Six Tips to Protect Your Online Search Privacy

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While we strongly urge users to follow all six tips, a lesser level of … For example, use Mozilla Firefox for searching through …

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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 yearold
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…