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Fuzzy Logic Ask.com lets users ‘erase’ search history from logs
Fuzzy Logic Ask.com lets users ‘erase’ search history from logs | Ask.com lets users ‘erase’ search history from logs |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Tuesday, 11 December 2007 | |
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Now, in mid December, the feature has finally launched, appearing on the front page of Ask.com, letting users easily switch the feature on or off, with a full FAQ available to answer potential questions users might have about the service. Ask.com say that AskEraser is a privacy feature that, when enabled, ensures your search activity “will be deleted from Ask.com servers within hours”, and that, “once selected, searchers' privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches”. Ask.com say that the information that will be deleted from their servers with AskEraser turned on includes “all references containing any single element of search activity data; query (what you searched for, clicked on, etc.), IP address (where you searched from), and user/sessions IDs (who you are in relation to previous searches)”. Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com said that: “AskEraser is a great solution for those looking for an additional level of privacy when they search online. Anonymous user data can be very useful to enhance search products for all users, and we're committed to being open and transparent about how such information is used. But we also understand that there are some who are interested in new tools that will help protect their privacy further, and we will give them that control on Ask.com.” Ask.com say that they are the only major search engine offering this feature, although if it proves popular with users surely Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will start offering it as well. Ask.com say that the service is available now on the US and UK sites, and ‘globally early next year’. Ask also say they will “globally implement a new data retention standard that will completely disassociate search history from a user's IP address or cookie information after 18 months”, which is similar to Google and Microsoft who take similar action after 18 months, and Yahoo who say they do it after 13 months. So, do Ask.com have what it takes to take market share away from its major competitors? Please read onto page 2 for the conclusion... |
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