In SEARCH of PRIVACY

Our quest for knowledge many times takes us to that text box where we punch in our thoughts, questions, dilemmas, doubts, and even fears. I am talking about the search box. Have you ever thought their might be a brain behind that box snooping what you punch in. Internet privacy consists of privacy over the media of the Internet: the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. Many people use the term to mean universal Internet privacy: every user of the Internet possessing Internet privacy.

The search engines that power our journey through the internet know a lot about us - from the operating system and browser we use, to the kinds of websites we typically visit. So what can the search detect? Data like at what time you search, products you have searched for, the news items, the video clips, the images and even the maps u have looked at. If anyone were to look at this information, they would have a comprehensive idea of ones lifestyle, interests and potentially even my movements as they even track the location from where you search. These companies always know some personal details about their users, which is provided during registration. This is what worries some privacy experts. They want to ensure that this information remains private and is not abused in any way.

Why do firms like Yahoo and Google collect this information? At the simplest level, the firms track our web usage so they can optimize our experience in the future. Cookies store preferences, such as language settings, and can also tell websites the preceding website we were looking at and site we go to next. These firms make money online by targeting advertising to users when a search is performed or alongside their web products. Yahoo combines non-identifiable personal data from account holders, with the web history from using Yahoo websites and services to create a detailed, yet anonymous, profile of a user. That data is then used to serve targeted adverts.

Google does not utilize a user's web surface history to target adverts unless the user has signed up to its personalized web search system. And it only stores personal information when it has asked a user's opinion. Rights group Privacy International rated the search giant as "hostile" to privacy in a report ranking web firms by how they handle personal data. The group said Google was leading a "race to the bottom" among net firms many of whom had policies that did little to substantially protect users.

Issues:

Economical – It is through this search data that Internet Advertising industry is growing at a very fast rate.

Social – There is a lot of unawareness amongst users about piracy issues.

Technology – As the technology regarding search improves day by day, it empowers these companies in mining more and more personal data.

Legal – There are very few countries that have anti privacy laws.

Ethical – In some case this data proves useful in tracking criminals and terror outfits. But who will decide how much of data can these companies keep with them and how they handle this data?