold. It might even be healthy for me, being more sociable, but maybe instead I will look into teaching a community Ed class about something interesting....
Teaching a community Ed class sounds more interesting.
Sorry, my comments tend to be quick, terse, and often....glib.
I am glad you are participating