I can think of a few things you could type into Google that may get your IP address flagged, but there’s no way I’m going to try it for an article!
Fortunately, a woman did this for me as she discovered that there are four words if you type consecutively together on the search engine, then you are almost certain to have cops show up at your door.
You should always take care in what your Googling… even if it’s something innocent (Getty Stock Image)
Now, I know what you’re thinking, because I did the same – you’re trying to guess those words or what they could be related to… well, I don’t think you’ll get it.
It’s nothing sexual, if that helps narrow it down, and it’s not about children.
The incident took place in Long Island, New York, back in 2013 and the response to the curious Michele Catalano’s simple google search shocked her and her husband.
Hilariously, Catalano took to her blog to share what had happened. She wrote: “Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling.”
The search terms were Googled two days apart on her husband’s work laptop, and following the terror that was inflicted on New York just a decade earlier, it was a cause for concern for his employer.
A husband and wife discovered there were a few things you need to be careful about Googling together if you don’t want police raiding your home (Getty Stock Image)
It was flagged by IT staff and the decision was made to contact Suffolk County Police Department to report the strange activity coming from Catalano’s address.
Immediately a huge police presence arrived at their home in a bid to find evidence relating to terrorism.
So what did they search?
As mentioned earlier, the searches were made a matter of days apart – separate searches for ‘pressure cooker’ and ‘backpacks’ made someone incredibly antsy – presumably because they thought they were googling the ingredients to make a bomb.
So, if you don’t want police to show up at your door, don’t search ‘pressure cooker bomb’ alongside the word ‘backpack’.
There may well have been some animosity between the employee and his former work though, as Suffolk County police released a statement following the raid.
Unfortunately terrorists have been known to make bombs out of pressure cookers (Getty stock)
It read: “Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore-based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee.”
While it turned out to only be something as innocent as looking for a new pressure cooker and backpack, it left Catalano a little shook up.
She wrote on her blog: “Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list.”
Well, now you know, stay safe Googling!
