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God Watches You Google
- 02/23/10
- 18
In 2006, AOL made an epic misjudgment. As part of a research project headed by Dr. Abdur Chowdhury, AOL made available to the public a massive amount of search data, releasing the search history of 650,000 users over a 3-month period. That totaled some twenty one million searches. Before releasing the data they anonymized it, stripping away user names and replacing them with numbers. Yet because of the nature of the data, people very quickly linked real people to abstract numbers—a massive violation of privacy and confidentiality. Within days AOL realized its mistake and withdrew the data. But already it had been copied and posted elsewhere on the internet where today it lives on in infamy.
Some searches were dark and disturbing, others unremarkable in every way, and still others strangely amusing. Often you could reconstruct a person’s life, at least in part, from what they searched for over a period of time. Consider this user:
shipping pets 2006-03-01 16:36:48
does ata ship pets 2006-03-01 17:10:35
shipping pets 2006-03-01 21:33:30
continental.com 2006-03-01 21:34:53
pet shipping 2006-03-01 21:35:11
cat with broken bones diarreah and looks like blood 2006-03-04 03:14:52
broken bones in cat2006-03-04 03:31:53
cat has broken bones above base of tail vet said it will heal on its own 2006-03-04 03:32:53
cat broken bones and diarreah 2006-03-04 03:58:24
do cats menstrate 2006-03-04 14:09:09
cat health 2006-03-04 14:10:22
cat has broken bones wasn’t bleeding before but now is and now she can’t defecate too 2006-03-04 14:16:35
mucous blood diarreah in cat 2006-03-04 14:22:47
The moral of this particular story seems to be that you don’t want to pay for cheap shipping for your new cat.
This AOL data raised an endless number of questions and concerns. Primarily, it brought awareness to the fact that search engines know you better than you might like. Actually, they probably know you better than you know yourself in some ways—you forget what you search for; they don’t. We may like to think that our searches are just searches, harmless and pointless inquiries known only to us. But the fact is that search engines keep all of that data and they keep it forever. Google has recently begun to strip personal identifiers from the data after a certain time period has elapsed, but from the AOL searches we can see that this is sometimes still not enough.
Here is an AOL user whose searches tell a sad story (for sake of space I have stripped out a large number of searches):
body fat calliper 2006-03-01 18:54:10
curb morning sickness 2006-03-05 08:53:23
get fit while pregnant 2006-03-09 18:49:37
he doesn’t want the baby 2006-03-11 03:52:01
uou’re pregnant he doesn’t want the baby 2006-03-11 03:52:49
online degrees theology 2006-03-11 04:05:24
online christian colleges 2006-03-11 04:13:33
foods to eat when pregnant 2006-03-12 09:38:02
baby names 2006-03-14 19:11:10
baby names and meanings 2006-03-14 20:01:27
physician search 2006-03-23 10:20:04
best spa vacation deals 2006-03-27 20:04:09
maternity clothes 2006-03-28 09:28:25
pregnancy workout videos 2006-03-29 10:01:39
buns of steel video 2006-03-29 10:12:38
what is yoga 2006-03-29 12:17:31
what is theism 2006-03-29 12:18:30
hindu religion 2006-03-29 12:18:56
yoga and hindu 2006-03-29 12:32:05
is yoga alligned with christianity 2006-03-29 12:33:18
yoga and christianity 2006-03-29 12:33:42
abortion clinics charlotte nc 2006-04-17 11:00:02
greater carolinas womens center 2006-04-17 11:40:22
can christians be forgiven for abortion 2006-04-17 21:14:19
can christians be forgiven for abortion 2006-04-17 21:14:19
roe vs. wade 2006-04-17 22:22:07
effects of abortion on fibroids 2006-04-18 06:50:34
abortion clinic charlotte 2006-04-18 15:14:03
symptoms of miscarriage 2006-04-18 16:14:07
water aerobics charlotte nc 2006-04-18 19:41:27
abortion clinic chsrlotte nc 2006-04-18 21:45:39
total woman vitamins 2006-04-20 16:38:16
engagement gifts 2006-04-20 16:57:04
engagement rings 2006-04-20 16:58:37
mom’s turning 50 2006-04-20 17:51:13
high risk abortions 2006-04-20 17:53:49
abortion fibroid 2006-04-20 17:55:18
benefits of water aerobics 2006-04-20 23:25:50
wedding gown styles 2006-04-26 19:37:34
recover after miscarriage 2006-05-22 18:17:53
marry your live-in 2006-05-27 07:25:45
This woman goes from searching about pregnancy, to realizing that the father does not want to keep the baby, to researching abortion clinics, to researching whether she can, according to her faith, choose abortion, to dealing with a miscarriage. And at the end of it all, life goes on and she seems ready to be married.
What is so amazing about these searches is the way people transition seamlessly from the normal and mundane to the outrageous and perverse. They are, thus, an apt reflection of real life. The user who is in one moment searching for information about a computer game may in the next be looking for the most violent pornography he can imagine. Back and forth it goes, from information about becoming a foster parent to the search for incestual pornography. One user went from searching for preteen pornography to searching for games appropriate for a youth group. Others, spurned lovers, sought out ways of exacting revenge while still others grappled with the moral implications of cheating on their spouses. These searches are a glimpse into the hearts of the people who made them.
This all raises two great questions in my mind. First, would I be prepared to have my searches revealed to the public? There are searches that may be private but not immoral—I may be looking for information on a medical condition, for example. That information might be embarrassing but I could remain unashamed before God. But there may also be searches that are private precisely because they are immoral. In such case shame would be the proper reaction. The second question is whether I would be prepared to address my search history with God. What would I say to him if he were to ask me about the things I have gone looking for online. Could I tell him with confidence that what I have sought is an indication of a heart that is aligned with his purposes? Or would I have to confess that my searches point to a heart that is drawn to what is evil and perverse?
While the search engines may never forget, I am grateful that God does forget. He forgets the sins of those who turn to him and confess those sins. Psalm 103 promises that “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” In Hebrews 8:12 God promises “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” There is virtue in forgetting.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (18)
What a poignant glimpse of reality and the sad plight of the human condition. The truth is, all of us have our own desperate and sometimes sad and twisted searches hidden in the closet of our hearts. Thanks for cracking open the closet door.
Wow! Wonderful post Tim. Your comment, “What is so amazing about these searches is the way people transition seamlessly from the normal and mundane to the outrageous and perverse”, was most telling. I agree with Barry’s comments above, this cracks open the door to show us what’s hidden in our hearts all the time. Revealing, troubling, convicting.
Searches are no more than our thoughts typed out on a computer screen. Even if someone never uses Google, all these mental searches are just as available to God as those typed into a search box. I suppose these thoughts become a bit more tangible and real evidences of our standing (fallen) before a Holy God when held up to the scrutiny of others. But we are no more (or less) culpable for having typed them than having thought them.
This is a strong reminder of our greatest need. It’s not whether or not to have an abortion, or where to find a good gym, or what to do about a dying cat. It’s sin. This reminder just puts our sin in writing for us to see.
I wonder if this would be a good deterrent to sin? Next time we have a tempting thought, type it out, in gory detail, in our word processor, walk away for a few minutes, and then come back and read what we were thinking. This might make clear what God meant in Genesis 6:5. It would certainly lay bare the fallen state of our souls.
Thank you Tim, your words drove me to confession.
To go along with that Doc said, there is an important difference between a thought and a “[thought] typed out on a computer screen”—the latter can be pursued, and can lead to things one’s mind might never have imagined itself. My own depravity, as it were, can be (and is) reinforced by the depravity of others. I may never have thought of what someone else have. But simply because I typed my thoughts into Google, I’m not thinking along different lines, where I wouldn’t have normally gone. That’s not to say that I’m justifying any sort of sinful thoughts. But only attempting to illustrate the inherent dangers of giving in, or pursuing that “curiosity”.
And I have to say, that second search history grieved me. Because I think to our different extents we may all be something like that… Yet life goes on.
I don’t think that assumptions about these searches are necessarily accurate because people do searches for information that might be helpful for someone in their life, or because they’ve heard about an issue in the news, etc. We don’t always do searches based on our own situation. And it’s easy to start searching for something and go off on a tangent and you end up reading information about something completely unrelated to what you were looking for!
What Liz said was what I was thinking. It’s quite likely that the person who was searching for “preteen pornography” and then games for the youth group WAS up to no good. But it is JUST POSSIBLE that he was researching something related to pornography, or preteens using pornography, or something like that. It doesn’t do to assume connections between things — that gets you into slander territory real fast when you don’t even mean to be.
That’s beside the main point, because where or not person X was doing a particular evil search, the points of the post are still valid, but it’s worth issuing the reminder that two things juxtaposed next to each other don’t always mean what you think they might mean, because it’s easy for any of us to forget that.
Way to justify the sin Liz! lol, jkHonestly, I agree with Liz. Although I think this article is very enlightening and probably gives a very accurate picture of the mental state of a lot of Christians and how most people secretly think they “get away” with a secret sin via the anonymity of search engines. I don’t know that this article takes into account the many households with only one computer and multiple users of that same computer. That being said I do not wish to take away from this very well written article. The points of this article are very valid and need to be addressed in many lives. Let us all strive for Holiness and purity because there are no secrets before the eyes of God. Live life Coram Deo (BEFORE THE FACE OF GOD
Aside: The whole modern Western notion of privacy and privacy rights seems foreign to the gospel community that Scripture calls us to.
Amazing post. Eye opening. Shows the corruption of the human heart and our desperate need for salvation and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.
If you’d like to see the history that Google has on your searches, you can go to http://www.google.com/history/ and log in. I found it pretty interesting to track my searches over the past few years.
Making it my goal to de-clutter my heart, mind and soul by not spending so much time on the internet instead filling my heart, mind and soul loving God, His Word, and His people. This is a goal and I’m not always successful, but with the Lord’s help I press on. Thank you for this post, very eye-opening.
Very interesting post Tim.
I find it also interesting to see how web browsers are attempting to assure users of privacy. For example, Firefox’s option to “start private browsing” and Google’s browser, Chrome, providing users with the option to browse “incognito”.
Of course, if you use these options it is harder for people who use your computer to see what you’ve been browsing, but the search engines still need to know (and not least of all, so does God).
I recently had startpage.com recommended to me. They have strict committments to erase searcher data. So far I have found it satisfactory, if just a bit slower than Google.
I also just read about the search engine Cuil (apparently it’s the largest search engine in the world). And, related to this post, they don’t store any user data.
I just cleared my history! Ha, just kidding.
Great post, Tim!
Seanwww.oneheartoneflesh.com
Thanks for this
Steve (#9) said: “Aside: The whole modern Western notion of privacy and privacy rights seems foreign to the gospel community that Scripture calls us to.”
I’m sure the KGB (and the Department of Homeland Security) would agree with you.
I can’t hide from God, but give me privacy rights against man every time.