Following up on recent posts on libraries and privacy here and at Chronicles of Dissent, CoD contacted Deborah Caldwell-Stone, a Deputy Director at the American Library Association, for reactions of some of the issues we've been discussing. Regarding concerns about…
Category: Privacy
Why Privacy Matters
Rory Litwin at the excellent Library Juice blog suggests three things we can do to remind ourselves why privacy matters: Recall specific occasions in your life when you realized you needed to make some information about yourself more private, or…
Weakening of Online Privacy at Libraries
Chronicles of Dissent points to some discouraging trends at public libraries that potentially threaten patron anonymity and privacy. First, it appears more and more libraries are requiring those wishing to use their Internet services to produce a valid library card.…
Google Korea to Log National IDs for some searches
This has the potential to set a disturbing precedent. InfoWorld reports that Google Korea plans to introduce an age-verification system later this year that will restrict adult-themed searches to those 19 years of age and older. Working from a 700-word…
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Google Universal Search: Half of the Perfect Search Engine
In my dissertation I outline the quest for the "perfect search engine" – a search engine capable of indexing all available information and providing fast and relevant results. The perfect search engine will have to have “perfect reach” to deliver…
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Google to Track and Profile Users’ Psychologies
The Guardian reports on a patent filing by Google revealing how the company could compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games: The company thinks it can glean information about an…
Google’s Unsatisfying Explanation for Retaining User Search Data
Following up on their recent decision to "anonymize" its server logs after 18-24 months, Google’s Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer has posted an explanation about why Google captures and retains users' search queries in the first place. While a good…
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Google Now Just Another .Com Business
Google has finally made the complete transformation. They are no longer some kind of benevolent, altruistic company trying to help people learn and grow by providing access to knowledge online. Now, they're just one of many .com companies trying to…
Upcoming Events
With the dissertation completed (the defense still awaits), I can now turn my attention to a few other projects for the summer months. Primary among them is finishing up a book collecting various interdisciplinary research papers on Web search engines…
Escaping the Data Panopticon: Computers should “Forget”
The rise of fast processors and cheap storage means that remembering, once incredibly difficult for humans, has become simple through technology. In a faculty research working paper called "Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing…
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