The Net Giants’ Privacy Timebomb
Whether we like it or not companies retain data on everything we do on their internet sites. Especially for search engine sites this raises privacy concerns. The search terms we use reveal a lot about who we are, what we aspire to be, and what we like.
Customer web site activity is good marketing information for companies to know their customers better and how to improve their products and services. On the other hand, this data could be used by Government or just plain, bad people to violate our privacy and to do us harm.
Digg.com posting, “Search data stored by the likes of Google & AOL is a privacy timebomb. It’s time for these Net giants to hit the delete key. Most companies don’t routinely and purposefully delete their data. It costs more to purge than to store, so businesses take the path of least resistance. Historically, this has caused orphaned account information to linger.”
There is definitely a need for some legislation on this. Probably the right answer is for companies to delete all specific customer data after so many years. I do not think there is much value in Amazon knowing what specific book I bought three years ago, or for Google to know that I was searching for a gift for my wife many years back, or for Digg.com to know I posted this blog entry three years from now.