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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."
I haven't actually looked, but I'm POSITIVE that Booble is leading the way here.
The Schwartz space ain't from Spaceballs.
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.
I sure as hell don't want ALL of my searches available to anyone...
"Thank you for using Stop-n-Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008"
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.
I just happen to be an internet user and I thought the google was the only search engine.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
Except that most of these companies are merely claiming to do so, we have no idea what is actually being kept either due to internal policy or some sort of government interaction. I would not put it past the current justice dept to force all these companies to publicly claim to have removed data while privately making it available to relevant 3 letter agencies.
In a stunning finale Privacy has defeated both Corporate Greed, and Governmental Curiosity in a come-from-behind victory. Although Privacy is usually the one approached from behind by the other two contenders, in the Great Search-Engine Race of 2007 Privacy managed to squeak out a win from the competition. This is what Privacy had to say when we approached it about this completely unexpected and unheralded victory:
"Uh...no comment?"
Fantastic words from a fantastic Ideal. Back to you, Bob.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.