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IE7 Google might be tracking you
Sep. 23, 2007, 10:41 PM
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IE7 Google might be tracking you
I like the Google search bar in the top right corner of IE; but what I have been reading about Google's tracking, I wanted to see if I could make registry changes to use Scroogle. A friend and I were working on this today and we discovered in the registry where this is referenced, it has a unique identifier number for Google.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes]

You will find 1 or more sub-key folders under the SearchScopes key. It's the name of these sub-key folders that are unique. My first subnet portion of the number is '89A90BE9' and if you check, you will notice that yours is different. (Open them up and look at the string 'DisplayName' key to find Google's) I'm wondering if those who keep java, activex and cookies turned on, does this unique ID get passed on to Google some how? Otherwise, why would it need to be unique? It doesn't hook anywhere else within the registry except it is listed under HKEY_USERS also. To find it, search using the first subnet portion of the number but uncheck 'match whole string only'.

To make sure that it didn't hook any where, I searched first and then changed both string keys to Google. Opened IE and used Google and everything worked fine. There must be some reason this is unique. Any one why?

Does anyone know the parameters of Scroogle search? I tried using Siamesecat's in another post (Scroogle search URL filter) but this didn't work.

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi/search?q=\h

I tried it by removing the '\h' but that didn't work either. It would be nice to use the search box with Scroogle. I know you can add it by going to MS website but that imports an xml file and who knows what is in that. (probably another unique ID) It's best to set it up manually if it's possible.

SeaLily
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IE7 Google might be tracking you - SeaLily - Sep. 23, 2007 10:41 PM
RE: IE7 Google might be tracking you - SeaLily - Sep. 24, 2007, 02:00 AM

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