Search and destroy: Cuil, calm and collected?

Insurgent search engine newbie Cuil (www.cuil.com) is making a big splash in the SEO world. In the short time since the former Googlers left the fold to start their own search enterprise, they’ve not only managed to draw interest from users due to their innovative algorithms and content and context results, but also because, unlike the established search giants, Cuil says that they do not keep any of your search terms – as far as they’re concerned, that’s private and they don’t keep them.

Posted byPaul Quigley on August 28, 2009

Insurgent search engine newbie Cuil (www.cuil.com) is making a big splash in the SEO world. In the short time since the former Googlers left the fold to start their own search enterprise, they’ve not only managed to draw interest from users due to their innovative algorithms and content and context results, but also because, unlike the established search giants, Cuil says that they do not keep any of your search terms – as far as they’re concerned, that’s private and they don’t keep them.

Cuil says that when you search using their engine, it does not collect any personally identifiable information. Cuil also says they have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookies. Our search history, they maintain, is our own business, and not theirs.

Furthermore, when it comes to logs and cookies, Cuil says it keeps no list of user search activity and it does not record information held inside cookies as that is sent each time a search request is made, and not held on their servers.

Insofar as corporate ethics is concerned, Cuil will be scoring top marks from the likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Information Commissioner as well as adherence to Data Protection legislation.

What’s more, it comes in stark contrast to public sector organisations and administrations who seem to want to cling on to every last record of anything Britons have ever typed, phoned, texted or written. Whilst national security and the fight against unsavoury elements of society are all very laudable, unfortunately, the tide of public opinion is rising against such broad-brush plans to acquire and store everything on everybody, everywhere. From DNA samples to fingerprints to iris scans and photographs of your conservatory, the danger is that goodwill may be lost if the appropriate level of accountability and rationale are implemented at the same time. Being fit-for-purpose is also a key consideration.

With large public sector databases comes immense risk of unauthorised access and misuse. It has worked well for decades inside private companies due to commercial confidentiality and legal protections. However, once powerful technologies are out in the wider world, factors concerning trust, honesty and ethics become every bit as important as security and compliance issues increase along with red tape and business continuity concerns.

However, privacy does not mean secrecy. It means selective access, with rights and allowances. Going beyond that breaches everything and could do more damage to the general consensus on the use and abuse of technology than the fear of any number of unsavoury characters lurking in the shadows. After all, trust is earned, not given. Broken trust is destroyed, not damaged.

With Cuil’s promise to enable digital denizens to search and then have their privacy maintained by destroying and not retaining their midnight textual musings or private research ramblings goes a long way to redress the tide of open-house marketable metadata mountains which some entities think is open house, up for grabs with no consequences. But it does have consequences.

If it’s done right, it’s a win-win for us all. It will engender openness and collaborative ways of communicating and working which embody everything Web 2.0 and beyond can offer. Done wrong, and we all throw the baby out with the bath water. Remember, privacy is for life, not just for Christmas.

Paul Quigley,Editorial Director

http://www.digitalassetmanagement.org.uk