Search history is recorded?

steamjetjoe

Hello all,

I have noticed for some time now that If I search for something in google, Ill recieve an email soon afterwards with the word I searched for in it. Example: yesterday I searched the word '' military'' & today in my inbox was a mail from Sender : VA , Title :Were you in the military *********, you could qualify for a blah blah blah

Whats the name of this problem?
How can I stop it?

Thanks
Joe

AARRRGH

It's either a coincidence, or you have spyware monitoring your searches.

Install and run "spybot search & destroy".

steamjetjoe

Thank you, Ill look into that.

probe

There is a secure google lookalike website that operates on donations rather than selling information on your searches:

https://ssl.scroogle.org/

The search results are almost identical to google's.

If your PC is infected with a keystroke logger, the https won't stop it from passing on your search keywords and other stuff. If malware removal software doesn't find something, you can always re-install your operating system - wiping your hard disk and reformatting it. You also need to check and see if someone has installed a hardware logger if others would have access to your pc.

There was a time when some of the free email companies were selling their customers' email addresses to anyone who would pay to "monetize" their provision of free email services. I don't know if it is still going on. If the spam is sent directly over a peer to peer link to the email provider's own servers, it is very easy for them to manage. Far less expensive to handle than spam coming over the wider internet. These email providers also run search engines. It is a small jump from selling these services to selling search results. They are generally based outside the EU and are not subject to privacy laws.

In any event if there was someone interested in selling something by email to anyone who had searched for "military", the search/email provider wouldn't have to disclose your identity to the spammer. They would just need to send the pre-written spam automatically based on the keyword used! It is very little different from selling google keywords in search results......

Tim M-U

You might check the privacy center on google (if thats what you use), they might be information there to help you deal with this issue: http://www.google.ie/intl/en/privacy.html ..

I hope this helps!