WashPost: Search Is Scary

From the WashPost, via the Straits Times, comes this instance of scaremongering: “Your secrets aren’t safe – from the search engines.” A casual reader might conclude that somehow search engines can scan your hard drive and tender your private information to anyone. But in fact, the point is, some people (and more often, companies/universities) are dumb enough to put the wrong thing online, and there is a subculture of folks who make a sport (or a business) of finding these documents (ie excel spreadsheets with credit card numbers). “It is all legal” the paper warns omminously, “using the world’s most powerful Internet search engine.” Sigh. Reminds me of early coverage of the net itself.