A Soap Opera: Privacy & Web Search
One of the extended benefits of the semantic search technology is about its independence on privacy sensitive information. If some folks may be wondering what’s this all about, we have made up a soap opera to illustrate the extent of what can happen.
Let’s suppose that you just bought an expensive car, and you want to make sure no one will steal it. So you go to a search engine X and type “how to steal a car?” just to make sure you cover all the corners.
| Search engine X records your IP address, date of the inquiry, and the query. Also it inserts a cookie in your computer with an expiration time of 35 years. |
You look at the search results, and click on links to get more information.
| Search engine X actually has links to first connect to itself, thus tracing your clicks which are recorded along with your cookie ID. |
Fine, so what? Now, let’s go one step further. You have an email account from the search engine X. While you created an email account, you gave your name, address, etc. In the process, search engine X finds the cookie it inserted earlier. At this point the database of this search engine includes the following;
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Your name Your email address Your IP address The queries you entered Links you clicked |
If this information is not neatly organized in one corner of their database, the bits and pieces can be put together quite fast.
Assume that, some time later, there was a high-profile criminal act involving a stolen car in your neighborhood, and the criminals are known to use the Internet. The law enforcement agency asks (with a court order) the Search Engine X to give the data for the activities of all people with an IP address range which includes your IP address.
Search Engine X gives your data to the law enforcement agency because your IP falls into the range along with others.
Well, well, well. While you are watching TV enjoying your evening, your name is hanging on a suspect list in the Police Station. A detective is looking at your query “how to steal a car” and reviewing the links you clicked, and reading which documents you read earlier. Since you are a nice person with no criminal record, they pass on you. You are totally unaware of the entire thing, of course. You go on with your life as if nothing happened.
The privacy issue on the Web is divided between the people who are terrified about the story above versus those who don’t care. While we are making up this soap opera based-on technical feasibility, our intention is not to pull you in one direction or another. (You can vote on how much you trust your search engine in our latest poll.)
But if you have not yet assessed the possibilities, you may like to consider the fact that DOTS can be connected very easy in this day and age of Web search engines. Not to mention the fact that all this compromise from your privacy may be helping the search engine X to improve its algorithm to become more profitable.
At hakia, we can guarantee that your information is not used to improve our search algorithms. Because our semantic search technology does not need such information to be collected. Accordingly, hakia.com offers more privacy friendly search option, that is if you care about it.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
The privacy issue on the web is much larger than the search engine. Routers can log every packet that passes through them. I think the focus ought to be placed on router vendors like Cisco who have logging on by default than people like Google. Routers enable logging by default and are far more widespread than a single search engine.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
But Search Engine X personalization is all good… see no evil
Kudos !
June 20th, 2007 at 6:18 am
hmmmmmmmmmm
nice agreed that every body is stealing something from u when u r online and particularly the search box is doing so more nd more .folks use the box to get their reply but they do r getting extra .
hopefully they realise this nd change the way they r working otherwise bye bye
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Pop — thanks for the comment.
km4 — There is evil in you not knowing if someone is taking your information. Wouldn’t it be nice to be asked permission when you give up your privacy for better relevancy. What if all your information is passed on and you suddenly get an onslaught of spam?
Prolific Programmer — we agree that the privacy issue is much bigger. We even have to disable the “cookies” on the servers we buy for our data centers. But, search engines are not off the hook. As an industry, we need to always deal with our users openly and honestly. If we are taking information to improve the search experience for you, we need to get your permission to get the information. No ifs, ands, or buts. It is your information, not ours.