Search privacy is a hot issue these days. A recent poll from the people behind the search engine Hakia reveals that 62 percent do not trust their search engine with their information.

The poll has not queried a representative selection of Web searchers. But the opinion of 295 Web searchers who are readers of top-technology Web blogs seems to us to be valuable in regard to a subject like this.

The respondents also disclosed the most important issues search engines can address to win users’ trust. The top two responses were “users did not want search engines to stores any data at all:” (30%); and “users wanted editing permission over the data search engines keep:” (19%).

Solutions to the search privacy problem

Pandia reported in June about metasearch engine Ixquick’s response to the debate about search privacy. Robert E.G. Beens, CEO of Ixquick, promises to delete IP addresses within 48 hours. In comparison Google will not make the data anonymous until after 18 to 24 months.

Ask.com recently announced a new product called the AskEraser, which may become available by the end of 2007. This product will allow users to delete their identifiable personal information from the search engine’s records, much like many of the respondents in Hakia’s poll wanted.

Hakia also claims to respect searchers’ privacy, even though they are not very specific:

Hakia has no interest in who you are and where you live. Neither our technology nor our business model relies on this information. Thus, hakia is not engaged in any practice that may compromise your privacy.

Google comes across as the big, bad wolf. Especially, their new Web History feature comes across as invasive. Google can only connect your Web history to you if you have a Google account or if you have the Google toolbar installed. And even if you do, there are ways to turn it off.

Many voices, including Danny Sullivan, finds Google Web History to be verging on scary.

Google seems to be listening, and in recent news, they promise that their cookies will now expire after two years, not in 2038, as the default setting is today.

Ask’s press release about AskEraser
More information on Ixquick and our privacy policy
More on Hakia’s poll