Search Privacy Routing System for Sensitive Query Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face challenges in maintaining privacy while searching for sensitive information as many search engines collect and share user data, leading to potential adverse consequences such as increased insurance premiums or targeted ads, and existing workarounds like private browsing may not effectively protect privacy or provide high-quality search results.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that determine the sensitivity level of search queries and direct them to search engines with appropriate privacy levels, using a computer-implemented method to receive, analyze, and route queries to engines with correlated privacy settings, ensuring high-quality results without compromising user data privacy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If users search for sensitive information using traditional search engines, then they receive comprehensive search results, but their privacy is compromised due to data collection and sharing
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments search queries into different categories (sensitive vs. non-sensitive) and routes them to different search engines accordingly. This segmentation allows users to maintain privacy for sensitive searches while still accessing comprehensive results for non-sensitive queries, resolving the contradiction between privacy protection and search result quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary component that analyzes search queries and determines their sensitivity level before routing to appropriate search engines. This intermediary layer enables automatic privacy protection without requiring users to manually select privacy settings, thereby maintaining both privacy and search effectiveness.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If users employ private browsing sessions to protect privacy, then data collection is reduced, but search result quality may deteriorate and privacy is not fully protected through correlation with previous searches
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the privacy level by selecting different search engines based on the sensitivity of each query. Rather than using a static private browsing mode for all searches, the system adapts the privacy approach to match the specific needs of each search, maintaining high result quality while providing appropriate privacy protection.
3Productivity
If search engines collect user data for personalization and advertising, then search effectiveness and user experience are improved, but user privacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different quality characteristics to different types of searches by routing sensitive queries to privacy-focused search engines and non-sensitive queries to effectiveness-focused search engines. This local quality approach ensures that privacy protection is applied where needed while maintaining search effectiveness where appropriate.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed computer-implemented method for protecting search privacy may include (i) receiving, via a search interface, a search query comprising at least one search term, (ii) determining a sensitivity level of the search query based on the at least one search term, (iii) directing the search query to a search engine that has a level of privacy correlated with the sensitivity level of the search query, and (iv) returning, via the search interface, at least one result of directing the search query to the search engine that has the level of privacy correlated with the sensitivity level of the search query. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.