Privacy Winning Search Engine War 92
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."
right (Score:2, Insightful)
not surprising cuz.... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's great, but..... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's about time too... (Score:4, Insightful)
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".
what BS... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
The Four Great Lies (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:That's great, but..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Completely bogus (Score:2, Insightful)
I believe them. They aggregate. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Privacy really a winner? I smell damage control... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:not surprising cuz.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:right (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a search engine war? (Score:3, Insightful)