Bing’s Search History via Proxy

My friend was telling me about this interesting tidbit people had found at his work when using Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Bing keeps a search history for you based on your external IP address. For most this won’t be a big deal but if you’re at work and going through a proxy, everybody will be sharing the same external IP address. This means you’ll have a shared search history on Bing and you’ll be able to see what others are searching for. At work, this might carry some surprises and greater risk. People might be searching for work-related things but they might also search for very non-work-related things…

Although it doesn’t appear to be a problem on my home network with a router and a single external IP, the proxy must be the key. You can view your search history on Bing by simply visiting http://www.bing.com/profile/history. With a proxy in place and people aware of this problem, you might get an almost conversational Search History that could look like this (and is a fair re-creation I’m told):

Being in the work environment, there are certain risks involved if you search for other things on work time. Some might involve a trip to HR or a firing. Even if you’re looking for other jobs around town, it might not be something you want your boss to see and they might preempt your leaving by firing you. In visiting you Search History, you can clear what will normally stick around for about 48 hours by clicking the Clear link under the Edit History section of the left side-bar. You can also turn history off by clicking its respective link.

You can also clear or turn off the search history from the left side-bar of your search results.

For more information about Bing’s Search History, I recommend reading their related Help page.

This is pretty interesting and just something to be aware of if you use Bing at work and search for anything the company might not like.