Ask.com allows users delete Search Data via "AskEraser"

Ask.com, one of the major search engines on the Web, promised today to provide its users a unique privacy feature that would empower them to delete their search from Ask.com servers, thus making their searches more private.

Owned by Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp, the fifth-largest search engine company after Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, on Tuesday has launched a new service, called AskEraser, which allows Ask.com users to keep their search activity from being deposited in data banks.

Ask has embedded the AskEraser option within its search engine, which if turned on, enables users delete information from Ask's servers. Like other major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, Ask too, so far, typically kept track of search terms typed by users. Google and Microsoft store personal information for 18 months, while Yahoo and AOL retain search request for 13 months, and link them to a computer’s Internet address, and sometimes to the user.

Now, the AskEraser feature, or “Privacy Switch” differentiates Ask.com from its rival search companies. Initiated by Ask.com, this so called “Privacy Switch” will likely prompt other search engines to add the feature to their search pages.

"For people who worry about their online privacy, AskEraser now gives them control of their search information. AskEraser is simple, straightforward, easy-to-use, and most of all gives control back the user," said Jim Lanzone, Chief Executive of Ask.com.

And, those who are worried about search privacy, “we let them take the issue off the table completely rather than dickering with questions about how long we'll store their search information or what we do with it," added Lanzone.

The new privacy control feature is displayed on the upper right-hand portion of all the Ask.com site’s pages, with turn on and off options. When AskEraser is turned on, the search activity data, which includes information about the pages a user visits on Ask.com, including the terms the user searches for, the links he or she clicks, user’s IP address, and any user or session identifier, will be deleted from Ask.com servers within hours.

When a user enables AskEraser feature, a cookie appears clearly asking a user to turn on or off the feature. According to FAQs posted on Ask’s Website, this cookie will last for 24 months, and after that specific time a user will need to turn on AskEraser again.

This privacy feature from Ask.com is currently available to users in the United States (http://www.ask.com) and UK (http://uk.ask.com), the company stated on its Website. The feature will be available worldwide sometime in 2008.