[Infowarrior] - How To Keep Your Search History Private

[Richard Forno]

How To Keep Your Search History Private
August 15, 2006
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004868.php

How can you help prevent damaging privacy invasions like AOL's data leak?
Along with spreading the word about this debacle, you can take steps to
protect yourself online. Beneath the fold, we've listed some tips and tools
that will help keep your search history private.

    * Don't put personally-identifying information in your searches, at
least not in a way that can be associated with your other searches. You
should take the precautions below to avoid giving away your identity to your
search engine anyway, but they're especially necessary if you want to do a
search to see if your personal information has appeared online or want to do
a vanity search for your name.

    * Don't use a search engine operated by your ISP. Most ISPs inherently
know who their users are, at any given time and over the long run. If you
use their default search tool, they know who you are and everything you
search for. Use someone else's search tool instead.

    * Don't log in to a search engine account. If you use a web-based e-mail
service or other services provided by your search engine -- such as GMail or
Yahoo! Mail -- see below on cookies.

    * Don't accept cookies from your search engine. If you use a service
like web-based e-mail that requires you to accept cookies, don't let the
personally-identifying information in your e-mail get linked with your
searches. For Firefox users, the free CustomizeGoogle extension will allow
you to anonymize your search cookie without breaking GMail (see the
"Privacy" tab in the CustomizeGoogle options). We're still looking for
extensions that provide corresponding functionality for Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL
users. You can also use Privoxy, although it's a bit more difficult to
configure.

    * Use a separate browser or browser profile for search and for other
activities.

    * Use an anonymizing proxy, or proxy network like Tor, to prevent search
engines from learning your IP address, especially if your ISP gives you the
same IP address each time you use the Internet.