“Google, MSN Search, Yahoo!, AOL and most other search engines collect and store records of your search queries,” the guide reads. “If these records are revealed to others, they can be embarrassing or even cause great harm. Would you want strangers to see searches that reference your online reading habits, medical history, finances, sexual orientation or political affiliation?”
In addition to highlighting privacy issues surrounding search engines and Internet service providers, the EFF guide also points out the danger posed by government requests to gain access to online queries, as well as the potential harm of private litigants obtaining the date through subpoena in a range of civil lawsuits.
“In January, Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft reportedly cooperated with a broad Justice Department request for millions of search records,” the guide reads. “Although Google successfully challenged this request, the lack of clarity in current law leaves your online privacy at risk.”
The guide ranks the six tips from Easy, to Intermediate and Advanced.
The six tips are:
According to ArsTechnica staff writer Ryan Paul, the EFF guide is a good start, but it doesn’t offer much to the savvy user.
The best feature of the guide, Paul said, is that it calls upon Congress to “clarify and strengthen privacy protections for search data.”