Whether it’s questions about cooking or searching for products or medical advice — Google is free, super practical, and an indispensable part of our lives. But Googling is only free on the surface. We don’t pay for the service with money, but with our data. That’s why you should be careful when searching for certain things. Read on to learn what these search terms are and how you can strengthen the protection of your online privacy with Avira Secure Browser — and not just when Googling.
Every time you use a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you might be putting your online privacy at risk. Google itself tells you that sometimes your search terms are sent to websites when you click on Google’s search results. According to the FAQs of Google’s privacy policy: When you click on a search result in Google Search, your web browser also may send the Internet address, or URL, of the search results page to the destination webpage as the Referrer URL. The URL of the search results page may sometimes contain the search query you entered.
Seven things you should never search for on Google
That should make you think twice about sharing your problems, interests, and even inquiries born out of idle curiosity with a major search engine like Google. Here are seven things you should never search for on Google to avoid disappearing down an internet-search black hole and creating unnecessary stress for yourself.
1. Things you don’t want to see in ads later
How many times has this happened to you: You’ve had the odd question or looked up something out of sheer curiosity only to find you’re bombarded by ads on the topic for weeks on end everywhere you turn?
Even just for the ads displayed on Google Search, the search engine uses information on what you searched for, your location, and the time of day to choose ads. It also takes into account your previous web searches, your web history, your history of visiting websites that advertise with Google, information from your Google account like your age and gender, and your previous interactions with Google’s ads and search results. This data is then used to build a full profile that both the search engine and advertisers can use to get an idea of who you are, what you’re interested in, and what you’re most likely to buy.
Scared already? We’ve got six more things you shouldn’t share with a search engine.
2. Things that give away your location to Google
You can turn off Location History and a separate Web & App Activity tracker, but Google will still get some clues about your location based on your search terms. According to The New York Times columnist David Leonhardt, search terms differ geographically, with major differences between countries where life is easiest and where it is toughest. A high prevalence of searches on health issues like blood sugar and diabetes, searches on what might be called the dark side of religion, searches about selling Avon or getting social security checks, and searches about specific kinds of gun occur in areas where people are more likely to struggle with money or suffer health problems. Your searches give your search engine a view of how economic trends manifest themselves in your everyday life — something you may not want advertisers capitalizing on.
3. Anything suspicious (especially at work)
You’ve probably seen at least one movie where the person’s browsing history has been used to convict a suspect of a crime, especially when they just so happen to Google the crime right before or after they’ve committed it. In 2013, a story did the rounds online on how a series of Google searches led to a visit by local authorities. It was triggered by searches by various members of a New York family for terms including “backpack” and “pressure cooker bomb”. After much confusion, it was concluded that the suspicious Google searches were reported by an employer, and the searches were performed on the workplace computer of a recently released employee. And this was a decade ago — can you imagine just how much things have evolved since then?
So when it comes to the things you should never Google, probably the safest course of action is to assume that someone is always watching your browsing history — even if they aren’t.
4. Anything that enables Google to profile you
Even just for the ads displayed on Google Search, the search engine uses information on what you searched for, your location, and the time of day to choose ads. It also takes into account your previous web searches, your web history, your history of visiting websites that advertise with Google, information from your Google account like your age and gender, and your previous interactions with Google’s ads and search results. This data is then used to build a full profile that both the search engine and advertisers can use to get an idea of who you are, what you’re interested in, and what you’re most likely to buy.
Companies can put together all the pieces and finish the puzzle of your profile. Then an algorithm can sort through profiles of hundreds of thousands of users like you and accurately predict something unrelated about you or your activity. Even if many classifications are inaccurate, they can still harm you with effects like price discrimination, where companies profile you and determine how much to charge you for goods or services, as we find from an experiment led by Jeffrey Rosen for The New York Times. He concluded that “the new world of price discrimination is one where it’s hard to escape your consumer profile, and you won’t even know if companies are offering discounts to higher-status customers in the first place.”
However, there is a solution you can use to prevent companies from tracking you online and profiling you. Avira Secure Browser helps you cover your digital tracks and improve the protection of your online privacy. Surfing using this specially developed browser means you can block ads and web tracking — and even prevent browser fingerprinting. This tracking method collects specific data about your online activities, browser, operating system, and installed add-ons, as well as various device settings to identify you.
5. Online banking/social media/e-commerce websites
If you thought phishing was limited to lottery winner or Nigerian prince scams that are easy to spot, think again. There are many fake online websites on Google. To stay safe, it’s highly advisable to access your accounts by directly typing the official URL into your browser’s address bar. That should protect you from potentially entering your bank log-in ID and password on a website that looks like the bank’s official one but which could instead be a phishing site.
6. Medicines or medical symptoms, medical advice or treatments, or nutrition or weight-loss tips
We’re going to spill the beans and reveal how advertising works: It capitalizes on insecurities. When searching for medical symptoms, medical advice or treatments, or nutrition or weight-loss tips, you’re giving the advertisers easy access to your insecurities and leverage to bombard you with ads and dubious products.
If you don’t want to see ads that are specifically tailored to things that you already don’t like about your body, even if, objectively, they aren’t a huge deal, you should avoid sharing those insecurities with your search engine in the first place. Share them with medical specialists instead.
7. Anything that might embarrass you at a later date on Google (you name it)
As we’ve already mentioned several times, everything you search for follows you around everywhere you go on the World Wide Web. Whatever you search for on Google even pops up as ads on other websites you visit. As such, never search for porn or anything that might embarrass you at a later date on Google as you’ll definitely not want Google Ads suggestions based on your search history to follow you to your office.
What you SHOULD search for on Google
By contrast to what we’ve said above, there are some things that are actually recommended for you to search for on Google, like your name and email address. In the era of the internet, our privacy is questionable and Googling your name might lead to unpleasant results — including dodgy photos of yourself, incorrect information, and irrelevant content, sold accounts, spam, password leaks, the lot. One tool we recommend to find out if you’ve been compromised in a data breach is haveibeenpwned.com.
What can you do to search safely when using Google?
Fortunately, there are many ways to protect yourself from companies’ crazy harvesting practices and to outpace digital pursuers. In addition to checking your privacy settings on popular websites and social media platforms as well as using an alternate search engine like DuckDuckGo, this includes using a range of tools to protect your online privacy. The good news is that you don’t have to install these individually — you can simply use a comprehensive solution in the form of Avira Secure Browser.
That’s because this web browser contains a long list of privacy features, including an ad blocker, effective anti-tracking tools, and a privacy cleaner that allows you to remove your browsing history and data stored in the browser. You can also use Avira Secure Browser to surf in private mode, ensuring your browsing history isn’t saved and that all cookies and other temporary data are deleted automatically once you end your browsing session.
By the way, Avira’s browser not only includes a host of tools to help you protect your online privacy but it also helps you surf more safely. Among other things, you can protect yourself from malicious and phishing sites as well as infected downloads and potentially harmful browser extensions with the integrated web protection feature. Avira Secure Browser also has a password manager, so you can save your passwords more securely and generate new ones with ease.
You can download the browser, install it and start surfing straight away in just a few clicks. You can also personalize your settings and turn certain features on or off as you wish. And, of course, you can also use your favorite search engine with Avira Secure Browser — be it Google or a less data-hungry one.
Top tip for Mac users: Even though Avira Secure Browser is currently only available for Windows, you don’t have to miss out on online protection from Avira. Avira Browser Safety is a free browser extension that also includes web protection, an ad blocker, and anti-tracking features.
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