Tradeoff to Increased Privacy in SEO

Historically, Google has outperformed other search engines such as Yahoo! and Bing and has established itself as the go-to search engine for the majority of internet users, especially within the United States. Yet, increasingly, internet users have become alarmed about the rising state of surveillance of the online community and the innumerable security breaches that have involved personal data. To address privacy concerns, there are a number of other search engines that are now available to privately browse the web and they are rising in popularity. In his post, “10 Best Privacy Oriented Alternative Search Engines To Google,” Ankush Das lists the search engines and their benefits. For instance, DuckDuckGo, which does not track IP addresses or store personal data, is considered one of the most successful search engines that focuses on maintaining privacy. This company does not monitor and maintain a history of the user’s web pages visits nor does it drop “cookies” to track user traffic. On DuckDuckGo’s results page, the sponsored links (adverts) are generated based on the topic of a user’s search query and does not generate ads built on prior search history or personal data. Another search engine that does not track its users, Qwant provides web links, social feeds with trending topics, news stories, and images related to a user’s search topic without compromising user privacy. 

Yet, the degree of personalization derived from storing personal information and tracking website history not only comes at the expense of digital freedom but also perspective. If the user only retrieves information and content that has been highly personalized, the process of discovery is inhibited and he or she may not be exposed to new content. Thus, is there a tradeoff to maintaining privacy by not storing personal data and the previous web link connections? If there is no personalization, the search results will be provided at the expense of its relevancy to the search query.  Pandora, a streaming service that provides music recommendations based on a user’s previous selections and preferences, may provide a model for search engines that offer a high degree of personalization. Pandora allows the user to “Add Variety” if song choices appear to be repetitive. Search engines may benefit from user control on the level of personalization to increase the variety of both content and web sources. If the level of “personalization” could be controlled, this consequent search “neutrality” may open access to fresh sources of content without compromising relevancy. Although undesirable matches may occur, the user may appreciate the new influx of sources or content.