Search Engines and Data Retention: Implications for Privacy and Antitrust

Lesley Chiou and Catherine Tucker

No 23815, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper investigates whether larger quantities of historical data affect a firm's ability to maintain market share in Internet search. We study whether the length of time that search engines retained their server logs affected the apparent accuracy of subsequent searches. Our analysis exploits changes in these policies prompted by the actions of policymakers. We find little empirical evidence that reducing the length of storage of past search engine searches affected the accuracy of search. Our results suggest that the possession of historical data confers less of an advantage in market share than is sometimes supposed. Our results also suggest that limits on data retention may impose fewer costs in instances where overly long data retention leads to privacy concerns such as an individual's ``right to be forgotten."

JEL-codes: K21 K24 K40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ict and nep-law
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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