[Infowarrior] - Six Tips to Protect Your Online Search Privacy

[Richard Forno]

Six Tips to Protect Your Online Search Privacy

Google, MSN Search, Yahoo!, AOL, and most other search engines collect and
store records of your search queries. If these records are revealed to
others, they can be embarrassing or even cause great harm. Would you want
strangers to see searches that reference your online reading habits, medical
history, finances, sexual orientation, or political affiliation?

Recent events highlight the danger that search logs pose. In August 2006,
AOL published 650,000 users' search histories on its website.1 Though each
user's logs were only associated with a random ID number, several users'
identities were readily discovered based on their search queries. For
instance, the New York Times connected the logs of user No. 4417749 with 62
year-old Thelma Arnold. These records exposed, as she put it, her "whole
personal life."2

Disclosures like AOL's are not the only threats to your privacy.
Unfortunately, it may be all too easy for the government or individual
litigants to subpoena your search provider and get access to your search
history. For example, in January 2006, Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft reportedly
cooperated with a broad Justice Department request for millions of search
records. Although Google successfully challenged this request,3 the lack of
clarity in current law leaves your online privacy at risk.

Search companies should limit data retention and make their logging
practices more transparent to the public,5 while Congress ought to clarify
and strengthen privacy protections for search data. But you should also take
matters into your own hands and adopt habits that will help protect your
privacy.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has developed the following search
privacy tips. They range from straightforward steps that offer a little
protection to more complicated measures that offer near-complete safety.
While we strongly urge users to follow all six tips, a lesser level of
protection might be sufficient depending on your particular situation and
willingness to accept risks to your privacy.

< - >

http://www.eff.org/Privacy/search/searchtips.php