To be or not to be co-infected

Abstract

So if you use a publicly available computer to access your cloud service, your search history may be left behind, showing where you've been web surfing. To be safe, don't log in to search engines or use their tools; block Google from placing cookies in your computer; regularly change your IP address; use a privacy app that deletes all search information when you're done; don't run searches using personal information - if you Google yourself, Google will correlate searches with your name; run sensitive searches, if you must, from a public hot spot that does not require you to log in; if your own Internet service provider (ISP) has a search engine (e.g., Comcast) don't use it - your ISP already knows your IP address, so if you use its search engine, it can correlate your IP address to your searches and build a rather comprehensive profile about you. Using peer-to-peer software involves some special considerations, too. In United States v. Eadeau, No. 09-4002 1 , 2010 WL 1427523 (D. Mass. April 7, 2010), the police remotely downloaded files from the defendant's computer to use as evidence of his possession of child pornography. The defendant moved to quash, arguing the police had conducted a warrantless search of the defendant's Gigatribe network, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. (Gigatribe is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that allows users to share computer files with other users in their network.) The court referenced other courts' holdings that "users of peer-to-peer software, such as LimeWire, do not have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the computer they use to run the software," noting that "anyone who installs and uses filesharing software is opening his computer to anyone else with the same freely available program." One way to avoid the hazards associated with the newest technologies is to wait until they aren't so new. You don't need to be a complete Luddite - just operate on the if-it's-not-broke-don't-fix-it principle. (Saves money, too.)