Comments on: Serious Privacy Issues with Google SearchWiki

By: Unit Structures – SearchWiki, Groupthink and Privacy

Unit Structures – SearchWiki, Groupthink and Privacy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:33:51 +0000

[...] I posted about a few of the serious privacy flaws in Google’s SearchWiki. Thankfully, there seems to [...]

By: Kevin Arthur

Kevin Arthur — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:57:29 +0000

They seem to be doing quite a bit of live tweaking to SearchWiki. The comments are now hidden until you click on them, which reduces the graffiti aspect a little. The “Learn More” link is also new, I think.

Re: leaving notes for yourself there is a “see all my SearchWiki notes” option (which may also be new). All of your notes are still public, though.

I find it really surprising that none of these problems were flagged in all of their “bucket testing” and other usability testing.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:49:33 +0000

I went to try this after reading your post. Google asked me if I wanted to turn this function on and did specifically let me know that my nickname would be public. Was that not there yesterday? I still think it’s pretty sucky, but differently from the way I was expecting.

By: MIchael Zimmer

MIchael Zimmer — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:08:55 +0000

Well said. Today, when I went to vote on a search results, I was presented a warning screen noting that my actions will be attributed to my account name and viewable by others. This warning doesn't appear in the video Google originally released showing how to use the product. Has this been added subsequent to the original launch?

By: michaelzimmer.org » Archives » SearchWiki: Boon for Google, Bust for Privacy

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:07:30 +0000

[...] Fred Stutzman agrees, also pointing out that Google has made a curious decision in requiring all SearchWiki “notes” to be public. [...]