Does Microsoft + Yahoo = A Privacy Arms Race Among Web Giants?
Does Microsoft + Yahoo = A Privacy Arms Race Among Web Giants?
New York Times
By Riva Richmond
July 31, 2009
When Internet giants team up, civil-liberties advocates tend to worry that their consolidated power will end up hurting the privacy of average users.
An agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo to work together on Web search is no different. But at least one expert thinks it could re-energize a three-year trend that has delivered to consumers more privacy protections around the search data Internet companies store.
Jules Polonetsky quoted:
Jules Polonetsky, director of the research group Future Privacy Forum and formerly chief privacy officer at AOL and DoubleClick, thinks the tie-up could restart competition among the big search providers for bragging rights to who has the best practices.
He’s optimistic because, he says, Yahoo currently has the most stringent privacy policy, and Microsoft has agreed to adhere to it for search queries that originate from Yahoo. Scrutiny of the deal by government regulators could push Microsoft to match Yahoo, Mr. Polonetsky says, which might pressure Google to make its policy stricter, too.
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