Reply #18: New info right from Google themselves

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2446745

NVMojo (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-09-06 07:22 PM
Original message
Google to keep storing search requests
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Although he was alarmed by AOL's haphazard release of its subscribers' online search requests, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt said Wednesday the privacy concerns raised by that breach won't change his company's practice of storing the inquiries made by its users.

"We are reasonably satisfied ... that this sort of thing would not happen at Google, although you can never say never," Schmidt said during an appearance at a major search engine conference in San Jose.

The security breakdown, disclosed earlier this week, publicly exposed about 19 million search requests made by more than 658,000 AOL subscribers during the three months ended in May. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL intended to release the data exclusively to researchers, but the information somehow surfaced on the Internet and was widely copied.

The lapse provided a glaring example of how the information that people enter into search engines can provide a window into their embarrassing — or even potentially incriminating — wishes and desires. The search requests leaked by AOL included inquiries seeking information about murder techniques and nude teenage girls.

AOL's gaffe hits close to home for Google because the two companies have extremely close business ties.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060809/ap_on_hi_te/google_...