More Privacy Guaranteed by Ask
InterActive Corp.'s search engine, Ask,
announced the introduction of a new online tool that will be able to help
people who surf the Internet keep their history of search private. The new tool was entitled AskEraser and with its help users will be able to delete any data
regarding the searches they made on the Ask website, this includes the
elimination of information from the company's servers.
Ask's main competitors Google and Yahoo do not possess an analog for such a tool, thus keeping the search information of the user for 18 months, though later the information is anonymised or fully erased. The company says that it will allowing users to set additional privacy settings.
"For people who worry about their online privacy, AskEraser now gives them control of their search information," outlined Ask's chief executive, Jim Lanzone. "We take significant steps to protect any data that's stored in our servers, but for those people who want to take extra precautions AskEraser lets them take the issue completely off the table," he added.
Lately there have been questions regarding the level of information that the Internet companies possess. Especially there have been concerns over Google's influence as well as influence of such social networks as Facebook. It is worth mentioning that earlier this year the number one search engine, Google, was accused by Privacy International, a lobby group, of heading a "race to the bottom". This is due to the massive amount of information that Google stores.
Despite the fact that Google has made changes in its policies, keeping the search history private, its $3 billion purchase of DoubleClick, an advertising company, has raised a lot of criticism. In November the European Commission stated that it looks forward to start a detailed investigation regarding the presumable competition concerns over the upper mentioned deal.
Ask's officials hope that the company's new tactic will soon pay off, being heralded by an ad campaign against Google. Recent figures show that currently the search engine is used for 1 percent of all searches over the net. However, privacy is a crucial issue, especially after the huge scandals over the series of lost data by the British government.
"The computers that underpin online services have vastly superior recall. Many internet users are probably aware that cookies keep a log of every site visited, but few surfers may be aware that until recently companies could hold on to such consumer data for decades," mentioned David Tansley, technology partner at Deloitte.