Search: The tug of war between value for users and the need for privacy

Per Koch, Pandia, Oslo, NorwayIPTS Workshop:Socio-Economic Challenges of Search Seville Sept 29-30 2008 www.pandia.com

User data is very useful

•Data delivered by the individual searcher and user can be used to:•Improve the relevance of

search results (personalization)

•Improve the targeting of ads (revenue)

•Identify phishers and malware distributors

Search is just a part of a bigger picture

• Tremendous increase in storage capabilities and processing power

• Free storage in the cloud• Software as a Service

• New technologies that lets search engines and users combine data

• Search • SaaS (including online email)• Social Web• Mash-ups

More material is becoming available•Content production in

the Social Web•Historical Archives •e.g the WayBack Machine and

cached files

•Scanned material •e.g. Google Books and Google

Scholar

•The Hidden Web •e.g. search engines filling out

search forms

Making more material findable• Face and object

recognition (images and video)

•Audio content analysis

•Geo-tagging and GPS•Amalgamation of

personal information from various social sites (e.g. Spokeo)

• (Less likely: Semantic Web)

Approaching critical mass

•Basic principle in espionage: Even unclassified information is useful information, if you combine it in an intelligent way.

•Easy combination of data sources makes data mining and personal profiling easy.

“Let’s google him!”•Lawyers•Private investigators•Insurance companies•Employers•Police•Foreign intelligence•Phishers and crackers•Sexual predators•Burglars and identity

thieves•Friends and family

Lack of data awareness• People are too liberal in publishing information

about themselves on social networks, not thinking about who might take advantage of it.

• More public information published in the name of transparency.

• Enormous amounts of geo-tagged images, satellite photos and video combined with face recognition will make it possible to track the whereabouts of individuals.

Google Maps street view of Seville, Spain

Questioning the safety of data storage

•Search company secutiry failure•AOL posting search

logs 2006•Possible cracker attacks

against online search data and file storage•The Sarah Palin

Yahoo! email hack 2008

•Public authorities demanding access post 9/11

•EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party

Building trust• A public relation backlash may

stifle innovation• Search engine must make

privacy policies transparent and visible

• Search engine must help searchers opt out of data gathering • Secret surfing, deleting cookies,

deleting IP info etc.• Search engines should implement

further anonymisation to avoid personal identification

We need more than legal jargon• Displaying the privacy policy and asking for consent is not enough• People do not

understand the implications of the technology available

• People automatically click OK on any legal yadayada they may encounter

• The search engines should be proactive as regards info on proper “Web Hygiene”

Need for an independent international organisation?

•An international organisation setting standards and evaluating company policies and practices

• UN? OECD? NGO? The search companies? The EU?

US organisationsCenter for Democracy and Technology www.cdt.org (supported by the search engine companies)Center for Digital Democracy www.democraticmedia.org (critical of CDT)

An international search privacy certificate

An international office for public information and education

•Pandia Search Central pandia.com koch@pandia.com