Privacy Issues and Personal Data Security

As the Internet commerce grew, there was an accelerated willingness of people to give away increasing amounts of personal information (both intentionally and unintentionally). Major security breaches have also been reported at universities, where databases about students have been hacked. Between January 2005 and June 2, 2008, Privacy Rights recorded an astounding 227,115,680 records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches in the U.S. alone.

A particular area of privacy concern may be search engines, which provide a unique glimpse into the personalities and private lives of searchers. A recent study concerning search engines raised some key questions that users should consider regarding their search engines, such as: does it record what users type into its search engine? Does it keep a full or partial record of your IP address? If so, for how long? How long does it retain cookies? Is data used for behavioral targeting? When does user data expire? While the practice of some search engine companies has become more transparent regarding these questions, there is still work to be done.

Pendulums have a way of swinging back, and it is likely that there will be some market corrections concerning online privacy. Some of this will occur through government-led efforts and others in a greater awareness by people as to what is reasonable (or not reasonable) to provide about one’s self on the web. For example, in February 2008, the European Union privacy regulators declared that search engines outside the EU have to comply with the EU's privacy regulations. “EU rules require that users give consent before personal information is collected and that they have the right to object to collection or can verify their information.” Among the stipulations under this ruling was that the collecting of IP addresses or search history will be considered as the gathering of personal information. Further regulations from the U.S. and EU government agencies will likely follow.

Sources

• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. A Chronology of Data Breaches.
• Declan McCullagh. How search engines rate on privacy. CNET, August 13, 2007.
• Barry Schwartz. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, & Other Search Engines Must Comply with EU Privacy Rules. Search Engine Land, February 22, 2008.

This page is part of the Environmental Scan, one of NELINET's Planning, Assessment & Accreditation Initiatives.