Ask.com Launches AskEraser to Address Privacy Issues

Ask.com has introduced AskEraser today giving searchers the ability to search anonymously. Ask announced this feature in July and now it is finally aailable for all users.

When a searcher activates the AskEraser, Ask will stop recording the searchers queries and cookie information. This includes the users IP address, user id, session id and the search query. Ask Eraser facility is available across several Ask.com seach facilities including, images search, video search, blog search, Ask city, Maps and Directions besides the normal websearch on Ask.com

To activate this facility you will need to click the link for AskEraser on the top right of the screen which will ask for your confirmation and once you agree the feature is turned on. To put it off you will need to follow the same process.

Also, as Ask has been using the user’s search data in their algorithm, with this new feature in place it is to be seen whether the relevancy of Ask’s results get affected.

On the other hand it is also to be seen how the other search engine giants address the increasing concern on user’s privacy, especially, now that Ask has already taken the first step to address that.