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There's a pretty good FAQ with info and suggestions regarding search engines at Wired.com:
How to Avoid Search Engine SnoopsQUOTE
Cookie management helps. Those who want to avoid a permanent record should delete their cookies at least once a week. Other options might be to obliterate certain cookies when a browser is closed and avoid logging in to other services, such as web mail, offered by a search engine.
Well, I think most of the CCleaner users on this site shouldn't have any problem with that!
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a man convicted of killing his wife in part because authorities found he'd searched for "neck," "snap," "break" and "hold" on Google
OK, that should not be the reason that he is guilty. If the authorities are going to start taking random words that people search for, and then start pinning crimes on them, that is not good.
For example, lets say I'm a student and I'm doing a report on Cheez-whiz, so I search for that. Then a couple weeks later on, I want to get a shirt from South Pole (the company, not the place). And then, 2 years later, someone gets strangled with a South Pole shirt covered in Cheez-whiz. They search my computer and, oh look! At random times in the past he has searched for both South Pole
and Cheez-whiz! He's our guy! That is not evidence in my book, and I don't want that to become a factor in their being sent to prison.
I mean, if they had found a letter on his computer saying that he was going to kill this lady, sure, that is evidence. But taking random cookies on his computer and saying that is evidence is just a load of crap!