Netizens against their searches being tracked: Study
Wall Street has increasingly bet that Apple will this year return cash to shareholders, taking a cue from Chief Executive Tim Cook's comments about "active discussions" at the top levels about the matter.
Majority of netizens disapproved of search engines keeping track of their searches, regarding it as an invasion of privacy, and also disliked targeted advertising, a new study has claimed.
About two-thirds of search engine users disapprove of the collection of information on their searches for the purpose of personalizing their future search results, says Pew Internet & American Life Project, Search Engine Use study, 2012.
An equal proportion of all internet users disapprove of being tracked for the purpose of getting targeted ads. Around 73 per cent of search users disapproved a search engine keeping track of their searches and using that information to personalize future search results because they felt it was an invasion of their privacy, the study said.
While 65 per cent of search users, according to the study, disliked a search engine collecting information about their searches and then using it to rank future search results, because it may limit the information they get online.
Around 68 per cent said they were not in favour of targeted advertising because they disapproved of their online behaviour being tracked and analyzed.
According to the study 91 per cent of search engine users said they always or most of the times found information they were seeking when they used search engines, while 86 per cent of search engine users learned something new or important that really helped them or increased their knowledge.