Google searches & key words

[Deleted User]

Can someone clear something up? I was discussing with a colleague about a reported individual in the local newspaper that claimed he was investigated by an innocent word he used as a search. 

Do google actually sit there and look at every search and key word, as my opinion is they wouldn’t have the resources to do this as millions of searches must occur daily? 

My colleague said that’s true but all mention of illegal activity, concerning searches and specific key words are reported to the police? 

What actually happens? It’s hard to believe someone was investigated over a key word. 

[Deleted User]

A link to the news article would be really useful background information to get the context to such a story.

I don't think Google trigger any police activity based on search history, it is more likely that some other offence was suspected and Google search data was requested by the police as part of an investigation which then provided enough evidence to either arrest / interview etc.

Although in answer to your question "do Google sit there and look at every search and keyword" then clearly nobody would actually "sit there", it would be so easy to use a computer report to detect specific searches if they so wished and link them to an IP address with minimal effort.

Having said that, I don't think there is any crime in putting any search term into Google, it is what you do after that in terms of accessing / distributing data that could be a crime.

And of course it can become secondary evidence. I can Google "how to dispose of a body" right now and nobody will knock on my door, but if I'm later suspected of murder then that search will become material evidence.

Farway

As above, probably specific words would trigger a report which although not a crime could land you on a watch list, terrorism related groups or equipment for instance. Although it would be desperate potential criminal who searched for "Dummies guide to robbing a bank", "Haynes bomb making" etc

I have some recollection where searches for certain books was part of the evidence used in court

Neil_Jones

MarkN88 said:

Can someone clear something up? I was discussing with a colleague about a reported individual in the local newspaper that claimed he was investigated by an innocent word he used as a search. 

Do google actually sit there and look at every search and key word, as my opinion is they wouldn’t have the resources to do this as millions of searches must occur daily? 

My colleague said that’s true but all mention of illegal activity, concerning searches and specific key words are reported to the police? 

What actually happens? It’s hard to believe someone was investigated over a key word. 

It will be more than just typing "how to blow up a building" into Google.

Typing such a thing into Google is not illegal.  Its probably not a wise thing to do but that on its own is not going to earn you 20 years residence at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

It will be part of a much wider initiative from the police as part of preventive measures - sometimes they get tipped off by people who have completed training programmes such as https://www.gov.uk/government/news/act-awareness-elearning for example.

But normally going back through what you've googled prior to deciding/actually blowing somewhere up is done as part of the portfolio of evidence the police build when the case goes to court.  There are occasions though when Google gets involved, like this one for a cyber attack:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/26/1021318/google-security-shut-down-counter-terrorist-us-ally/

But generally a lot of time this sort of activity isn't actually done through Google or search engines.  As that's trackable.  Far more secure to make use of other technologies like disposable mobile phones, Whatsapp and other various "tricks".  Not completely secure as far as law enforcement is concerned, but definitely more so than typing into Google.

coffeehound

GCHQ probably have the means to build up a score against individual IP addresses, or perhaps identified individuals once the score reaches a certain level.  Although this was halted in the wake of Snowden's disclosures, it probably started up again once that had blown over.  There were a lot of jobs for networking and storage experts with current SC status in Cheltenham in the years following.

Neil_Jones

coffeehound said:

GCHQ probably have the means to build up a score against individual IP addresses, or perhaps identified individuals once the score reaches a certain level.  Although this was halted in the wake of Snowden's disclosures, it probably started up again once that had blown over.  There were a lot of jobs for networking and storage experts with current SC status in Cheltenham in the years following.

Considering a lot of IPs are actually assigned to routers and networks and businesses and whatever else the IP on its own isn't particularly helpful.

Of course some establishments like council/libraries/other public internet and whatever else (public wifi) will use their own logging methods and they'll know who was using the internet at that point as it'll be cross referenced (usually if you get onto "adult" sites at the library it's ripe for your being banned for a while, and I remember once somebody pulled some "adult material" up at the library and it was like moths to a flame, shall we say in terms of computer usage )

For people at home its more difficult, but the ISP will know who was logged on on what IP at what time and Google almost certainly knows your IP (not difficult to find out), so again just a case of cross referencing.

[Deleted User]

To be honest I’d have to try and find the online article as we were reading it in a paper version. 

It was using examples like, someone searching “do google track my data and pass it to the police” would make google suspect you had something to hide or another “if I watch !!!!!! and someone under 18 then appears what would happen” and it said google might suspect you have. It was like hypertherical questions. 

Then underneath it used a proper snippet from someone saying they were looking up drug side effects which led him to be investigated for suspected drug offences. 

It’s just one of the free newspapers though, so probably all misinformed and bad examples to use. 

I couldnt see why key words or phrases would mean google think you have actually done it so then flag it. Can you imagine how much flagging would get done. 

That’s why I wanted to see how it works, although I’m not very technically minded so Ip addresses etc go beyond me. 

Brie

I thought that it was a well known fact that Google, Facebook etc track what you and I do individually which by using their computer whizzy algorithms allows them to bounce back suitable (or not) ads thus helping them generate massive amounts of revenue.  

And these algorithms have been the topic of some discussion between the techie types and various police agencies who want to use them to better track all of our errant behaviour.  

Besides - they always manage to track the baddies using techniques like this on CSI and similar programmes so it must be true.

Neil_Jones

Brie said:

Besides - they always manage to track the baddies using techniques like this on CSI and similar programmes so it must be true.

CSI would have you believe you can take a photo from miles away and be able to zoom in on somebody in said photo to the point where you can see all the hair up their nose.  Also:  Take a  tiny 2x2" pixelated picture that looks like an explosion in a Lego factory shove it through magnification and oh look, he has a freckle on the end of his nose. 

Fiction isn't always an indicator of what's plausible in reality.  Sometimes it is, but often it isn't.

[Deleted User]

Sounds like the information in the paper was misleading.

Laz123

As already mentioned, GCHQ have sophisticated software which rings up certain phrases and words and keeps track of those sources but it is finely tuned enough to stop tracking them if those suspicious idioms lead nowhere further to terrorism or crimes. I would imagine social media has similar software.