In a week that has seen a number of privacy stories negatively hit Facebook and Google, finally something has come out with a bit of a positive slant.

Google have launched a secure search option, allowing people to hide their search queries from ISPs, employers and wi-fi hubs. This has two interesting effects, firstly, since the introduction of the of controversial Digital Economy Act at the end of the last government, ISPs are now required by law to suspend internet connections from people “suspected” of downloading copyright material.
While Google’s new secure search option doesn’t stop an ISP monitoring your search history – it does make all search queries private, making it far harder for ISPs to suggest intent.
Of course, I would never support people who break the law by downloading copyright materials. The people that do pirate copyrighted material need to be kept at bay by strict rules.  

The second interesting point about SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) search is that wi-fi now becomes a little bit safer. I can imagine that the search terms collected by a pub next to the Bank of England or Fleet Street on a Friday night could have some pretty juicy industry gossip within them!
Wherever keeping things under wraps from your peers is useful, expect to see this in use. (Industry conferences, etc)

For those of you that want to try it, check out:

https://www.google.com – note only web search is currently secure, but they are working on image and maps.

For those interested, more information can be found on Google’s support site.

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