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Privacy Winning Search Engine War
amigoro writes "Privacy is emerging as the real winner of the Internet search engine war as companies aggressively compete with one another by offering stronger protections for user records, a report published today by the Center for Democracy and Technology concluded. The report notes that until recently, most of the major Internet search engines kept detailed and potentially personally identifiable records of their customers' searches indefinitely. But today the companies are trying to outdo each other in privacy protection by announcing steps to delete old user data, strip the personally identifiable information out of stored search records, and, in one case, give users the option to have all of their search records deleted."
expansion of privacy rights is needed for people as well as the reduction of rights for corporations. allowing the full deletion of records is a move in the right direction.
EVERYONE has something they've searched for that they don't want anyone finding out about and probably don't want advertisers knowing about especially. I mean really, anything from looking up diseases you might have to really obscure things or trying to find out information that "everyone" knows to something sexual to your purhcase histories to just about anything else. I can't think of any serious internet user who be okay with every search term they've ever typed seen by anyone else in the world at all.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
how do the search engines communicate these privacy options to the user? If it's not easy to opt-out, it won't matter.
One of the problems is that each search by itself likely isn't personally identifiable, nor is a single search harmful.
The problem lies when any company can start connecting you typing in "John Smith" (searching yourself), "webmail.myemployer.com" (accidental search vs. address bar), and "my little pony porn".
Privacy is emerging as the real winner of the Internet search engine war
No. Google has emerged as the winner. Why? Because they offer a good search engine product. The results are very, very likely to be relevant. No one else comes close. The average person doesn't know or care about privacy issues. But they do care about quick & easy searches.
The report notes that until recently, most of the major Internet search engines kept detailed and potentially personally identifiable records of their customers' searches for as indefinitely.
And in some countries, they are required by law to do exactly that.
But today the companies are trying to outdo each other in privacy protection by announcing steps to delete old user data, strip the personally identifiable information out of stored search records
And how do you know this? Do you have any real proof they do this aside from them saying so?
a report published today by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
This is just wishful thinking trying to get attention. Sort of like a Gartner report.
4. Your check is in the mail.
3. I won't come in your mouth
2. I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
1. We'll delete your personal information.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
How in the world is anybody going to verify that the data is actually being "shredded"? I don't believe this for a second.
What?
1. We'll delete your personal information.
Eh. I'm inclined to believe that, given how datacenter space ain't free and user data is a bit of a liability, they're happy to dump your data after a month or two. If they haven't aggregated it and sold it off to another company by then, they probably never will.
I think this is simply marketing spin on a sensible business decision: namely, someone realized they were getting everything they needed within hours or days.
Please help metamoderate.
I really REALLY doubt the "big winner" is privacy, as long as there is money to be made from knowing as much as possible companies will find a way.
No one is going to give up personal information thats worth billions of dollars in terms of market research and increasing profits for many industries.
That's funny, because I didn't notice it at all.
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