# Can Googling be dangerous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 26, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566 "2004-03-26T14:20:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iamme99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/57b2e6/32.png) [@iamme99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamme99)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/21 "2004-03-27T08:16:18Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > If the government chooses to use such information to act against you without evidence that your activities were related to some actual crime, they would be committing a crime themselves. They might do so, anyway. If your last name is Ayoub, or Habib, it is not unreasonable for you to assume that overzealous bureaucrats, including those holding the offices charged specifically with protecting your rights could well ignore the criminal nature of such government action. Interesting point about names. I wonder if people with middle-eastern names are going to or thing of changing them to something less revealing and more American sounding? Like, for instance, Jews and other immigrants did earlier in the last century? ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/22 "2004-03-27T14:17:43Z")
Michael McDermott’s online chat habits (he hung out in an explosives chat) were reported in the media and possibly used by the prosecution in his trial, certainly sundry computer records were (he researched how to fake insanity, and apparently didn’t bother to get rid of the information he’d collected before trying an insanity plea.) But you know, they didn’t bother him about any of that until after he shot 7 people. Now I just spent ten minutes googling McDermott, which shows an unhealthy interest in mass killings, so I guess if googling can be bad for you, I’m in trouble! My gut feeling is that they’d either need to be looking at users of specific websites you hit for some reason, or looking at you for some other reason, for your websurfing habits to be of interest to law enforcement agencies. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/23 "2004-03-27T14:33:43Z")
I was participating in a debate here a few months ago in which I needed some info on the first WTC bombing. So, I typed “Bomb World Trade Towers” into google to get the info I needed. Afterwards, I thought: Man, if the feds really are watching, I just did something really stupid. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/24 "2004-03-28T13:03:27Z")
Googling is nowhere near as dangerous as Graham’s Numbering… ---
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/25 "2004-03-28T23:59:49Z")
In terms of law and if googling for bomb-making ingredients are applicable in court: I would think that they would be just as applicable as if there is a record of the guy going to a demolitions expert. The problem is that it would be a pain to find that record, and then substantiate it in a court of law. While in my analogy, there would most likely be a video or something tangible, all we’d have in the googling case would be the history in the browser. IANAL, but I don’t think that it would hold up in court. As far as whether it is a good idea: It’s free speech, what can you do? I know that I have looked at the anarchist’s cookbook in the past, but only for reasons of curiosity. Are there people who will use it for bad? Yes. Are they gonna get the instructions anyway, whether or not they can find them online? Probably. Can we get rid of all of the instructions anywhere without going to full on fascism, government in control of everything? No. However, there is an inherent flaw in my above argument. It assumes that the person has intent to commit the crime and goes online searching for these instructions. But, does making these instructions available online make people more likely to commit these crimes? I don’t know, quite frankly. Does anyone? ---
**Author:** ![BookReader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BookReader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BookReader)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/26 "2004-03-29T04:22:38Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > You can’t defend your own rights unless you protect everyone’s rights. > Tris Too true, Tris. The right of one American should be the right of ALL Americans, regardless of race, creed, political affiliation or hair color. Too often, recently, it seems that the rights of the wealthy and powerful are in a whole different class than the rights of the common citizen. I suppose it’s “human nature” … but it’s still disheartening. I had some paranoid thoughts on the subject of web searching quite some time ago, and I spent a lot of time meditating on it. Eventually I came to this conclusion: I am just about as law-abiding a citizen as it is humanly possible to be, in this nation of too many laws. If some Great Unknown wants to come after me, I’m sure s/he can come up with something more incriminating than the search I did last night for “Glowing Fish Heads.” If _they_ want me, _they_ can get me, no matter how straight a line I walk. So I don’t think my Googling habits are worth worrying about. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/27 "2004-03-30T00:36:48Z")
> [@Jojo](#): > > There’s a difference between: > > 1. knowing how to make a bomb (simply possessing the knowledge with no intention of putting that knowledge into practice) > > 2. knowing how to make a bomb and intending to put that knowledge into practice in order to blow it up in an empty field just because you like pretty explosions > > 3. knowing how to make a bomb and intending to use that knowledge to make a weapon for use against other people or property > > 4. _actually_ making a bomb with no intention to use it > > 5. actually making a bomb and blowing it up in an empty field > > 6. actually making a bomb and using it as a weapon Anybody else here flashing on George Carlin’s routine on mortal sins? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566/28 "2004-03-30T00:43:26Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > I just read an article involving a woman whose [house got searched because of high electric bills;](http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040326-9999-news_7m26wrong.html) the cops were quite sure she had gro-lights in her closets, growin’ dope. > > Seek knowledge at your own risk. Hm, $200-300US electric bills. They would have a cow at some of my $400-600US electric bills=\ Grow lights my aunt fanny. Try heating a workroom in a barn with electric heat because you need to be out working on a project in the winter, and then running an electric kiln for the better part of a week=) And if you want to surf and otherwise comport yourself online annonymously, anonymiser dot com is one such site. Not afiliated, though I have run across it before and it has the repute of being honest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-googling-be-dangerous/236566.md?page=1)