Ask.com Expands User Privacy Options with AskEraser
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | December 11, 2007 | Share This
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Search engine Ask.com launched AskEraser yesterday, giving users more control over their search data. Namely, AskEraser allows users to keep their activity from being tracked in the first place; turning AskEraser on erases Ask.com cookies and stops recording search history. Search Engine Land reports on the new feature’s potential impact on Ask’s search-result relevance:
Since Ask.com tends to use search queries in their Edison algorithm, how might missing this data impact results? Jim [Lanzone, Ask.com CEO] explained that the data used in their algorithms for relevancy is done on a “sampling basis”. He said that if 100% of Ask.com’s users adopt the use of AskEraser then Ask.com would have to “modify a lot of what we do.” Ask.com would embrace that change, since it means Ask has hit on “something super important to users.”
In an age of increased personalization, AskEraser may seem counterintuitive, but this is a really good move for Ask.com because it helps the company cement its reputation as the search engine most protective of user privacy, which is what CNET deemed it in August. (Google, in contrast, was called the worst by a UK watch group.) In light of recent online-industry privacy concerns that have been getting increasingly visible and going mainstream, particularly when it comes to advertising (ahem, Facebook Beacon), AskEraser makes Ask.com look responsible and sincerely concerned about its users. It’s too soon to tell, but perhaps the last few weeks mark a fundamental shift in the way that online companies treat (or, at the very least, are expected to treat) user privacy - preemptively giving control to users rather than being vague about the way data is collected and saved until users make a fuss. Josh Catone at Read/Write Web notes that privacy will be a trend in coming months as well.
Topics: Advertising: Online, Ask.com, Facebook, Search: News |