Engines Comment on their Own Privacy
Last week CNET News.com sent 8 questions to each search engine in an attempt to rank them based on their own observation of themselves. This is in an attempt to help people understand the different policies used by each engine on specific issues. The engines included AOL, Ask.com, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo and the questions asked included:
- What search-related data–including IP addresses, cookie IDs, user identities, and search terms–do you retain?
- How long do you retain those data?
- If you retain data for a limited period of time, is it completely deleted (in such a way that the data and backups cannot be recovered, even under court order) or is it anonymized instead?
- If the data are anonymized, exactly how do you do this?
- Do you do behavioral targeting, meaning showing ads to users based on their behavior across multiple queries?
- If you do, is there a way for users to opt out of behavioral targeting?
- Do you use knowledge about your users (such as ZIP code, e-mail address, gender, or birth date) obtained through user registration to deliver targeted ads on your search engine?
- Do you use knowledge about the identities of your users’ instant messaging or e-mail correspondents when using those services, or the contents of those communications, to deliver targeted ads on your search engine?
Interesting stuff…
Tags: CNet, Privacy-IssuesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: AOL, ASK, Google, Live.com / MSN, Yahoo
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