Internet Privacy

Most internet users are unaware that almost everything they do on the internet can be recorded, and that a surprisingly large amount of it actually is recorded.

Who Keeps Track of You?

Several organisations have access to your online activities:

Your ISP, the company that provides your internet connection, is legally obliged to keep records of their customers’ online activity.
The search engine companies you use will keep records. There is a good account here of Google’s data collection practices.
If you have access to the internet at work, your employer may have installed eavesdropping software on your computer. There is plenty of eavesdropping software around — just search for desktop spy or keylogger software. Be very careful not to download any of this software, which can be easy to install by accident and difficult to remove!
If you use a public connection such as an internet café, who knows who may have access.

Data storage is cheap, so you can expect these records to be retained for many years.

How The Search Engines Keep Track of You

When you search for something on the internet, the search engines will usually keep a record of the following categories of information:

the words you enter into the search box;
the time and date of your search;
any websites you visit as a result of the search;
your internet protocol (IP) address.

Your IP address is a sequence of digits which identifies your internet session. It is assigned by your internet service provider, who will keep a record of which IP addresses are assigned to which subscriber. Search engines and other websites you visit will not be able to match an IP address to a particular subscriber, and so will not be able to identify you directly, unless, of course, you use the search engine which is included as part of most internet service providers’ packages.

Almost all search engine companies will try to attach a cookie (for more information about cookies, see our Privacy Policy page) to the computer of everyone using their service. The cookie will serve to identify your computer to the search engine company.

Even though the search engine company won’t know your name, its cookie will tell it which IP addresses have been assigned to your computer, and those IP addresses will tell it which search terms you have used and which websites you have visited as a result of those searches.

The AOL Scandal

There was a minor scandal in 2006 when AOL made public a tiny proportion of the records of its associated search engine, which is based on Google. It revealed more than 20 million search queries made by 650,000 unnamed individuals over three months.

At the time of writing, the AOL database was still available. Try it for yourself:

go to www.aolsearchdatabase.com;
click on 'randomizer';
click on a user ID to find out which other terms that user has searched for, and which websites he or she visited.

Of course, a handful of odd internet sessions won’t disclose much about you. As the recent case made clear, however, several months’ worth of data can sometimes reveal more than enough to identify an internet user.

Prevention

There are two main ways to prevent any search engine recording your searching activity:

Disable their cookies;
Search anonymously.

1 : Disabling Cookies

All modern browser software allows the user to delete cookies, either manually or automatically. This option is usually to be found in the ‘Tools’ or ‘View’ menus.

Even better, use a browser which allows you to prevent cookies being installed on your computer in the first place. We have plugged Firefox elsewhere; not only does it make deleting and disabling cookies straightforward, but it allows the user to deny access to cookies from any named site.

Some websites use a particularly nasty type of cookie, created in Flash format. These Flash cookies are very hard to identify, and are immune to normal browser deletion processes. Flash cookies can be deleted by using the Better Privacy add–on for Firefox.

2 : Anonymous Searching

Disabling or deleting cookies goes part of the way towards thwarting the search engines’ dastardly plans. Many users with broadband, however, keep their internet sessions going for hours, or even days, at a time. Every search they make during each session can be related to that session’s single IP address.

So it helps to disguise your IP address. Some websites, known as ‘anonymizers’, offer an encryption service that allows you to surf while keeping your IP address hidden from the websites you visit, which include, of course, search engines’ websites:

Anonymouse — free
The Cloak — free and paid options

There are some companies that offer similar services but which require you to instal their software on your computer. They charge a monthly fee, but they usually allow a free trial period:

Alternatively, instead of using your regular search engine, you could use the IXquick metasearch engine, which claims not to record data.

Further Advice

Most internet service providers include a search engine as part of their package. Needless to say, you should never use their search engine if you are searching for anything that could identify you personally. Better still, don’t use their search engine at all!
Avoid combining your name with any personal or financial information or passwords in the same search.
Use different search engines for different search topics.
Your web browser software keeps a record of the web pages you have visited. Make a habit of clearing this history regularly. On most browsers, go to Tools then Options, then Clear Private Data.

Now please eat this page!