Cover Your Tracks Online
When, in August 2006, a vendor for AOL released search records on 657,000 AOL users, it was easy to look at the queries associated with specific users and determine what kinds of people they were and ultimately who they were. Your online activities could do end up in a database somewhere. Read the privacy policy of your favorite search engine, and you’ll see what methods it employs to collect valuable data about its users. Then consider how many times you’ve read about security breaches that result in data leaks.
There is a way to remain somewhat anonymous on the most popular of all search engines, Google. Remember that if you have a username log-in with any of the Internet search engines -say, a Microsoft Passport or a webmail account -their systems can build a profile of you. If you’re truly paranoid you may want to delete or cancel any free e-mail accounts that are associated with Web search engines and scrub their cookies from your hard drive. If you use any of the services from Google, such as Wallet, Groups, Gmail, or AdSense, or even if you get paid by Google AdWords on your own Web site, then you have an account that points back to your identity. This means that everything you do within the search can now point back to you as a unique user. See how it’s done…
1 Yes, you have to sign in first. To remove Google’s Personalized Search, head on over to www.google.com/psearch and sign in to your account.
2 Stroll down memory lane. Take a look at the Search History page and pick some days on the calendar to see every search made since you created your Google account. Scary, eh? I don’t know what I had for lunch yesterday, but Google knows what I was interested in a year ago!
3 Clean your slate. Select the Clear Search History button, check off items that you wish to remove, and then click the Clear History button. Remember that even after you remove items, logs and backups will exist on Google’s servers.
4 Stop the collection. To prevent Google from collecting this data in the future, select items such as Web, Images, and News that you don’t want to collect data, then press the Pause button.
Tags: account, AdSense, aol, backup, clear search history, database, free e mail, gmail, google, Internet, memory, Microsoft, policy, remove, search, Security, Web, web search engines, webmail, webmail account
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Source Tips - the world of Information Technology on 11 Feb 2007 at 5:37 pm #
activities could do end up in a database somewhere. Read the privacy policy of your favorite search engine, and you’ll see what methods it employs to collect valuable data about its users. Then consider how many times you’ve read about securitybreaches that result in data leaks. There is a way to remain somewhat anonymous on the most popular of all search engines, Google. Remember that if you have a username log-in with any of the Internet search engines -say, a Microsoft Passport or a
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