Get ready for privacy wars. In California, CCPA not only impacts online businesses, but traditional retailers have been forced to send out notices to consumers alerting them to the kinds of in-store and transactional data collection they are doing. This is a gigantic challenge for some, but to others it is a marketing opportunity. “We keep your private information more private than Brand X.” is a marketing strategy I expect to see a lot in 2020.
To that end, in New Jersey, Verizon has launched a new privacy-focused search engine called onesearch. It promises full encryption, no cookies, no ad tracking, no search history, no personal profiling, no nothing! I’ve A/B’d it with Google using the Chrome browser in both normal (full history available) and incognito mode. As you can imagine, onesearch is about as good as Google in incognito mode. If you don’t let the Google search algorithms have access to your history, you will dramatically reduce the relevance of your search results.
There are, of course, many good reasons to keep certain search queries out of your search history. With tongue firmly in cheek: If you want to end your relationship with your significant other, review their search history for the past 30 days and let them review yours. Unless both participants are highly skilled web searchers, hijinks are sure to ensue.
The idea of fully anonymous browsing is not new. Services like Brave and DuckDuckGo have been in business for a while, and every major browser already has an incognito or private mode that offers the same basic protections (there are non-trivial differences between the privacy strategies of every service, but that’s for another article).
Get ready. Privacy is the new… um… Privacy! It’s going to be all the rage this year. Get yours while you can.
Take the Survey
If the survey is not visible, click here.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.