DISQUS

Ryan Coleman · 3 years ago

I think the biggest misconception about privacy online is the mistaken assumption by many people that anyone actually cares about what they've been searching - except maybe marketers. And what are marketers trying to do? Understand what your likes/dislikes and concerns are to present you with products and services that may be more interesting to you rather then blindly pumping shotgun style advertising at everyone. And even then - this isn't some new online "thing" - I'll guarantee you a store like WalMart could tell you everything I've ever bought from their bricks & mortar store. I remember a couple years back a few stories too about Best Buy weeding out unwanted customers from their mailing lists based on credit cards and purchase histories too.

Mathew Ingram · 3 years ago

Thanks for the comment, Ryan. That's a good point. Someone commenting on my Globe blog said he wondered why if all his personal search info was available already, how come he kept getting so much unrelated email spam. I wonder whether he would be willing to make his searches more public if it led to less junk mail :-)

Peter Cranstone · 3 years ago

Mathew,

What amazes me is the loss of control we experience everyday. Exactly who obtained "my" permission to keep track of my data? Everybody talks about the future of the web is one where the user will gain back more control, and yet I see continued abuse of our privacy and we are powerless to control it. Imagine a local resturant sharing your credit card and meal preferences with others. The web needs to become a user controlled "permission based" ecosystem for trust to blossom. Hard to trust the majors out there when we know what they are doing.

Peter

Bobby · 3 years ago

Why dont people use search proxies.

Its a sane easy and free solution to this problem

http://www.blackboxsearch.com