Sometimes when we don’t want people to know what we’ve been looking at on the internet, we launch incognito mode in our browsers, or alternatively we could just clear all browsing data including cookies, browsing history, and etc. However it seems that clearing browsing history could be potentially seen as an obstruction of justice.This is according to the FBI who recently arrested a certain Khairullozhon Matanov for obstruction of justice when all he did was clear his browsing history. So who is Matanov and why is his browsing history so important? Matanov is a former cab driver and was also the friend of Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev, the duo behind the Boston Marathon bombings.
According to Matanov, he ate dinner with the brothers on the night of the bombings but it was only when he saw his friends’ photos plastered across the internet and news that he knew what they have been up to. While he did make a police report claiming to know them, Matanov obscured a lot of the information he provided and tried to distance himself as much as possible.
All seemed well until at least a year later when the FBI arrested him after conducting extensive surveillance on his house. He was not charged for being involved in the bombing, but rather for obstructing justice. According to The Nation, “They charged him with four counts of obstruction of justice. There were three counts for making false statements based on the aforementioned lies and—remarkably—one count for destroying “any record, document or tangible object” with intent to obstruct a federal investigation.”
There was also a charge for deleting videos on his computer that may or may not have proved that Matanov had terrorist sympathies and for clearing his browsing data. For this Matanov could face up to 20 years in jail for the records-destruction charge alone.
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