Never, Ever Google These Three Things Just for Fun or Curiosity

Googling and playing around on the internet is second nature. Our phones are our fifth limb. The world is at our fingertips with educational information, fun facts, and intense research as well as filled with pop culture, politics, news, the bizarre, the scary, and just endless content including the dark web.

Of course, with this power we relish, search engines have even more power tracking and recording our every keystroke and search. Our queries and interests for whatever reason have the potential to be accessed by anyone including hackers, law enforcement, companies, and who knows what other big brother.

READ ON: How to Erase the Info Google Has on You

These are the subjects you should never, ever Google for a variety of reasons according to the Cheapism website, and possibly common sense or experience.

ANYTHING ILLEGAL

Doesn't this go without saying? Haven't we all seen plenty of Law & Order or Dateline NBC episodes as well as Netflix documentaries where the bad guy is caught because of the internet search? Granted we all love that kind of capture.

Anyway, searching for illegal activities, substances, or explicit content can obviously put you at legal risk if law enforcement believes you're involved with illegal organizations. These searches can also expose your computer to viruses and even dangerous or harmful content in general.

RED FLAG KEYWORDS

Trying to find information about how to hack or build a bomb will flag you fast even if you're simply researching something. There are keywords that law enforcement agencies can monitor. Just casually having fun just to see what's out there could get you flagged for long-term monitoring and even placed on a government watchlist.

DISTURBING OR GRAPHIC CONTENT

This feels obvious but just remember that extremely graphic or disturbing images and videos maybe even inadvertently because of a somewhat sketchy Google search can lead you to illegal websites as well as viruses and other malicious computer programs.