A very interesting article has been produced outlining the privacy implications of Internet search engines. It isn’t just that they make it easy for others to get at publicly-held data - they also collect all sorts of data about your surfing habits and other information. Google and others say they don’t use such data or intend to use it in any way except to make your surfing easier, but will this always be true? And do people always realise the implications of their trading their privacy for convenience?

I have to say I use all of Google’s potentially privacy-intrusive functions, but I am addicted to new cool features…

P.S. I agree with Ray Everett-Mills who expresses surprise that a company like Google has no privacy officer. As far as I can tell they leave that stuff to the lawyers - lawyers can protect you from the consequences of mistakes but a good privacy officer would keep them from making mistakes. Here in Europe I like to think a company like Google would not think twice about having one…

This entry was posted on Friday, July 15th, 2005 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Privacy, Search Engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.