Ask’s private search isn’t as private as it seems

Are you using Ask’s “AskEraser” to make anonymous searches?   If so, you may want to stop for a minute while I tell you something.    Your information may be getting collected after all – by Google.

An article in the New York Times has reminded readers that Ask has an advertising deal with Google, and under the terms of that deal, Google will continue to receive all query information inputted on Ask.com.     Which raises the all-important question – how can Ask pass to Google information which it claims it isn’t collecting in the first place?

Ask’s attitude is “don’t worry about it”.    In the NY Times article, they claim that “Google is contractually constrained in what it can do with that information”.

But that still doesn’t remove the fact that information which is supposedly not being collected actually is being collected, and that Google is getting their hands on it.    I’m not sure how Ask can then claim that users privacy is being protected.    How can they preach about users privacy rights and then collect advertising money by passing that user information to a competitor?    The last time I checked, the word for that was “hypocrisy”.

Which leads to another question – is AskEraser simply one big marketing ploy to create waves and bad press for their bigger competitors?

Kind of makes you wonder doesn’t it?