Major Search Engines Battle It Out on Privacy Protection

Targeted Ads

Schwartz is similarly lukewarm towards Microsoft's decision to allow users to opt out of targeted ads based on their browsing behavior, along with other principles from the National Advertising Initiative, an ad industry group that Microsoft has just joined.

"The [NAI] principles are out-of-date," Schwartz says. "They were done in a completely different environment. They now apply to an advertising world that basically doesn't exist today." One change that should occur, he says, is for users to have to opt in before ad networks could track their behavior for targeted ads, instead of having to opt out of such practices.

But Schwartz is heartened, he says, by what he sees as a general push from Microsoft and Ask to move the rest of the industry towards better privacy practices. Both companies recently announced plans to restrict what data their content partners can collect and use if they display ads from those companies or display video on their sites. Microsoft and Ask also recently issued a joint call for global privacy practices.

"Limiting how others use information ... shows that they're trying to take steps to improve the industry," Schwartz says.

But others feel there's much more room for improvement.

Bigger Concerns

"On the one hand, it's good that the companies are paying attention to privacy issues in the online advertising sector as well as with search services," says Rotenberg of EPIC. "On the other hand, I don't think the changes that have been announced address the really big issues."

If Ask's AskEraser proves to be genuinely anonymous, then "that's a good thing, and what the industry should be moving towards." But Google's partial masking of the IP address in search logs isn't real anonymization, he says, and he can't imagine the benefit from a two-year cookie renewal period.

For the cookie to actually expire, Rotenberg says, "basically that means you haven't touched a keyboard for two years and run a search." And like Schwartz, he believes Microsoft's opt-out policy for targeted ads should be opt-in.

Data Consolidation

But the real concern, Rotenberg adds, is with the current push by search companies to expand their businesses by purchasing online ad companies. In particular, Google's planned merger with DoubleClick would give the combined firm a wealth of stored personal data, he says. EPIC filed a complaint (pdf) on April 20 with the Federal Trade Comission opposing the move.

With companies under pressure from increasingly privacy-aware consumers, Rotenberg says, "I think you'll continue to see companies try to address the concerns."

But the "safeguards can't just be what the companies are prepared to do," he says. "We need meaningful safeguards."