Is there such a thing as privacy online? Although I would like to think that there is privacy online, I am very skeptical. We can control what others see of our own habits and private lives by responsibly managing our "footprints" that we leave behind on such things as Blogs, FaceBook, Chats, and other social networks. However, many Internet Service Providers can be legally obligated to provide personal information such as search queries upon a government or a governmental agency request. In some countries, the ISPs are obligated to keep records up a specific number of days on all users. I am not aware of such laws in America. However, in America and Europe there have been murder convictions in which internet search histories were called into evidence for prosecution. From my readings, these particular convictions were appropriate, and the seeking of appropriate justice outweighed these criminal's loss of privacy. The criminals thought that by simply clearing their browser history on their computer, it would delete any record of them visiting a particular site. However, the investigators simply used the suspects computer IP address and cookies to reference with popular search engines. So can we expect and should we expect privacy while online? I believe that most users want and expect privacy. There has been a concern that some providers and search engines will sale search histories to the highest bidder. Perhaps an insurance company would be interested in your habits or interests. Read
"Google Anonymizing Search Records To Protct Privacy" for a very interesting article about how Google will actually be adding a level of privacy for its users.
On a fun note, watch the following You Tube video about FaceBook In Reality:
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