From: Lormand, Saundra (sklorma@sandia.gov)
Date: Fri Apr 22 2005 - 08:02:28 PDT
Subject: Google (and other search engines) and privacy Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:02:28 -0600 Message-ID: <D9DA210B395C2648824A19771D5999974476D5@ES23SNLNT.srn.sandia.gov> From: "Lormand, Saundra" <sklorma@sandia.gov>
InternetWeek Newsletter
www.InternetWeek.com
Friday April 21, 2005
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Editor's Note: Google Under Fire
For some privacy advocates, Google is getting too personal with search.
The Mountain View, Calif., company has launched in beta a tracking tool
that keeps a detailed history of a person's web search. Called "My
Search History," people who want to use the new feature have to open an
account with Google, including a user name and password.
While searching the web may seem like no big deal, it can actually tell
an awful lot about another person. Not only can it disclose a person's
hobbies, it can also give an indication of more personal matters, such
as medical problems, buying habits, tastes in entertainment and much
more. My Search would track all of this.
Google, of course, insists that it's testing the feature to find ways to
improve search on the web. Companies always say they're doing it for the
customer, playing down the benefit to them. It's obvious that the more
Google knows about you, the more likely it can deliver with your search
results paid advertising for products that you may want. The more you
buy by clicking on these ads, the more Google can charge advertisers.
But that's not what's bothering privacy experts. Even though people can
delete listings on My Search, and even pause the tool if they don't want
to be recorded, the data it does collect is stored in Google's internal
systems for its own use. Google does not share this information with
other companies, but law enforcement or plaintiff lawyers in a lawsuit
could certainly subpoena the company for the data. And remember, the
information is associated with a user ID.
While most of us aren't hiding anything from police, we still have to
ask ourselves how much information are we willing to give a third party
in exchange for an Internet service? All companies on the web are
collecting data on the people who use their services, and consumers have
to weigh the benefits with the risks.
Allowing strangers at Google to track your web activity just to provide
you with a history doesn't seem like a good idea. Such personal
information is better kept private. Google can find another way to boost
its ad revenues.
Read the story in Today's Leading Off, and drop me an email to let me
know what you think.
Antone Gonsalves
Editor, InternetWeek
antoneg@pacbell.net
<mailto:antoneg@pacbell.net?subject=[INW]-04-22-2005>
www.InternetWeek.com
<http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/hnSv0GMSKq0G4X0BbSA0EO>
Leading Off
Google Personal-Search Tracker Raises Privacy Concerns
<http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/hnSv0GMSKq0G4X0DLnw0EP>
Google's new tracking tool that keeps a detailed history of a person's
web search has raised privacy concerns among experts who complain that
information collected isn't permanently deleted by the user.
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