Review and Reaction to the Article:
“Search Engine Privacy Tips” (Dixon)
In “Search Engine Privacy Tips,” Dixon makes the observation that most people treat inquiry boxes on search engines like a blank slate that erases itself when the search is completed. The contrary is true. Search engines keep extensive logs of inquiries. Search engines make private information very public. Many connect names and other identifying information with searches. Some search engines have actually posted inquiries on the web. Others inquiries have been accessed by the federal government. To this, Dixon offers several personal privacy suggestions. She also recommends that readers at least start with simple protection measures versus become intimidated and do nothing at all.
While making a search inquiry, users should avoid searching their own name and /or personal identifying information such as social security numbers, passwords, and other ID; this information is logged and attached to the search engine and the user’s IP address. Users should try to avoid accepting search engine cookies. Users should be careful about what they search for remembering that the logs of these will be kept for a very long time.
Several suggestions were made regarding the search engine sites themselves. Use of an anonymizing tool may dissociate the search from the searcher. Avoid posting email, reading the news, and searching on the same search engine. Use a variety of search engines and as many different computers as possible. If one computer is consistently used, request a periodic change of IP address.
Browser histories should be deleted after each use. This is especially true when using public access computers.
From an ethical perspective, aggression against personal privacy is fierce and relentless. Personal privacy is kept only in as much as the holder is aware and is able to fend away intruders. Governmental trespass into personal privacy via the internet makes a mockery of personal privacy legislation. Full disclosure of the extent of personal privacy invasion and, governmental transparency as to its access would shock the citizenry.
Work Cited
Dixon, Pam. “Search Engine Privacy Tips.” World Privacy Forum. 14 July 2008.
28 Nov. 2008.
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