Google Steps up Personal Data Protection but Is It Enough?
Cleaning up Search Results
Recently Google announced yet another policy change aimed at making its business more sensitive to user privacy. The online colossus introduced a procedure enabling users to request personal details and certain additional information to be removed from its search engine results pages (SERP) as they appear on the search portal.
Similar requests have been possible in the past, to an extent, referring to the category as personally identifiable info (PII). However, Google now stresses that the type and scope of personal details that can be removed will be significantly increased – including phone numbers, emails, login credentials, bank accounts and much more in terms of sensitive data.
While these changes are undoubtedly a step in a positive direction, many users and companies still chose to rely on a residential proxy or other anonymity tools. What the online community calls “doxing” is the immoral and often criminal practice of cyberbullying people as a result of gaining access to their personal, financial or other sensitive info. Much of that is still found openly and regardless of how fast any content may be reported or removed.
Most privacy policies are focused on avoiding identity theft and harmful intrusion into people’s personal and professional space. Still, achieving true privacy would mean preventing companies like Google from harvesting private information altogether.
Until then, users that see their personal information in local SERP lookups can request its removal following instructions made available on Google’s support page. However, the company reminds that this does not remove the information from the internet, leaving it all in the hands of individual platforms that might have access or have published it on their site.
Emerging Markets Driving Global Demand for Privacy Tools
Digital privacy experts have analyzed high-profile privacy breaches that even tech giants and governments have suffered most recently. Even the most significant data leaks and global scandals have created a media stir for a few days or weeks. In the meantime, each wave of such privacy concerns has brought up the debate about privacy tools like proxies and VPNs.
Besides obscuring consumption choices and bypassing geo-blocking, an increasing number of small businesses resort to such solutions for remote marketing research and ad verification placement. Accessing walled content may not be a primary motivation in Europe or the US but most of the fastest growing markets use proxies with that in mind, above all.
India and Indonesia are always among the leading proxy markets, studies reveal. Desi users are the most while other nations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East, Latin America and Africa complete the top rankings. Emerging digital markets have the most pull not only numerically, they also shape the trends in the usage of proxies and other privacy tools.
Do Follow us on :- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube
APAC as a macro region seeks access to more diverse entertainment contents and global catalogs. There are certain country specifics: e.g., Amazon is not available in China which has its own streaming services; India has the hugely popular Hotstar and Sony Liv platforms not available elsewhere. But all of the leading proxy markets are located in APAC with Indonesia and Vietnam reporting up to two-thirds of users navigating via proxy.
