# Does looking for identity theft put you at risk of identity theft?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-looking-for-identity-theft-put-you-at-risk-of-identity-theft/614296>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 29, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-looking-for-identity-theft-put-you-at-risk-of-identity-theft/614296 "2012-02-29T00:16:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-looking-for-identity-theft-put-you-at-risk-of-identity-theft/614296/1 "2012-02-29T00:16:18Z")

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I heard an ad for an identity-protection company today, where, among other things, they promise to search the interwebs for any sign of your social security number or credit card number.

Seems like a good thing. Except, of course, that any time you do a search, Google et al record that search and use it to enhance future searches.

So, does simply typing your SSN into a search engine to see if it comes up somewhere online put you at greater risk of your SSN being discovered by someone else? I assume that if you’re the only one searching for your SSN, then it’s less likely to come up as an autocompleted search term for someone else, and you are (presumably) not entering your SSN _and_ your full name in a search, but still… is there a risk?

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**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-looking-for-identity-theft-put-you-at-risk-of-identity-theft/614296/2 "2012-02-29T00:48:04Z")

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I don’t think they do any searches. As I understand it, they monitor sites that law enforcement knows are exchanges for stolen identities to see if there are any matches. Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but I think that’s how it works.

I use the service Costco provides and before that had the Equifax service and both say they provide this sort of monitoring so I don’t think you need to worry. Cheers.

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**Author:** ![ExcitedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ea5d25/32.png) [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-looking-for-identity-theft-put-you-at-risk-of-identity-theft/614296/3 "2012-02-29T13:38:42Z")

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I wouldn’t search for your own SSN. It connects your web history to you SSN, and if there is a leak of search data(it’s happened before), it will be identifiable as you. If someone gets your gmail password, they will also have access to your google history. Also, that search is probably cached on your hard drive.

If you’ve already done this, clear your browser history and [wipe your google web history](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/how-remove-your-google-search-history-googles-new-privacy-policy-takes-effect).