Let’s face it, the trust is simply not there! Even if search engines do in fact keep the records of our searches away from marketers, the belief is still not there amongst the bulk of the population on the ‘Net.

Internet users are split over whether companies such as Google (Profile, Products, Articles) and Yahoo should turn over search information to the government, but are clearly against search companies keeping such data in the first place.

The University of Connecticut telephone poll of 800 adults across the U.S. was conducted from Jan. 31-Feb. 5, in the wake of the Bush administration asking a federal judge to force Google to hand over search records in an effort to sniff out objectionable Web sites, such as those related to child porn.

The survey found that 60 percent of respondents oppose companies permanently storing the search behaviors of their customers. An even higher percentage, 65 percent, oppose the government monitoring Internet search behavior of ordinary citizens. [Read the rest]

Tags: university of connecticut, internet search behavior