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In computer news this week  4/05/2006

 

Freedom of searching on the internet today: Is big brother watching you as you do internet searches ?

 

One of the biggest advantages of using  the internet are all the search engines out there that will find  informational websites for you based on the key words you type into them. It’s like having a research library at your fingertips.

 

But if you’ve been reading the papers recently, the government now wants search engines to turn over data on internet searches to them.

 

 Three of four major search engines subpoenaed by the Bush administration have acknowledged that they handed over search data in the government's efforts to revive an anti-porn law that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Microsoft Corp., which owns MSN, Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc. said they sent data to the government, but insisted no personal information on users was given to government attorneys. The exception among major search engines was Google Inc., which said it would "vigorously" fight the government's requests.

 

So what this means to you – as an internet searcher – is that big brother might actually be watching you do searches on any of the major search engines, and maybe collecting data on you.

 

The government’s intention is valid, but what privacy issues does thing bring up -  to know that anytime you do a google search for any innocent combinations of words – the government might be collecting information about you and your use of the internet.

 

Here are 4 privacy steps you can take if you’re concerned about this: Regardless of which web browser you use – Internet Explorer, Foxfire, or other – they all allow you to do these procedures:

 

  1. Delete your history of the sites you’ve visited.  Often your browser will collect all sites that you have visited, and this information might be traced.
  2. Clear out your browser cache, or what is know as your temporary internet files. Most people don realize that on the internet, what you see is what you get. Generally anything you see on your computer monitor while you surf the internet gets downloaded to your computer as temporary internet files.  Most people aren’t aware of this, and eventually these temporary files can even fill up your hard disk. The biggest security danger of these temporary files is that somebody could look through these on your computer – say a computer forensic expert or even someone with a few hacking skills – and be able to tell where you’ve been on the internet, and what you’ve done.
  3. Delete those cookies that sites put on your computer, supposedly to make it easier for you to navigate on their sites, but cookies can actually track a lot of your surfing activity you might not want made public.

 

     These previous 3 functions can be done by anyone using any browser to   increase and protect your internet security.

 

  1. A 4th thing you might consider is a program that lets you surf the internet anonymously. Each computer on the internet is assigned a unique address for identification; known as an IP or Internet Packet Address. Virtually anybody can trace you on the internet by your IP address, and they can do it in real time or after the fact, by tracking emails you’ve sent or things you did online. Next week I’ll review Anonymizer, a program that lets you do completely anonymous internet surfing.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is Frank Delaney

(C) 2005 MTA Micro Technology Associates

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