Ask.com might not be the leading search engine, but it’s trying to prove it’s the most consumer-friendly with its latest privacy move. The question is whether consumers really care as much as privacy advocates claim they do.
On Tuesday, Ask.com launched a new product designed to give consumers more control over the privacy of their online searches. The technology, called AskEraser, allows searchers to erase queries completely from Ask.com servers, including IP address, user ID, session ID, and the complete text of their queries.
There is little argument about the significance of the move. Ask.com is a major player in search engines, and giving users control over the data generated by their activities online could lead the way for industry change, privacy advocates say.
Still, others are waiting and watching to see whether Ask.com’s users truly care enough about privacy to use the eraser.
The Key to Control
“There’s going to be a lot of talk about how many people have turned the AskEraser on. In some ways that’s not the real question,” said Ari Schwartz, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
“It’s really about building trust and the possibilities of personalization in the future,” he said. “If people trust Ask services because they have the ability to turn them off, that’s a significant move forward.”
Ask.com users will find the AskEraser link featured in the upper right corner of the search engine’s home page and search results pages. Once enabled, AskEraser remains “on” for searches conducted across Ask.com’s major search verticals: Web, images, AskCity, news, blogs, video, and maps. The feature can be turned on or off by the user at any time.
“The key is that AskEraser is on every page that you go to on Ask.com. Ask has given it priority. That’s what makes it work,” Schwartz said….