Hakia, a sponsor of this site, is asking that question on its landing page. I thought the results so far are interesting, given the ongoing conversation around the Web about privacy.
The question:
Do you trust your search engine with your information?
The results:
PS, if you really don’t trust the engine, SEL covers a plugin you can use to insure your info is not stored…I tend to not believe these kinds of approaches will work.
The plugin you pointed to does not “insure your info is not stored”. It only disables personalized search. It’s like putting yourself on the do-not-call list. They still keep your number around; they just stop calling you (hypothetically…).
Building services on top of data is how these search engines make money, and they will not give up any of it easily. For more on data strategy in the Web 2.0 world, read my blog at http://datastrategy.wordpress.com/
I don’t think this is a simple yes or no type of question. There’s a gray area between the two and it’s certainly up for interpretation as to what qualifies as misuse.
SEL’s other survey on the landing page regarding search engine information storage policies is even more interesting, but I think it shows that SEL’s audience is more concerned with privacy than the general public.