This is an excellent add-on. It seems to work exactly as advertised.

I have a couple of suggestions for the developers:

1. Help users choose RSS feeds for generating queries. Different users have different requirements: To obscure bland search behaviors, mainstream feeds (like your defaults) probably work best, but to obscure more adventurous search behaviors, it will probably be necessary to add several "interesting" feeds to the mix. I just spent some time looking for unusual RSS feeds, and I found some good ones which I'm now using in TMN. If these feeds work as I expect, the search engines will soon conclude that I have dozens of remarkable (albeit contradictory) interests, and my true interests will be lost in the noise. Anyway, it was work to find these feeds, and if you were to host a forum for the purpose of discussing TMN query feeds -- or at least post a list of suggested feeds -- I think it would greatly help users effectively configure TMN.

2. Why not obscure browsing behavior too? Logging search queries is just one way Google (and others) keep track of us. Many websites report to Google the IP addresses of those who visit their pages. Thus, a good portion of our browsing behavior is tracked by Google, even if we never use Google to search. Fortunately, I think TMN could easily obscure browsing behavior in addition to search behavior. The program simply needs to remember some of the websites it visited as part of the click-through feature, then continue to visit those sites at semi-regular intervals. Please think about it.

-TC

Logs and Help/FAQ doesn't work in Firefox for Linux. AFAIK, it has never worked with features that opens new windows. Currently using Firefox 3.6.3 in Ubuntu, but it has been the same in other versions too.

Also, for Google, it should be possible to specify which domain to use, for example, it should use google.se instead of google.com for Sweden, since that's what is used when doing manual searches. Currently, this makes it extremely easy to determine which traffic is real and which is generated by TrackMeNot.

Polluting databases is a great idea, but I would do some improvements having in mind non-english users. Even if I initialize the list with some rss in my own language, TMN will always add to the query list some popular terms such as 'naruto', 'angelina jolie' and whatever. If I do google searches 90% of the time on a foreign language, it's probably trivial for a tracking program to discard what it seems to be garbage. And since the terms seem to be hardcoded, the only workaround is to edit the query list manually, but you have to do it each time you open the browser so it's pointless. Thanks.

I used to use Fakir which was available through a geocities page that was deleted with all the rest. This seems to actually be better than Fakir although I think a more powerful AI will be needed soon to provide what is needed as far as privacy is concerned, would like better control on adding some of the search terms as well as deleting what I don't like, but this is far better than nothing at all. Remember this type of program not only helps protect your privacy but helps invalidate all user results for everyone online, and so is a start toward a new level of privacy than has existed up to now!

We have enough commercial profiling going on in today's world. Here's away to confound it online. It really is a terrific extension. Thank you for working on it.

Google did ban my IP after five months TMN-working on two browsers, Firefox and Netscape, they did believe me a botnet terrorized them... I uninstalled the TMN ad-ones and after two hours Google was reached again.

Does exactly as advertised. Great add-on.

To the developers, I would suggest tuning down the default (the default seems a little excessive since many people leave their browsers running for extended periods of time). To users, make sure to turn down the query frequency.

Break the tracking.

If you're afraid of getting a bad search record with the agencies, that's even more reason to use it, because it pollutes their data bases.

What you should do to prevent the black helicopters following you (great sense for drama, randall3), is use completely innocent rss feeds to initialize the query list.

I decided to try some new add-ons today and this one was a big wtf. It started with searches like "brittany" and "spyware," then went on to repeatedly do searches related to "uranium" and "israel." It's a great tool if you want to be on a no-fly list, and have black helicopters following you.

@tbartbar -- I would think this would be the perfect defense ;-) especially if you keep the logs and can show that it wasn't you that did this, it was TrackMeNot.

NOTE: Dan Howe's "Contact Us" info at mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/ is 404, does anyone have an email for him? I have some suggestions for improvement of TrackMeNot.

I removed this after a day's use. When one uses a search engine s/he may be revealing a few embarrassing tidbits, but this thing makes searches for any number of potentially damning phrases and then goes on to click one of the results returned!
Go ahead and install this if you want your search history to be littered with the searches that can be attributed to anyone from a paedophile to a terrorist, followed by a random click on a result returned for a query like Playing+With+Young+Boys!
I would rather to be tracked by Google or Yahoo than having a search history and web site visits created by TMN!

1984 - I've had this around, but I'd rather fight a while longer for a law banning the Peeping Toms who know more about you than you do with a proper mashup.. There's a difference between important public data (how much did you give that Congressman?) Business Data, send and bill to... and the data that's stolen without even the decency of telling us it's been taken until after it has gone. Still, in a world where a handful of yahoos (Jonathan Swift's, not the company that doesn't know the origin of its own name) are calling for a police state, blaming everything on the latest immigrants (even the legal ones got their doors kicked in for no apparent reason last week), and don't even respect the (uh maybe because he's black?) moderate President, calling him "socialist" (a word they don't seem to understand, at best) it may be time to PUSH THE BUTTON and run browsers 24/7 to confuse the heck out of pro stat stealers.

As an advocate for privacy rights, I am always interested in new technology. However, I would have to decline from recommending this add-on due to the disturbing search queries it produced.
While most were random confusing noise many were potential "flags" if search records were being analyzed. such as; 12 year old, and 12 year old boy. (I'm glad there was not a click through on these). Many other results concerned the Iraqi revolutionary guard; revolutionary guard join, forces and support Iraqi revolutionary guard, Pakistani forces success, and on and on. I understand these are random generations from news stories, however I would not want these in my search logs.
For now, the laws regarding internet activity have been interpreted to mean that there is basically no expectation of privacy. So unfortunately, people should conduct themselves as such until the laws adapt to protect us from warrant less surveillance.

The map with TMN do I copy in the analogue map of Netscape so that TWO browsers energetically do their nasty work.

C\Des\...\Appl.-d.\Mozilla or Netscape\ Firefox or Navigator\Profiles\...&c

Succes!

A lot of people in the world look for required information about it. And, that is achievable to get everything if you come to freelance writer .

Couldn't download or therefore install it. Really wanted to, but computer decided it was incompatible with Firefox 3.5. Quite a shame, really. If you could update it a tiny bit, I'd really appreciate it. Rated what I hoped it would be - don't know realistically, so can't give it full marks...

I was too optimistic. TMN only works for about two days and then it's disabled by Windows XP/FF 3.5.1. Also, v3.5.1 crashes a lot. :-(

There is a corrected update v0.6.2a available on the TrackmeNot web site. I installed it and using it for the past hour and it seems to work fine in FF 3.5.1 for Windows.

@andanotherbrokenhome
That doesn't work.

We need an update.

EDIT: @minidell, it worked on Windows. TrackMeNot 0.6.2 has now been approved on addons.mozilla.org to work with Firefox 3.5, apparently without any changes to the code except for install.rdf. But to make it work, you may have to "update" from 0.6.2 to 0.6.2 by uninstalling and reinstalling from the link on this page.

PRE-EDIT: Until the next official update, it is very easy to make TrackMeNot 0.6.2 compatible with Firefox 3.5. Go to your Firefox profile folder (on Windows this is probably C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\SOMETHINGRANDOM.default\ ) then to the extensions folder, then to the TrackMeNot extension which is probably titled trackmenot@mrl.nyu.edu. In this folder you will find a file called install.rdf. Right-click-and-drag to make a backup copy of it, then open the original install.rdf in a text editor (notepad will do). Look for the part that says 3.0.* and just change it to 3.5.* then save the file under the original name of install.rdf. Now restart Firefox, and TrackMeNot should be working again.

I love this add-on and would like to see it compatible for Firefox 3.5. Authors, can you kindly update the add-on?

This extension does what it claims: it generates queries in a very intelligent way, making it impossible for search engines to build consistent profiles about you and then abuse that data for their own purposes. The RSS feature allows you to enter as many RSS feeds as you like, thus building a huge database of search terms that the engines cannot predict nor easily recognize as artificial. I myself have some 20 different RSS feeds entered into it, from which Trackmenot can draw useful terms that have nothing to do with my own person. My private information is thus hidden inside a cloud of nonsense that Google is welcome to have.

Deleting cookies does not protect your privacy from search engines, because they can identify you by other means, such as IP address. Besides, the deleted cookie is simply recreated every time you use the engine, and for the entire session you will then be monitored.

It is also untrue that search engines will block you. If you use this extension properly (with your own RSS feeds, and by not settting the query frequency at its highest level) you will never, ever be blocked from using the search. I've been using it for two years now and I haven't been blocked even once.

Like an other reviewer said: "In theory this is a GREAT addon. BUT google and other search engines are stopping automated searches and are trying to prevent programs like this from running. Also if you run spyware remover and antivirus and delete your cookies then third parties won't get person information instead of just hiding your searches."

A nice alternative to google is scroogle.org, uses google but: no cookies|no search-term records|access log deleted within 48 hours. There's also an SSL version(AES 256 bit) https://ssl.scroogle.org
Here's a way to install it as a Firefox search engine:
http://mycroft.mozdev.org/search-engines.html?name=scroogle

This is an excellent Add-on and the support is incredible. I have been using it since practically day one.