New Search Engine Puts a Check on Big Data

Privateme_logoWith today’s big data industry, it’s all about consumers doling out their personal data and companies gladly scooping them up to push them through advanced machine learning algorithms in an attempt to understand every last nuance about you – whether you like it or not. With today’s beta launch of the new Private.me search engine, the playing field has changed.

The new service promises that when you perform a search “all of your personal data is immediately encrypted, sliced up and distributed between geographically dispersed nonprofit organizations.” To give you even more control, if you create an account you can maintain an optional search history that’s visible only to you and tweak the amount of data you share. Private.me’s mission is to deliver a platform that fulfills the need of Internet users to manage sensitive data privately by delivering forgetful web services that provide its users the means to control who can access their private data. A major part of Private.me’s potential appeal is distrust of leading search engines.

A short summary video describing Private.me is provided below, and the company’s whitepaper can be downloaded HERE.

 

You’re getting the value of data that is stored, but you’re still getting the privacy of a private search or a search anonymizer. It’s really the best of both,” says Amelia Dunne, vice president of marketing at Private.me.

In June 2013, the search engine DuckDuckGo quickly rose in popularity with a similar privacy pitch after revelations stemming from the Edward Snowden NSA surveillance affair came to light. DuckDuckGo doesn’t log IP addresses, use search cookies or allow third parties destinations to view search terms, but Private.me’s technology, planned expansion and optional user histories set it apart. The screen shot below show an example of the service’s Privacy Manager.

 

Privateme_screen

 

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