Privacy exposure search on the web know how much

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When you are in Google, Baidu search box to enter the content to search, search engine side for you to perform search tasks, but also to save information about you. What information did the search engine keep? Does it involve your privacy?

If someone tells you that you have a lot of personal privacy, such as embarrassing medical records, you are still missing your high school girlfriend ... These facts are kept in a huge database, how do you feel? In fact, such databases do exist-as long as you've searched a search engine for these private content, there are records in that database.

Whether it's Google, Yahoo or Microsoft's Live Search, when you use them to search, in addition to the database to record the completion of the query date and time, but also the IP address of your computer, The unique number of the cookie on your computer (unless you delete it) is recorded in it. As a result, search engines can know if a search request is made by a computer, even after the connection changes, the search engine can still do it.

Microsoft's Live Search also records the exact type of search (for example, images, Internet searches, or local search), and Google also retains the browser type and language of the computer that made the request. If you click on the link in the Google search results page, the link and the IP address of the computer you clicked on will be recorded together.

Google recently announced that it is ready to remove the IP address from the 18-month old search record and the cookie records associated with the search request, making the search log anonymous, but Microsoft and Yahoo have not yet announced the relevant measures, and AOL says it will keep its search records within one months.

So, if someone lets a search engine company provide the IP address and cookie value of a computer that has searched for a certain content, or instead, specify an IP address or cookie value, let the search engine company provide all the queries that the user of this IP address or cookie value has done, Search engine companies can do it completely.

Do you want to worry?

Some people say, don't worry too much, because the log of these servers has not yet linked the query's entry to personal information, such as name or e-mail address. However, if you have an account on the search engine site or other registration on this site, such as the application of e-mail, social networking, calendar services, or providing shopping lists and other services, it is entirely possible to link the contents of the inquiry with the individual, Electronic Frontier Foundation, chairman of the Electronic Border Fund, which is dedicated to protecting the freedom and privacy of individuals in cyberspace, says Brad Templeton. For example, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines, the collection of personal information is very much, because in the registration application, these companies require people to enter a lot of personal information, such as your occupation, position, marital status and the number of children in the family.

"There is no systematic way to compare and correlate search-related data to personal identity information," said Whitney Burk, Microsoft's PR manager. Google also said the two types of information are stored separately. But, Templeton said, "The search engine will link these two aspects of information, which makes it easy to think, and it is hard to make people think so." ”

Templeton stressed that the search engine system is how to design he is not very understanding, but, in a typical search engine, if someone has a certain degree of access and knowledge, there are many ways to link the search content with personal identity information. This is not a situation that many of us would like to see, given that the search may reveal some personal information, more than medical prescriptions, religious beliefs, political preferences, etc.

"Even if you have never submitted any personal information, just an IP address is enough to locate a computer," said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search engine news. This can only be done through DNS retrieval to the Internet Access Service provider (ISP) and the IP address of the city. If you find an ISP, you can find out who has applied for the account, so you can find out who sent the search request at a certain time in the search engine log.

Last year, when AOL released its 500,000 anonymous user search log 3 months ago, the New York Times reported that users could be identified even without IP addresses, as the information was likely to be hidden in users ' inquiries, such as small-town residents searching for real estate near their residence.

Ensuring the safety of consumer information

If you start to worry about it, it's not surprising. In fact, there are a growing number of users, consumer protection groups, government-related policy-makers and privacy-protection organizations in the world who are increasingly worried about how much personal information the search company will keep and how they will use it. In recent months, search-engine companies such as Google and Yahoo seem to have failed to reduce their concerns.

Several consumer protection groups have sued the Federal Trade Commission for Google's purchase and DoubleClick. The groups claim that Google can offer Google a huge competitive advantage by understanding what consumers search for on the internet and the websites they visit. When Google publishes the "Web History" feature, which links the content of individual searches to the pages visited and their account information, some commentators, such as the veteran blogger Anil Dash, think this can have bad consequences.

"Given the web history features, especially Google's recent acquisitions and public comments, there are signs that Google's actions are worth the vigilance of our ordinary users," the dash said in his blog. ”

Another thing is that the issue of online search-related data is highlighted again: In early 2006, the US Department of Justice asked Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL to randomly extract search records within a week, without asking for specific information about searchers.

The U.S. Department of Justice wants to use the message to defend its children's Online Protection Act, which aims to protect children from pornographic content. However, the bill is opposed by the ACLU, saying it violates the provisions of the First Amendment to the right to freedom of expression in the United States Constitution. At the time, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL all submitted their search records as required, but Google rejected the request. Google has set a precedent, "even if government departments do things in accordance with relevant laws," said Chris Sherman, executive editor of search engine area.

Some parts of the United States are trying to protect online data. U.S. Congressman Edward Markey, in early 2006, submitted an initiative to require all owners of internet sites, not just search engine companies, to destroy all historical data containing consumer information.

Leaving aside the government, there are also situations that could lead to the disclosure of personal data, Templeton said, for example through in-house employees. "Everyone knows that the disclosure of confidential data from large databases can ultimately be attributed to the corruption of employees within the company, who are profiting by selling the data." "he said. #p # Paging Title #e#

The essence of the problem

This discussion raises the question: why do companies that provide search services retain this data? Google puts forward three reasons: first, it helps to improve its services; second, it prevents people from studying and using the relationship between the data to conduct fraudulent acts; third, the law requires that the data be preserved. Google says it can tell how many users are satisfied with their first search results, how many users need to search for a second or more, and how many times an ad can be clicked to determine how much the advertiser will pay.

"Google is a guru in personalization," he writes, "and for Google, close proximity to users is seen as the key to a leading competitor, And 2007 has been defined by Google as the year to highlight its competitive advantage. ”

' The more you know about users, the more it gives users a better user experience and, of course, the more targeted ads, ' explains Sullivan. "What's more, Google believes that the next direction of development after providing better results is personalization." ”

Templeton, however, questioned whether companies that provide search services really need to keep so much data as they do now or save as long as they do now. "We agree that Google keeps too much user information," he said. But there are also people, such as Sullivan, who approve of the time limit for keeping the search log in the same way as Google does, while Templeton thinks it is completely destroyed.

"In the past such things have happened many times, it was thought that the data had been made anonymous or deleted, but someone had found a way to recover the data," he said, "so that in the process of destroying the data, it must be done more thoroughly, and any link between the IP address and the search must be severed. ”

Moreover, Google's approach may not involve backing up data. In addition, the 18-month time window does not address data saved through the Web History feature. ' This information is not going to be deleted or treated anonymously over time, ' Sullivan said.

"If you want to completely delete the data," he said, "Google will tell you that you need to deal with it individually." "On the positive side, the Web history lets users know exactly what data they have saved, and the user can decide when to delete the historical data." Yahoo offers the same myweb functionality, and if the feature is turned on, all of the user's searches will be saved.

As users pay more attention to their privacy, companies that provide search engine services say they are taking steps to increase the anonymity of their users. Google says it has built-in privacy protections in its non-search engine products, including Google Talk's "Off the Record" feature and Google Desktop's "suspend (pause)" and "Search lock" controls. Google also said it would provide users with a more understandable privacy approach on its website.

Microsoft says it is actively working with data-protection experts around the world on which user information should be collected, what the information should be used for, and how to inform users and commitments. "There is no unified view on specific strategies," Burk said, "but we will continue to actively consult with privacy advocates and experts on these issues." ”

Sherman that the personal information should ultimately be determined by each user as to whether or not to trust a company that provides search engine services. "Everyone has to decide for themselves how far the search results have to go before we feel convenient and allow our personal information to be associated with the search." "He believes that the problem is beyond Google's purview, in effect to take coercive measures to ensure the security of user data." "If you go to Google, it's hard to get close to its data center, and Google has several security levels, and only a few people have access to these areas to see very confidential user identities." ”

But for Templeton, that's not enough. "Even when people want to do their jobs, something can happen to get the data out of the way," he said. "If the data is kept in an accessible location, the data is easily leaked." ”

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And, Sherman points out, not only do search engines save personal information. "ISPs know more than any search engine company, not only what users search for, but also what websites they visit and what they access." "Google may be trying to keep its records anonymous, and those ISPs are not going to do anything," Sullivan said in a blog. ”