Protect the privacy of your Internet search

Posted: Jun 22, 2009 8:29 PM
Updated: Jun 22, 2009 8:29 PM

The Geek Weekly: Three Ways To…Protect the privacy of your Internet search

By Levi Sumagaysay for The Geek Weekly

You’re not as invisible as you think when you look for info online. Concerned about privacy? Try these steps when you search the Internet:

1. Know your search engine Understand your search engine’s policies and decide whether you can live with it. For example, Google, the most widely used search engine, keeps search information for 18 to 24 months. Yahoo! deletes search information after 13 months. Other search engines have similar policies. If you don’t want your search engine keeping your search records at all, try Ask, which lets users opt out of search data retention and will delete the information within a few hours. If you don’t opt out, Ask keeps the information for 18 months.

2. Use different browsers and try different search engines Because many of us use Google for searching when we’re signed in to Gmail or Yahoo! when we’re signed in to its email service, we’re leaving very identifiable traces of our search history. Minimize that by using Firefox as your browser when searching using Google, and have your Gmail up and running in Internet Explorer, for example. Venture outside Google and Yahoo! and AOL. There are other search engines out there that have very specific purposes, such as government or image databases or digital libraries.

3. Check out anonymizing software If you’re very concerned about your search privacy, use anonymizing software such as Tor, which encrypts and “bounces” your information around different servers. This serves to hide exactly where your search is coming from. For additional protection, also use Privoxy, a customizable Web proxy, or “go-between” service, that lets you delete identifying information you send to sites. Both Tor and Privoxy are free, although Tor’s Web site does have a tab for donations.