【The Exotic Time Machine (1998)】

What if you got an audio cue every time your computer sent data to Google?The Exotic Time Machine (1998)

Enter Googerteller, an app created by developer Bert Hubert (via 9to5Google). It makes a beeping noise every time your computer sends data to Google, and as you might imagine, it beeps a lot. Below, you can see a video of it in action on a Dutch government website.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The app works by using a list of IP addresses Google uses for its various services (excluding those related to Google Cloud), and alerting you whenever your computer communicates with one of those addresses. As you can see in the video, it beeps basically every time you click on anything.

As Hubert demonstrates here, this doesn't only happen when you use Google Chrome; the Googerteller is equally as beepy in Firefox.

Googerteller is only available for Linux (though there are ways to run it on a Mac), but we doubt people are going to swarm to install it on their systems. It's easy to forget just how often you're being tracked online, and the app's value is in providing a very direct (and scary) example of how often your data is being sent to Google.

It doesn't have to be this way, though. Here is a quick overview of Google privacy settings you can enable to reduce the amount of tracking Google does on you.

• 10 Google Chrome extensions to make your life easier
• The 9 most addictive Google Doodle games to waste an afternoon at work
• How to delete your Gmail account
• You can now be a cat in Google Meet calls
• 10 best Google Chrome extensions for productivity