Privacy is emerging as the real winner of the Internet search engine war as companies aggressively compete with one another by offering stronger protections for user records, a report published today by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) concluded.
The report notes that until recently, most of the major Internet search engines kept detailed and potentially personally identifiable records of their customers' searches for as indefinitely.
But today the companies are trying to outdo each other in privacy protection by announcing steps to delete old user data, strip the personally identifiable information out of stored search records, and, in one case, give users the option to have all of their search records deleted.
CDT's Search Privacy Practices report details and compares the revamped privacy policies of the five largest search providers Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Ask.com and AOL while offering recommendations for both the industry and lawmakers for how to strengthen privacy protections even further.
"We hope this signals the emergence of a new competitive marketplace for privacy," CDT President Leslie Harris said. "By themselves, these recent changes represent only a small step toward providing users the full range of privacy protections they need and deserve, but if this competitive push continues it can only stand to benefit consumers."
The report acknowledges that there are legitimate reasons for companies to retain some search records for a limited time, but recommends that companies continue to actively seek new ways to give users greater control over their personally identifiable data.
The report also argues that industry self-regulation, while vital, is only one part of the solution.
"It's encouraging to see the nation's largest Internet companies taking search privacy seriously," said CDT Deputy Director Ari Schwartz. "Now it's time for Congress to do its part by passing a robust federal law that brings our consumer privacy protections up to the level that users expect."
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