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Search Engines and Library Databases: Privacy & Advertising

Digital Footprint and Shadows

Everything we do online leaves traces. Some traces are made consciously, and are known as "Digital Footprints," whilst your "Digital shadows" are the unintended traces of your online activities. Of course, managing your Digital footprint is important, such as managing your Social media accounts responsibly (see the SLIDE guide for more on this), however, you also need to be aware how your Digital shadow is also tracked, and how this can affect your online experience.

Check out My Shadow's Trace My Shadow page to see the effects of your Internet use.

It is not just accounts, but also the technologies of the Internet and Web. For example, See Everything Your Browser Knows About You (Nield, 2016).

Check out Weaver and Gahegan's Constructing, visualizing, and analyzing a digital footprint (2010) for the origin of the term "Digital footprint."

Search Engine Marketing
Not all search results are "organic," they may be sponsored.
Web Search engines often create "profiles" of your online activities, to help them place "relevant" ads alongside the results of the keywords you search. These profiles may be built from your search history (and also the results you subsequently followed through viewing), but they may also draw information about your browsing history from all across the Web (such as the sites you've visited, the time you view each page, and the links you select).
Cookies

To achieve this, websites save "Cookies" to your computer, in order to store identifying data on your visit and search history. This helps the site pre-load pages for you, and recalls settings and passwords. It helps make browsing easier. However, a Cookie can also be used to tailor your visit to show you strangely relevant advertising, search results, etc.

This means what you search can affect the results you see, and so it is important not to simply follow results as if they were unbiased.
Look at sections of a results page, and you will see the first results are an ad (this screenshot from Google does signify it is an advertisement, however, as a relevant result in and of itself, this placement skews the otherwise credible weighting of the search algorithms.)

Note: You can delete existing Cookies, and change your Browser preferences to "Do Not Track" or to a private browsing mode like Google Chrome's Incognito.

Tracking
These profiles and ads can also follow you around the Web. Many Search engines might more properly be called "marketing engines," as their primary way to make a profit is to advertise to you. As such, the advertising they serve is not only limited to what you see in your search results, but also follows you around the Web, wherever a webpage uses their ad network. Thus, a fashion webpage may show you ads for shoes, because you previously searched for "shoe repair" on Google.
Looking After Yourself Online

There are a number of actions you can do to better control access to your information and privacy.

Keep your devices clean and healthy

It's important to keep your operating system, software and apps updated. When updates become available, they often include security fixes. Make sure you're also protecting yourself from viruses.

Use strong passwords

It's crucial to choose strong passwords, or even better, pass-phrases. It's also important to use a different one for each account. It can also be useful to use a password manager like Keepass or 1Password.

Change your Web Browser Settings

Under "Settings," use "Private browsing" in Firefox, or "Incognito" mode in Chrome, and select "Do not track" in either browser.

Connect securely to the internet: install HTTPS Everywhere for Firefox or Chrome from Electronic Frontiers Foundation.

Look at other ad-blockers and anti-tracking add-ons and extensions for your Browser.

Use Alternate Search Tools and Browsers

Consider using more privacy-focused tools, such as Web Browsers that do not track your searches:

"The Onion Router" directs all your Internet traffic through a free, worldwide network to conceal your location and Internet usage. Tor makes it difficult to trace your activity, including websites visited and online communication. Tor is used to protect your privacy, and promotes freedom by stopping your Internet activities from being monitored.

Or Web Browsers which do not track your Web history:

Evaluate your Tools

Finally, keep your data out of corporate hands by using alternative, free and open source tools.Ask these key questions to ask about the tools and services you're using:

  • Is it Free and Open Source, or is it proprietary?
  • What do you know about the company which owns the service?
  • What are the Terms of Service?
  • Has the tool been security audited?
  • Who carried out the security audit?
  • Last Updated: Oct 2, 2023 4:14 PM
  • URL: https://ecu.au.libguides.com/search-engines
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