People just discovered that their internet provider keeps their search history after TikTok video went viral

A hilarious viral TikTok video encapsulates the emotions some people felt after discovering that internet service providers keep your search history long after you’ve deleted it.

The video, which was uploaded by @fiveheadmatt on the app, and was inspired by an original video from @vladdy_putin, shows a scene from the crime drama television series Breaking Bad.

“When you find out your wifi company keeps your search history permanently,” the caption read as Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), a DEA agent and brother in law to Walter and Skylar White (Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn, respectively) appears on the screen.

Schrader seems to be having a panic attack as he hops out of a van, trying to catch his breath.

Some people in the comments seemed pretty worried about this claim.

“Thi...th, this is a joke, right [?]” wrote a commenter.

“I’M GETTING LIFE IN PRISON,” wrote another commenter.

What on earth were they all searching for, we wonder?

Some people in the comments were still not scared, saying, “I don’t even give af no more” and “they can watch me at this point.”

But in a slightly less worrying turn of events, one TikTok viewer had this to say: “ISPs only store that info for 3 to 6 months. They don’t have the capacity and storage space for every user’s history for years.”

They’re right. ISPs generally eliminate files that are not needed for business matters such as fraud prevention, billing disputes, and network marketing.

Some companies do happen to alter this rule when they are contacted by police conducting investigations— known as data preservation.

The Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act is a federal law that regulates data preservation. Internet providers under this law are to retain records in their possession for 90 days “upon the request of a governmental entity”.

A Virtual Private Network can be helpful if you want to protect your privacy, as it shields your online activity from your ISP.

VPNs encrypt Internet traffic that runs to and from your devices and funnels it through an intermediary server, which means that your ISP or anybody that’s trying to dig up information against you, such as hackers, won’t be able to trace it.

VPNs also hide your IP address and replace it with another location point of your choosing.

And with that, although it’s not immediate, your search history does get deleted. So take a deep breath, you probably won’t be “going down in flames” anytime soon.