[extropy-chat] internet search privatizer

[BillK]

On 9/6/06, spike wrote:
>
> Hey cool, this is an idea I posted a couple years ago.  Your privacy is
> protected by having a searchbot post a bunch of phony searches, hiding your
> real internet searches in piles of phony data:
>
>
> Internet Tool Generates Fake Searches to Protect Privacy
>
> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,211710,00.html
>
>

The Computer Security people don't think much of TrackMeNot.

Their main point is that it doesn't conceal your searches or anonymize
them, it just adds junk searches. If you search for 'underage goat
sex' then the NSA supercomputer will find it, regardless of how many
other searches you do.

All you get is some level of plausible deniability. 'It wasn't me, it
was TrackMeNot that did it'. But by then it will be too late. Your
computer will have been seized for forensic examination and your home
searched from top to bottom.

As I see it, the main point of TrackMeNot is to generate a lot of junk
traffic for search engines and send them a message that people don't
like them storing search logs and they should stop doing it.

Anonymizing searches properly is a whole separate subject, but a good start is
<http://www.blackboxsearch.com/>

BillK