Googling These 4 Things Could Immediately Alert MA Law Enforcement

We Google everything. Playing around on the internet is second nature, and I'm using the accepted verb of "googling" to refer to any search engine.

While watching television, when we're at work, or while talking with friends, any time something pops into our heads that we have a question about, we beeline to a search engine.

The world is at our fingertips with educational information, fun facts, and intense research, as well as 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 international hackers or stateside right here in New Hampshire or Maine, Massachusetts law enforcement, the very company you work for, 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 as well as the Vice website.

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.

Neo-Nazi hate groups and other white supremacists and extremists hate groups are another example that could send up flares.

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.

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.

DARK WEB

Googling how to access the dark web, for example, is a red flag; again, even if you're just curious, it isn't something you want to mess around with.