Google’s decision to make its search logs anonymous after 18 to 24 months is big news today, reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, among others. Up until now Google and other search engines have kept logs linking search terms with specific computers and browsers indefinitely.
Privacy advocates complain that Google is still not going far enough to protect the information it collects on visitors and the searches they make. Meanwhile, the Morris County, New Jersey Daily Record has the strange story of a woman on trial for shooting her husband to death two days after doing Google and MSN searches on the words "How To Commit Murder."
The IRS is reminding online tax filers to beware of IRS look-alike phishing sites. North Carolina’s attorney general has issued a warning about new phishing scams aimed at members of the military. Microsoft is investigating a possible vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 that could help crooks launch phishing scams.
A sure sign online that online video is growing up, spam has arrived. Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about how visitors to video sharing sites like YouTube that have nothing to do with what they are really searching for.