Police Are Looking at Your Online Search History

The fourth amendment of the Constitution is supposed to protect Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. Up until the internet, that mostly meant searches and seizures of physical places. But now police are looking at your online search history through digital search history warrants. In this episode of America Uncovered, we look at how police are looking at your online search history, what problems this could cause, and whether it's legal under the US Constitution.

SUPPORT US:

SOCIAL:

[rigell]

What's hilarious is even with access to all this information police are still abysmal at preventing crime.

[JCOwens-zqfd]

The fact is almost everyone has searched things out of blind curiosity etc that can get them on these lists. I myself have searched all kinds of things that out of context & not knowing why may make someone wonder. This is the danger of this minority report future we are barreling head first into.

[RIDETHESUNSHINE]

“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” Ayn Rand

[bugenhagen]

Keyword warrants sound like thought crimes.

[agalah]

An interesting fact about Google Chrome is that all your searches go into a search history file on your PC. You can't stop that from happening. All of your searches go into a Chrome file that just gets bigger and bigger. What is interesting is that if you clear your browser history, the file does not change its size. It simply flags searches so you can't see them with standard tools. An investigator can still unpack that file. If you delete the file manually, then Chrome recreates a new empty one from a template. The new file will be small and begin to grow again.
"Private eyes
They're watching you
They see your every move..."

[etherealessence]

People have been saying America is a police state for years. Its getting harder and harder to argue against it now isn't it?

[someguy]

That’s why I use a VPN. Government ain’t gonna look at my hentai search history.

[Efforex]

As an internet user with ADHD, I can't imagine how many times I've been on a list of potential suspects due to these warrants.

[becauseitscurrentyear]

sounds like opening some ones mail or tracking their library usage,

[AvenEngineer]

So what you're saying is, someone could theoretically write a script that searches google automatically for a list of naughty words, then distribute that script openly, or surreptitiously across the internet...?

Boaty McBoatface will soon be a prime suspect in every major crime in America. Would hate to see the poor old gumshoes actually do detective work.

[Ggdivhjkjl]

A lot of authors should rightly be upset about this. Research is not a crime.

[Josh-bc]

I was talking to a guy and he says you know one day the government's going to come around looking for guns and when they do you're going to want to make sure that you've got one

[rylandtaylor]

"police are looking at your online search history"
this is every lonely mans worst nightmare

[EnforcementDronEd]

Google needs to get hit with a class action lawsuit

[wariodude]

Joke's on anyone tracking my search history. If anything I pity whoever does that, because they will probably be horrified at where my searches lead them to.

[nonamerequired]

In other news, the world is round, the sky is blue and this may have been a revelation oh I would say 20 years ago.

[scotthenrie]

They know I'm searching for “what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” 🤣🤪

[jeffreyhamilton]

If public employees can search these platforms for whatever they want doesn’t that make the platforms part of the public square?

[lookarabbit]

Remember when computers could just talk to each other over a phone line and our minds were blown?

[djdrack]

Profiling/False accusation/Raids/Warrants based on keywords = violation of freedom of the press, 4th amend, freedom of speech, freedom of expression.

If a keyword = what you're thinking about, profiling that = thoughtcrime.
...That term has NEVER been used in a story about tyranny. no sir-ee.