AskEraser Keeps Your Searches Private - Or Does It?

A couple of days ago search engine unveiled the AskEraser option, which erases all of your data (IP addresses, user IDs, cookies, search queries) from their servers in a couple of hours, thus - in theory - securing your privacy. However, as InformationWeek points out, things may not be exactly as they seem here.

The thing is, Google delivers contextual ads to, and to do so it needs the data mentioned above, including the IP address and the text of the search query. So, while AskEraser does delete the data from Ask's servers, the data gets passed on to Google, and you're back to square one.

Doug Leeds, senior VP at Ask, claims the situation is not as dire as it seems. "The contractual relationship we have with Google constrains Google much more than its [privacy] policy does," he says, but he doesn't deliver any specifics. It's nasty business: you want your searches to be private, but you have to trust not one, but two companies to keep them so, and you're not allowed to peek inside the contracts they've signed over this matter. Luckily, I'm not paranoid: I know they really are after me.