Tech Start-up Opportunity - Search Engine that respects privacy

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Nature abhors a vacuum! Find a niche and fill it! Come on entrepreneurs - Now that we know how insecure and vulnerable people everywhere are to having the most minute details about them exposed on the Internet without their permission (AOL) or just maintained for whatever future use (Google) the time is ripe for a new search engine company to arise to guarantee that they will not store or save searches or sell the info off to the data industry. I imagine everyone would switch to it in a nanosecond.

We are the Information age and data is the new currency. The alternate currency is PRIVACY.

[REP]

1. Great Way To Lose Money Fast!

Search engines exist to sell ads. They need the search data to tailor these ads. There will never be a "pure" and profitable search engine. You want to start one? Great! It'll be a charity or money-loser if you run it the way you outline. No, no one needs to release screen shots or give info to the government, but as for collecting and storing info (for some period of time, not indefinitely) it has to be done in order to sell ads.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Then structure it as a non-profit from the getgo and make it a

subscription service.

[REP]

7. That's Not a Start-Up! That's a Money-Loser!

But go for it if you're rich!

[canetoad]

2. There are ways to keep your browsing private

Use Firefox, install the customise Google extension, which allows you to anonymize the tracking cookie.

[sendero]

3. I don't think Google..

... who is the elephant in this room, is much of a privacy threat.

They refused to turn over SE records to the Fed. The do collect lots of data, but it is my belief that it it data that is correllated to a single user, but that user is unknown.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. I think that's what AOL said too

"but that user is unknown"

only it turns out all the searches from a single user can be collated, and has been pointed out, it is then when anonymity disappears

[sendero]

6. How..

... so? Collating the searches identifies the user just how?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. read this thread and find out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2445691

[sendero]

12. That's AOL...

.. they are morons and always have been. Comparing Google, whose company motto is "do no evil" with a bunch of crack-pipe fools like AOL is not fair.

Again, you'll have to give me something concrete before I'm going to worry about Google. AOL, well, there are probably some AOL users here so I'll moderate my comments. If you are using AOL, for god's sake get a real ISP.

[REP]

9. From the IP

AOL pretty much sucks and is untrustworthy before this (at least, I've never trusted them) and they released info tagged by IPs. Even dial-up users have unique IPs for at least a year.

[sendero]

10. I'm talking about Google..

.... has Google ever released search queries with a related IP?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. not that I'm aware of

but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't sometime in the future if they were forced to by a (legal) court order or if the company were sold to people with a different mindset.

I found the link below when I googled scroogle thanks to mtice and post # 11. This link just has a few facts about scroogle vs. google

http://gort.ucsd.edu/mtdocs/archives/laz/007166.html

[sendero]

16. Ok..

.... well, I'm not trying to be contrary, but I also don't wish to see the name of one of the companies I consider to be among the "good guys" to get unfairly smeared.

I'm not going to worry about what "might happen someday". That is a pointless exercise, because, well it should be obvious. If Google had done things to make me worry about their committment to privacy, I'd have a different viewpoint, but they have not.

Also, understand this. If law enforcement wants to track your web activity, they are going to do so. There is really not much you can do about it. Worrying that Google might tell Home Depot that I've been searching for info about power tools doesn't get me all that worried. What worries me is that everyone on this board will be flagged in a database somewhere as "crazy leftist". That's something to worry about.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. I don't think I said anything that was remotely "smearing " of

Google. I said data was "just maintained for whatever future use (Google)" and specifically did not lump them in with AOL. Of course I realize that law enforcement can and does track web activity, my concern is the one you stated -

What worries me is that everyone on this board will be flagged in a database somewhere as "crazy leftist". That's something to worry about

As we appear to be slouching towards fascism, that concern doesn't seem like as delusional and paranoid as it once did.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. New info right from Google themselves

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2446745

NVMojo (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-09-06 07:22 PM
Original message
Google to keep storing search requests
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Although he was alarmed by AOL's haphazard release of its subscribers' online search requests, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt said Wednesday the privacy concerns raised by that breach won't change his company's practice of storing the inquiries made by its users.

"We are reasonably satisfied ... that this sort of thing would not happen at Google, although you can never say never," Schmidt said during an appearance at a major search engine conference in San Jose.

The security breakdown, disclosed earlier this week, publicly exposed about 19 million search requests made by more than 658,000 AOL subscribers during the three months ended in May. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL intended to release the data exclusively to researchers, but the information somehow surfaced on the Internet and was widely copied.

The lapse provided a glaring example of how the information that people enter into search engines can provide a window into their embarrassing — or even potentially incriminating — wishes and desires. The search requests leaked by AOL included inquiries seeking information about murder techniques and nude teenage girls.

AOL's gaffe hits close to home for Google because the two companies have extremely close business ties.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060809/ap_on_hi_te/google_...

[mtice]

11. Try scroogle

Access logs and search logs deleted promptly, it basically queries Google for you without sticking you with the tracking cookie that identifies who is searching for what.

http://www.scroogle.org

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. Thanks! exactly what I was saying was needed and it exists!

A privacy respecting search engine run by a non-profit - what's better than that?
I always say, If I can think of it, someone else probably already has and acted upon it.

I think that we are all a little slow on the uptake about the amazing amount of data collection going on about each and every one of us all the time. I think we have to be more viligent about this - there probably will be business models arising as a counter.

A little side note - grocery stores have those valued member clubs so you can get the best price. I never really cared about that - my grocery store knows what I buy there, who cares? but I'm getting a slightly different slant now. Farm Fresh advertises their store has the same price for everyone, with no member cards that collect information. I might be appreciating that a little more.

[mmonk]

13. Isn't the whole purpose of search engines

to get advertising dollars? Maybe someone could start one that someone has to pay continuing fees to use.