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The Google privacy message is incredibly annoying - when I edit all options and set them all to Off (although I doubt this makes any difference!) and accept the review, the same message comes back the following day. What am I doing wrong?
I'm using Windows 7 with Firefox as my browser.
There are few solutions that comes to mind:
Sign in.
This should probably stop the reminder from appearing.
Use Google.com instead of Google.co.uk
It seems that Google.com doesn't show the reminder, but Google.co.uk does. You may have to click "Use Google.com" link after visiting google.com, otherwise they will redirect you automatically. (note that this may not work if you're actually in UK)
Use AdBlock
AdBlock can block elements by CSS selectors. The reminder has CSS class _vGg, so adding this rule to AdBlock should hide it:
##._vGg
(they may change the class at any point and the rule will stop working)
Use Stylish or userscripts
Similar class-based approach would work with other methods of altering websites. With userscripts you could even use some heuristics to make it survive CSS class change, but it's a bit more advanced and I won't go into details.
This is most likely a problem with either:
To remedy cache and cookies issue:
If that doesn't work, check to see if you have an Addon in your browser that is causing this issue. Addons are in the same "Options" area you were in when you edited the Privacy tab.
If neither solution works, try checking to see if there is an outside source, (*third party programs like CClearner and Advance System Care) that will clear the cache and cookies upon your exit from your browser. Be sure to check their capabilities before checking on any other possible issues.
If this promo is annoying to you and appears repeatedly, make sure your browser is not set up to automatically and regularly clear cookies. If it is and you'd rather keep it that way, you'll need to use any of the workarounds posted by gronostaj.
Re Google's security reminders: I tried setting my homepage to Google.com, but then they just automatically reset me to Google.co.uk, as that is where I am based. Now I have set my Homepage to the full Google.com URL, namely: https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=8U4BVoy2Es3H8geQ4aP4Cw&gws_rd=cr&fg=1 and it seems to work. Not been redirected back to the UK and no security reminders - yet.
Two alternative methods:
1/ Override the user agent string, specifically for the www.google.co.uk domain. Before Firefox 25, this could be done by adding something like the following to <FIREFOX-PROFILE>\prefs.js:
user_pref("general.useragent.override.www.google.co.uk", "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:3.2) Goanna/20170101 PaleMoon/27.3.0");
In Firefox >= 25, the same can be achieved by installing an Add-on such as UAControl. The user agent string can be any that Google is not able to recognise. Alternatively, don't send the User-Agent request header at all (in UAControl, the block option for a site achieves this).
As well as disappearing the Privacy Reminder nag, this method also has the side-effect of yielding a slightly different Google UI. Noteworthy is the different search results page, with the country, date/time and results refine options down the left side. Personally I prefer this display because it's fewer clicks to refine.
2/ In a similar vein to some of @gronostaj's solutions it should be possible to hide the Privacy Reminder elements with CSS. A simple way without Add-ons would be to create UserContent.css in <FIREFOX-PROFILE>\chrome and add an appropriate style rule to it:
._vGg {display: none !important}
Restart Firefox for the rule to take effect. This method is also subject to the class name changing, and potentially (though unlikely) unintentionally hiding other web sites' content that just so happen to carry the same class name.
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.php?title=UserContent.css for more information on UserContent.css.
