Ask Unveils History "Eraser"

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December 11, 2007

Ask.com's 'AskEraser' went live earlier this evening. It's a setting that will allow Ask.com search users to cover any footprints they leave on the site pretty quickly. From the AskEraser FAQ

"'When enabled, AskEraser will completely delete your search queries and data from Ask.com servers, including: your IP address, User ID and Session ID cookies, as well as the complete text of your search query--all within a matter of hours.'

There's a good writeup at the NYT that gets down to the nut of AskEraser's value to Ask.com:

"'Some privacy experts doubt that concerns about privacy are significant enough to turn a feature like AskEraser into a major selling point for Ask.com. The search engine accounted for 4.7 percent of all searches conducted in the United States in October, according to comScore, which ranks Internet traffic. By comparison, Google accounted for 58.5 percent, Yahoo for 22.9 percent and Microsoft for 9.7 percent.

"'My gut tells me that basically it is not going to be a competitive advantage,' said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, an independent research company 'I think people will look at it and see it as a cool thing, and they may use it. But I don't think it will be a market differentiator.'

"Mr. Ponemon said many surveys showed that while about three in four Americans said they were concerned about privacy, their concern was not sufficient to make them change their behavior toward sharing personal information. About 8 percent of Americans were concerned enough about privacy to routinely take steps to protect it, the surveys showed.

"'Privacy only becomes important to the average consumer when something blows up,' Mr. Ponemon said.

Of course, there are also some caveats. From the FAQ:

Is there any reason Ask.com will stop deleting my search activity?
Formal legal request -- Ask.com must abide by the laws and regulations of local, state and federal authorities. Even when Ask Eraser is enabled, we may store your search activity data if so requested by law enforcement or legal authority pursuant to due process. In such case, we will retain your search data even if AskEraser appears to be turned on.

Hoping to use AskEraser to escape the clutches of the Google Empire? lawlz:

"'But underscoring how difficult it is to completely erase one's digital footprints, the information typed by users of AskEraser into Ask.com will not disappear completely. Ask.com relies on Google to deliver many of the ads that appear next to its search results. Under an agreement between the two companies, Ask.com will continue to pass query information on to Google. Mr. Leeds acknowledged that AskEraser cannot promise complete anonymity, but said it would greatly increase privacy protections for users who want them, as Google is contractually constrained in what it can do with that information. A Google spokesman said the company uses the information to place relevant ads and to fight certain online scams.'

In other words, your search information is still going to end up in a big silo somewhere.

Previously: