Ask.com Won't Retain User Data

Information Management Journal, Nov/Dec 2007 by Swartz, Nikki

Search engine Ask.com will stop retaining search data if users activate a new feature that prohibits it, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.

That decision makes Ask the first major search engine to promise users it won't store data on their searches, meaning they can conduct research online anonymously.

Search engines' privacy policies became headlines last summer after AOL released the search records of more than 650,000 of its subscribers. Numbers replaced subscribers' user names, but the search query information contained personal data that still made it possible to identify users. According to the AP, the information was released to help researchers, but after public outrage, AOL was forced to admit the act amounted to a privacy breach.

Ask said its "AskEraser" feature should be available by the end of the year. Users will have to activate the feature, after which the company will stop retaining data, such as the specific search terms and the Internet address identifying the user's computer. Ask officials said users will be able to turn the feature on and off easily and at anytime.

There is a catch, however. Despite the new controls, Ask's advertising partner, Google, still would receive and could retain any search data, the AP reported. Search terms also appear in the web address sent to Ask, and Internet service providers (ISPs) could retain that, too.

Doug Leeds, Ask's vice president of product management, told ABC News that Ask will review its contracts with Google and other third parties to limit what they could do with the information. Ask also said it will continue to retain past data, though it has promised to delete such information after 18 months, as Google recently announced it would do.

Ask has challenged the search engine and online advertising industries to develop "global privacy principles for data collection, use, and protection related to searching and online advertising," according to Wired.

Small search engine Ixquick already deletes user data within 48 hours. While the bigger players may be slower to change, they are realizing the need for stricter privacy controls. For example, a recent New York Times article said Yahoo will anonymize search data after 13 months. Microsoft has announced plans to revise the data retention policy for its Live.com search engine and ad service, promising to make search data anonymous after 18 months and give users more control over how the company saves user data, Wired reported.

According to Wired, ISPs retain as much data about what users do online as search engines, but they have not been forthcoming about data monitoring.