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LEGISLATION
The legal framework for search engine
privacy is not solid
When we talk about search engine privacy Because this is an evolving area of law, there have
concerns, we think of user data that is collected been several lawsuits regarding the privacy that search
by search engines, but we don't know for what engines are supposed to provide to their users. The
purposes and to whom it goes. Privacy concerns Confidentiality Act, a general law that protects infor-
can come in the form of user profiling and mation disclosed by a party who has trust and expects
personalization to ensure more targeted privacy from the party with whom they share the infor-
advertising or improved search quality. mation, is a general practice that can be cited many
times here.
The collection of personally identifiable information
from users by search engines is known as "tracking," If the content of search queries and the logs in which
which is controversial because search engines often they are stored are treated in the same way as infor-
claim to collect a user's information to provide a better mation given to a doctor because they are similarly
search experience and potentially better results. How- confidential, they should be afforded the same level of
ever, search engines can also abuse and compromise privacy.
the privacy of their users by selling their data to adver-
tisers for profit. However, each user must decide individually what is
more important – relevance and speed of the results or
As the internet and search engines are relatively recent data protection – and choose a search engine accord-
creations, a robust legal framework for the protection of ingly.
privacy in relation to search engines has not yet been
put in place. However, academics write about the im- Sure, search engines generally publish privacy policies
pact of existing privacy laws in general to keep search to let users know what data can be collected from them
engine users informed. and for what purposes, but who is really reading them?
34 July 2022: Search Marketing
