INSANE Google search flaw + How to spy on your friends

[teacherone]

My wife and I decided to erase our search histories today - we have never done this before.

When we went into her account we found search information dating back to 2006!

We started flipping through it, but became confused when we noticed searches that we obviously had never entered.

Our first theory was - "Did a family member use our computer while visiting?" We began identifying searches to certain family members...

Then it hit us - My wife had checked her G-Mail account on a family member's computer and had not logged out. For the last 6 years this family member's search terms have been stored under my wife's search history.

We continued flipping through the search terms and found things....which probably we shouldn't.

frightened, we stopped, and clicked delete.

So... this is the easiest way to spy on someone's searching activity. Use their computer, log into a google service and don't log out.

Their activity will be stored under YOUR search history, accessible through any computer anywhere in the world- all you have to do is log in and check.

Warning... NOW YOU KNOW WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO LOG OUT! Perhaps someone is reading your search history even as we speak.

[JK/SEA]

meh...mines all porn sites. I'm not worried...lol

[specsaregood]

Warning... NOW YOU KNOW WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO LOG OUT! Perhaps someone is reading your search history even as we speak.
Even better suggestion is to get used to using the "In Private" feature of the web browser. In IE it is under "tools" -> In Private. I'm sure it is in Firefox somewhere but I don't use that POS. anyways, it creates a temporary browser session that as soon as you close it clears all cache, cookies, information everything. you don't have to remember to logout, it will destroy it for you.

[V3n]

Chrome has the "New Incognito Window" - but Chrome is Google - so you're probably fracked anyway!!

[ZanZibar]

Well the good news is that if it's that open, you can have plausible deniability about your search history.

[BuddyRey]

Startpage.com > Google. :D

[V3n]

Startpage.com > Google. :D

That looks better than Duckduckgo. Thanks!!

[teacherone]

How many times have we heard a lawyer proclaim that someone had "searched for X before doing X".

This can be easily falsified as thousands of search terms have been entered into our records which we have never actually made.

[onlyrp]

if she didnt log out of gmail, she gave THEM more to look at then vice versa. I much prefer to show my searches than my emails, but that's me.

[onlyrp]

also, Google at worst makes it accessible to the same person over different computers if logged in, otherwise anybody who doesn't know how to delete his history and searches will have his computer free for all if they ever use it.

[teacherone]

if she didnt log out of gmail, she gave THEM more to look at then vice versa. I much prefer to show my searches than my emails, but that's me.

the thing is, they don't use GMAIL- they don't have GMAIL accounts.

They've been searching for six years with an open GMAIL cookie logging their every move and reporting it to us under my wife's search history.

[evilfunnystuff]

That's pretty messed up.

[LibForestPaul]

So, will your wife continue to voluntarily use google or not? ;)

[youngbuck]

Startpage.com > Google. :D

Yea, I just started using it and regret not starting when I first heard about it.

[onlyrp]

the thing is, they don't use GMAIL- they don't have GMAIL accounts.

They've been searching for six years with an open GMAIL cookie logging their every move and reporting it to us under my wife's search history.

I get that part, my point was, luckily they don't seem to know how to use gmail, or have one themselves, or else they could be reading your wife's email account, which I personally think is worse than them exposing their search history to you (but it varies by person).

[Boss]

There is a great point being made here that I acknowledge and am grateful that you raised awareness for it.

But I would like to clarify something for the OP:


"Then it hit us - My wife had checked her G-Mail account on a family member's computer and had not logged out. For the last 6 years this family member's search terms have been stored under my wife's search history."

Although its theoretically possible that for 6 years your family member never shut down their computer, its pretty unrealistic to assume so. If they did shut down their computer, then your wife would have been logged out of gmail. I don't know for certain how long "GOOGLE" accounts stay logged in (these accounts are a part of gmail accounts, but are not identical with a gmail account), but I highly doubt that someone stayed logged into your wife's google account for 6 years. I would exercise some skepticism here, especially if something you found in the search results would be damaging to you had your wife been searching it.