How Personal & Internet Security Work

Chapter 5. The Dangers of Internet Search

Searching the Internet seems such an innocuous act. Type in your search terms, see the results, click to a few pages, and you’re done. What in that process could possibly invade your privacy or endanger your security?

In the wrong hands, plenty. Consider every step of what you do during that process. First, you type in a search term(s) and send it to a search site. Some sites have ways of keeping track of your terms by keeping them in a database and matching them to cookies or logged-in users, so now, the site knows one of your interests.

Next, you view the results and click those that interest you. The site ...