With the August 4th AOL data leak and now Google releasing search data to the Brazilian government, many web surfers are up in arms.
Poisoning the Data Stream via Firefox Plugin", brought back to my attention a Firefox extension that I saw a while back that is being developed by Daniel C. Howe and Helen Nissenbaum. The extension is called TrackMeNot, and currently it works by periodically making random search queries to the popular search engines. From the site:
TrackMeNot runs in Firefox as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. It hides users' actual search trails in a cloud of 'ghost' queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles. As of version 0.4.x, TMN's static word list has been replaced with a dynamic query mechanism which 'evolves' each client (uniquely) over time, parsing the results of its searches for 'logical' future query terms with which to replace those already used.
My specific idea that I posted on threadwatch.org, prior to the release of TrackMeBack version 0.4.x, is to have a central server where when a user X does a search query, the query is stored and issued to other users to replicate the query as bogus searches. The queries of one user can be stored in sets so that bogus queries can be done in sets and mimic that user's particular search session; no need for any fancy algorithm.
If this "poisoning" of the data is successful, my prediction is that search engines will be forced to allow people to opt out of their tracking systems.