Ok a while ago AOL inadvertently leaked a whole bunch of search queries submitted by its users, along with the user id of those who made the searches. This represents not just a massive compromise of user privacy by AOL, it also shows that much of what one does onlines does leave a permanent trail.
Think about it for a second. Every single thing you have done online, has been logged somewhere by a private company. Even if the company itself is scrupulous, they may be forced by the government to turn over their records under special circumstances, or they may fall prey to malicious hackers or plain human error. Google, for example, have recently came under a great deal of criticisim for submitting to the government's requests to block and censure the search results of queries from within the country, limiting the free flow of information. Whatever has happened to your much vaunted "Do No Evil" credo, Google?
An analogy would be like instead of the phone company merely having records of all the numbers you called and which called you, they are able to record down every single conversation you make. Would you be willing to accept the risk that all your conversations could be revealed to the whole world as a result of this monitoring?
SomethingAwful has taken the liberty of analysing some of the leaked search logs, sorted out by user ids, and showcasing the more hilarious/depraved search histories.
In the meantime, there are steps one can take to protect their personal privacy, at least for their searches done on google.com. Its a very roundabout method, but hey its a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Yeah I know not everyone is as paranoid as I am. Just in case!
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