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Search Engines: Gateway to a New “Panopticon”?

  • Conference paper
Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business (TrustBus 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 5695))

Abstract

Nowadays, Internet users are depending on various search engines in order to be able to find requested information on the Web. Although most users feel that they are and remain anonymous when they place their search queries, reality proves otherwise. The increasing importance of search engines for the location of the desired information on the Internet usually leads to considerable inroads into the privacy of users. The scope of this paper is to study the main privacy issues with regard to search engines, such as the anonymisation of search logs and their retention period, and to examine the applicability of the European data protection legislation to non-EU search engine providers. Ixquick, a privacy-friendly meta search engine will be presented as an alternative to privacy intrusive existing practices of search engines.

The research leading to these results has received partially funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2011) under the PICOS project (Grant Agreement n° 215056).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Centre for Law & ICT (ICRI), Kathtolieke Universiteit Leuven, Sint-Michielsstraat 6, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Eleni Kosta

  2. Cultural Informatics Laboratory Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, Harilaou Trikoupi & Faonos Str., 81100, Mytilene, Greece

    Christos Kalloniatis & Evangelia Kavakli

  3. Information and Communication Systems Security Laboratory Department of Information and Communications Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, 83200, Samos, Greece

    Lilian Mitrou

Authors
  1. Eleni Kosta
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  2. Christos Kalloniatis
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  3. Lilian Mitrou
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  4. Evangelia Kavakli
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 2, 651 88, Karlstad, Sweden

    Simone Fischer-Hübner

  2. Laboratory of Information and Communication Systems Security, Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, 83200, Karlovassi, Samos, Greece

    Costas Lambrinoudakis

  3. Department of Management Information Systems, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Günther Pernul

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kosta, E., Kalloniatis, C., Mitrou, L., Kavakli, E. (2009). Search Engines: Gateway to a New “Panopticon”?. In: Fischer-Hübner, S., Lambrinoudakis, C., Pernul, G. (eds) Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business. TrustBus 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5695. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03748-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03748-1_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-03747-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-03748-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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