Thursday, February 19, 2009

How To Keep Your Search Private ?

Do you know that most search engines like Yahoo and Google can easily keep track of our search footprints and identity? Well, they can actually do this quite easily by cross-checking our search queries (that small box usually on the top right corner of your screen) with your logged-in information (that is our IP address).

But there are ways that we can keep our search private. Here are some useful tips we can use:

  • Don’t log into search engines or any of their tools. The easiest way is not to do a search while we are logged in to one of their services. What we can do is to open up two browsers – for instance Mozilla for Google and Internet Explorer (IE) to conduct our search. We also might want to keep several profiles with Firefox.
  • Block cookies from Google. This is because Google keeps track of all our search sessions through its cookies. But deleting our cookies can cause other “good” or helpful cookies to be cleared too. Good thing about Firefox is that it allows user to block cookies from a specified source. Just go to Tools->Options->Privacy Tab->Exceptions then type www.google.com. If we don’t want Google to track us down with those “sensitive” porn searches, better use Firefo. Heh heh heh … ;)
  • Always “refresh” your IP address. This is easily done when we’re hooked up to residential services. All we have to do is to turn the modem off. Leave it off for a while and then turn it on again later.
  • Use a different search engine. Ixquick is a search engine that claims to delete all information about our searches within two days, unlike Google which keeps track of everything.
  • Don’t include personal information in our searches. Otherwise, we’re just helping them build up more and more profiles about us.
  • Do our “sensitive” searches in a public hotspot or terminal, especially those hotspots that don’t require log-ins. Nowadays even Mamak joints provide this “free WiFi” facilities. Of course, we are expected to order at least a roti canai and teh tarik from them first. Just be careful though when logging into these public hotspots, for psychos might just be on the prowl to get you too !
  • Avoid using your Internet Service Provider (ISP) own search engine. Remember, we might have given them a lot of information already when we applied for their service. This makes it easy for them to just keep on adding and building up our profile from there.
  • Last but not least, DON'T ACCESS THE INTERNET !! kuang kuang kuang ... ;)

2 comments:

Liza Manaf said...

uihhh,...dont access the internet ha?? kuikukui...la ni dok wat apa nih?? tgh sit down and relax ka? hehhe

Muhammad Maharoff said...

Kenapa Baba post article ni erk??? Baba nak tunjuk cara Baba browse laman web yang bukan-bukan tanpa di kesan oleh org lain erk... kui, kui, kui.. :D