In 2013, there was a case in New York where family members who collectively used a work computer to search for pressure cookers, backpacks and news on the Boston bombings was visited by the police after the employer had tracked the search terms and tipped-off authorities. Needless to say, workplaces and schools have reasons for tracking your search history, and the people who administrate the networks likely have the ability to see your searches.

1. How Could Someone See Your Search History?

2. What’s seen privately online doesn’t always
necessarily stay private.
There are probably some Internet searches you’ve
made that you would rather no one know about.
Perhaps it’s that you’re secretly a fan of Kim
Kardashian and regularly check for the latest
gossip about her. Maybe it’s that you’ve
researched and purchased more than your share
of beauty products to make yourself look younger.
Whatever the case, there’s just some things you
do online that you would rather keep to yourself.

3. Unfortunately, every time you use your browser
to perform a search that information gets saved
on a computer somewhere and is often tracked
across the Internet. This means that someone
with the right resources at their disposal could
discover what topics you’ve searched for online
and the sites you’ve visited.

4. Google Search History
You might not know it, but every time you use Google to
perform an online search it stores your search query and that
it becomes part of your personal web history. Although an
individual person would have to know the password
information for your Google account to access it, google
maintains a history of your queries and must allow access to
it if a court order is obtained. For anyone that figures out your
password (which easier than you might think), they could
simply visit http://google.com/history and to see all of your
personal web history in all its glory. It’s even neatly
categorized.

5. To keep your search history off of Google’s
computers, try using SearchLock. If you’d like to
delete any history they already have, click on
the gear icon up at the top right hand corner of
the Google history page and choose “Settings.”
Google will then allow you to delete all of your
history or, if you prefer, just the parts of it that
you would rather keep secret. If you prefer to
continue using Google and not a safer
alternative like SearchLock, you can ostensibly
turn your search history off on this same page.

6. Who Else is Watching?
It’s not just Google that is keeping a log of your
search queries. Wifi hotspots, schools, and
workplaces frequently track user search histories
as well. Many of the firewalls these organizations
use to protect their networks have specific features
for logging of user search terms.

7. In 2013, there was a case in New York where
family members who collectively used a work
computer to search for pressure cookers,
backpacks and news on the Boston bombings was
visited by the police after the employer had tracked
the search terms and tipped-off authorities.
Needless to say, workplaces and schools have
reasons for tracking your search history, and the
people who administrate the networks likely have
the ability to see your searches.

8. As you can see, it is definitely possible for someone to
access and view your search and browsing history. You
don’t necessarily have to make it easy for them though.
Taking steps such as using a VPN, adjusting your google
privacy settings and frequently deleting cookies can help.
You can also use Searchlock which works to automatically
detect when you are making a potentially unsafe or
non-private search and quickly redirects your query to a
search engine that will respect your privacy.

9. Download SearchLock for Your Browser
Install SearchLock for
Google Chrome
Install SearchLock for
Mozilla Firefox
Install SearchLock for
Safari