# I just did something stupid (posted fiction about terrorism) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016 "2016-03-14T22:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/1 "2016-03-14T22:24:53Z")
I foolishly copy+pasted a story-plot summary of my military thriller novel-in-progress into Google Translate, wanting to make use of some Google Translate features. Then I realized this means Google now is tracking a \*long \*block of text containing triggering words like “terrorist,” “ISIS,” “Mossad,” “MI5,” “Hamas,” “bin Laden,” “nuclear weapons,” “suicide bomber,” etc. Should I expect the FBI to knock on my door? Does Google Translate save all typed entries? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/2 "2016-03-14T22:46:48Z")
You just typed a lot of triggering words on the Internet. :eek: :smack: (backs away carefully) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/3 "2016-03-14T22:50:14Z")
> [@glee](#): > > You just typed a lot of triggering words on the Internet. :eek: :smack: > > (backs away carefully) Yes, but this isn’t a Google website itself. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/4 "2016-03-14T22:54:27Z")
Back in Usenet days, some posters added the word “plutonium” to all their posts, hoping to swamp NSA computers. :rolleyes: Google Translate uses _https_. What is expert opinion on whether NSA can read such traffic easily? ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/5 "2016-03-14T23:05:43Z")
_Does Google Translate save all typed entries?_ As a general rule, Google logs _everything_ they can possibly log. If you were signed in to a Google account at the time, then they know who you are. Otherwise, they probably logged your IP address and whatever ID they could get from your machine. But Google isn’t proactively looking for stuff to send to the FBI. The FBI would need to get a warrant to ask Google what they know about you. _Should I expect the FBI to knock on my door?_ No. Lots of people are writing about these things for lots of different reasons. Whatever you _publish_ online is out there, but just using the Google translate tool isn’t the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/6 "2016-03-14T23:09:14Z")
You should be safe … it’s not like you’re “materially participating” in terrorism, just advocating terrorism, and that’s not illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/7 "2016-03-14T23:10:02Z")
The worst possible outcome is that you’ll be seeing a lot of ads for suicide bomber vests. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/8 "2016-03-14T23:12:43Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Then I realized this means Google now is tracking a \*long \*block of text containing triggering words like “terrorist,” “ISIS,” “Mossad,” “MI5,” “Hamas,” “bin Laden,” “nuclear weapons,” “suicide bomber,” etc. You just typed the same thing into the Straight Dope. They’re more likely to be looking here… ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/9 "2016-03-15T00:13:04Z")
They can tell it is not an email or text message. FYI - a friend took a pocket knife into a social security office after 9/11 and they placed him on their “terrorist list”. They later decided they did not need to place people with pocket knifes on a terrorist list. These lists get to be too long, then somebody has some common sense and suggests they go after REAL terrorists! Forgetaboutit! ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/10 "2016-03-15T00:38:52Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Google Translate uses _https_. What is expert opinion on whether NSA can read such traffic easily? They can do it at the push of a button, if the Snowden revelations are to be [believed](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-the-n-s-a-cracked-the-web). > [@Ornery\_Bob](#): > > _Should I expect the FBI to knock on my door?_ > > No. Lots of people are writing about these things for lots of different reasons. Whatever you _publish_ online is out there, but just using the Google translate tool isn’t the same thing. You’d be surprised. It’s not that the FBI is knocking on the door of anyone who posts a bunch of keywords. But if you also traveled to Pakistan recently and you happen to have a Muslim name, it may well be part of the profile that determines whether you get secondary screening the next time you travel, or get a couple of agents asking for a routine interview. I had a client who was asked about the content of an email he sent fifteen years earlier when he returned to the country from travel in the MENA region. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/11 "2016-03-15T06:27:59Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Back in Usenet days, some posters added the word “plutonium” to all their posts, hoping to swamp NSA computers. :rolleyes: More than that. It was popular to have a sig that got appended to each message (exactly like sigs here), in which people would put a lengthy list of words of the sort that OP lists. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/12 "2016-03-15T13:10:51Z")
Go into your Google history and delete it. [https://history.google.com/history/](https://history.google.com/history/) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/13 "2016-03-15T13:30:29Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Go into your Google history and delete it. > > [https://history.google.com/history/](https://history.google.com/history/) Alternatively, take some masking tape and cover up the areas of your monitor where your Google history would show these results. ---
**Author:** ![Seren359](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@Seren359](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seren359)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/14 "2016-03-15T13:56:59Z")
Have you looked to see if there are any black cars parked on your street? Or helicopters flying over your house? These are the usual signs. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/15 "2016-03-15T16:23:28Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > More than that. It was popular to have a sig that got appended to each message (exactly like sigs here), in which people would put a lengthy list of words of the sort that OP lists. In Emacs, the command “[M-x spook](http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/spook.html)” would automatically generate a random list of said keywords. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/16 "2016-03-15T16:52:45Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > Alternatively, take some masking tape and cover up the areas of your monitor where your Google history would show these results. Don’t forget to try adjusting the monitor height and angle to make sure the results remain covered! ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/17 "2016-03-18T07:45:04Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > You’d be surprised. It’s not that the FBI is knocking on the door of anyone who posts a bunch of keywords. But if you also traveled to Pakistan recently and you happen to have a Muslim name, it may well be part of the profile that determines whether you get secondary screening the next time you travel, or get a couple of agents asking for a routine interview. I had a client who was asked about the content of an email he sent fifteen years earlier when he returned to the country from travel in the MENA region. This. Much like the auto-report for a $10k cash transaction that came up in the “how do I buy a car” thread, at worst it’ll be used as evidence against you if you get indicted for actually doing a terrorism. Assuming the OP isn’t a radical, the worst-case scenario is some NSA office flunkie gets the plot of the OP’s novel spoiled in the process of deciding that it was a false positive and the OP isn’t actually a threat to national security. At least I _hope_ they run all the Echelon hits past a human before going to the expense of sending large men in dark suits to knock on somebody’s door. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-did-something-stupid-posted-fiction-about-terrorism/749016/18 "2016-03-19T07:15:47Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I foolishly copy+pasted a story-plot summary of my military thriller novel-in-progress into Google Translate, wanting to make use of some Google Translate features. > > Then I realized this means Google now is tracking a \*long \*block of text containing triggering words like “terrorist,” “ISIS,” “Mossad,” “MI5,” “Hamas,” “bin Laden,” “nuclear weapons,” “suicide bomber,” etc. > > Should I expect the FBI to knock on my door? Does Google Translate save all typed entries? nah, not yet, and as has been at least implied, not the FBI, but the NSA, you have your own satellite now. How good are you with electronics and “faradaying” your home? plus, check your wrist watch and belt buckle, cell phone etc for hidden tracking devices/bugs