Search Term Demo

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation's analysis of the Patriot Act"Be careful what you put in that Google search. The government may now spy on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is 'relevant' to an ongoing criminal investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation. This application must be granted and the government is not obligated to report to the court or tell the person spied upon what it has done."

Google Search Term Demonstration
We've stressed in several places on this site that the search term information present in standard logs kept by webmasters all over the world is potentially a violation of your privacy. The phenomenon demonstrated here is not unique to Google, but is typical of almost all search engines.
There are two methods for collecting your search terms, GET and POST. Search engines use GET because you can bookmark the search, link the search, and pass data inside the link. However, your search terms end up on the same line as your IP address in standard web logs all over the world with the GET method. This is "referrer" information, which is available to the distant webmaster every time you click on a link from a search results page.The webmaster knows that someone at your IP address accessed his page, and also knows what you were thinking from your search terms.
Only two items are shown below, information from your IP address and some old "referrer" information from one of our logs. Not shown are these pieces of information, which would be on the same log line:

the date and time stamp
the name of the file that was accessed on our site
the status code (whether the request succeeded)
the number of bytes transferred
the type of browser used
Here is some information we looked up for your IP address, to demonstrate how some Internet addresses come close to qualifying as "personally identifiable information." Some of this information doesn't appear in standard logs, but the data is widely available. One database we used allowed an IP-to-country lookup (not always accurate) to show where that Internet surfer is located. (Google uses much better geolocation data, which can usually identify the city you are in.) If you are using the Internet at work it is even more revealing. Your employer's domain will usually show up as the domain name, and technicians at your place of work can trace which employee was looking at a particular page at a particular point in time. This is you:
38.103.63.18 38.103.63.18   PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL   UNITED STATES
Next we took recent entries that were referred from searchers at Google who clicked on our CIA on Campus site. The fact that the user clicked on a link from the Google search results page caused their Google search terms to appear in our log:
www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=cia+recruitment+&btnG=Search&meta=
www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&q=Social+Science+for+Whom%3F+by+Carol+Cina&meta=
www.google.ca/search?q=CIA&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.ca/search?q=cia&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.ca/search?q=psychological+warfare&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N
www.google.com./search?q=Hadley+Cantril&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.com.au/search?q=dutch+tin+mines+indonesia&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=60&sa=N
www.google.com.ph/search?q=Central+Intelligence+Agency%2BAlumni%2BVeterans&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.com.tr/search?q=j.m.kaplan+foundation,Turkey&hl=tr&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=cia+recruitment
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Bud+McFarlane+suicide&btnG=Google+Search
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=CiA+recruitment
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=McCone+Commission
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Michigan+State+University+visit+vice+president&btnG=Google+Search
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=National+Student+Association+cia&btnG=Google+Search
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=biomedical+in+CIA
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=john+McCone&btnG=Google+Search
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=opinions+on+Rochester+Institute+of+Technology
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=riots+at+Michigan+State+University
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=security+on+university+campuses+in+africa&btnG=Google+Search


www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22AAA%22+%2B+social+sciences
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Harvard+University+Graduating+1941&btnG=Search
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=cia+fbi+zambia+influential+persons&btnG=Search
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=cia+recruitment
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=cia+statue
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=dead+dictators+and+rioting+mobs
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=french+department+michigan+state+university
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=generation+x+military+veterans
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=history+of+the+OSS
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=CHAOS+cia
www.google.com/search?hl=th&ie=UTF-8&q=CArl+Rogers+machine&btnG=%E0%B8%84%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B2
www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22gordon+craig%22+german+history
www.google.com/search?q=%22CIA+in+Africa%22+1968+Senate&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
www.google.com/search?q=Ramparts+magazine+1967+National+Student+Association&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
www.google.com/search?q=cia&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.com/search?q=cia+memorandum+format&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N
www.google.com/search?q=clergy+and+laymen+concerned+about+vietnam&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N
www.google.com/search?q=grayson+kirk+signature&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8
www.google.com/search?q=john+hannah+michigan+state+university&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
www.google.com/search?q=mcmichael+cia&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&tab=nw&sa=N
www.google.com/search?q=rit%20transcript%20disclosure&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
www.google.com/search?q=stanford+cia+funding&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&start=10&sa=N
www.google.com/search?q=tufts+newspaper&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22RIT%22+AND+%22CIA%22
www.google.de/search?q=cia&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.de/search?q=how+to+spying+on+a+group+of+computer&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.it/search?q=cia&hl=it&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
www.google.se/search?hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&q=Agricultural+extension+in+Indonesia+New+Order&btnG=Google-s%C3%B6kning&meta=
The IP address that allowed us to look up where you are coming from is on the same log line as the referrer information that shows your search terms. By putting the two together, we frequently know who you are and what you are thinking.

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