A Step in the Right Direction

[Carl Martin]

In what's likely to be seen as a privacy-friendly move, IAC Search & Media's Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search search engine Tuesday announced a new feature called AskEraser that deletes a user's search activity data from the company's servers.

PC World - Ask.com Allows Users to Erase Search Queries


Well, it's a step in the right direction, but certainly doesn't go far enough. Let's see if Google follows suit. For now, I'll stay with Scroogle.

Carl

[gvblake22]

Google has been approached by the Fed's about giving up their search queries but they refused to fork it over. So I guess the information is still there, but it is protected....

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

So I guess the information is still there, but it is protected....

Protected to an extent. They've thus far refused to turn over any information, with a big motivating factor having to do with protecting "crown-jewel trade secrets" which "would be highly valuable to competitors or miscreants seeking to harm Google's business" (quotes are from one of their company attorneys). A higher court could ultimately force their hand, which of course hasn't happened thus far - Google's been successful in putting up the good fight.

Privacy advocates would also point out that retaining a user's data leaves it vulnerable to hacker attacks, selling private info to third parties, etc. FWIW, Google retains search data for 18 months, and MSN, Yahoo, and AOL each store it for 13 months. AskEraser purges search queries within a few hours.

So what does it all mean? Not much to me - I could care less who sees that I'm searching for 'Boston Celtics.' But if you are concerned about privacy, be aware that your search results and IP info are stored, and of course your ISP keeps tabs on you too.

[Jokerswild]

Damn that means that all of stingers sheep searches are still on record.