Researchers from MIT and Digital 4th used Google Trends to study the use of sensitive search terms before and after 6 June 2013, when Edward Snowden first began to expose the extent of NSA surveillance. The researchers wanted to see if users search behavior might have shifted as people became aware of, and wary of, the US governments monitoring of searches. They found that the prevalence of terms that people think might get them in trouble with the government shrank not only in the US but in other countries as well.”]

