The last time I used ask.com to search for anything, the New England Patriots had a losing record. That was before Google came into its own, storing each and every one of my searches on its servers for all eternity. Now ask.com, seeing the heightened attention paid to privacy, has rolled out a new feature that will erase your searches from its servers—feel free to search “britney spears reading book.” One of ask.com’s vice presidents for Something or Other said the new feature, called AskEraser, was akin to a light switch. Once switched on, AskEraser will prevent your sensitive search information from finding a permanent home on its servers.
Yes, good for ask.com and all, but just know that some of the ads ask.com displays are handled by Google, which will not be deleting your personal information any time soon, AskEraser or not.
For me, it’s like this: until the default search on Safari is something other than Google, I’ll continue to send all my info to Mountain View.
Ask.com Puts a Bet on Privacy [New York Times]