Case Study: "DuckDuckGo is a search engine that promises users that it will not collect any personal information from them in order to display ads based on tracking their previous searches and locations on the Internet. DuckDuckGo says that it is different than Google because Google puts millions of tracking devices on websites, allowing the company to see and remember every search a person has made and every website they've visited from those searches. According to the DuckDuckGo website, Google uses the massive amounts of information they collect on individual users to deliver targeted advertising, and to monitor which advertising gets viewed and clicked on.

Since its inception, use of DuckDuckGo has risen steadily as users become more and more concerned with privacy. Because DuckDuckGo does not track user information, everyone who enters the same search term gets the same search results. DuckDuckGo makes money in the same way Google does, by selling advertising, but their advertising is based only on search results not on compiled personal data. For example, if you search for "craft beer" you will get ads from other craft beer sites, but DuckDuckGo does not remember your previous search for "San Mateo, CA", so it will not give you only craft beer locations in San Mateo."

The purpose of search engines is to deliver information to consumers. One question users ask when first starting to use DuckDuckGo is "Will I get the Internet websites I need from my search with DuckDuckGo?" For example, one reviewer tried to get information about account verification on Vine, a form of social media. Twitter uses something called 'blue tick' to do this. When the reviewer entered 'vine green tick', he got results about bugs on grapevines. Google's first result was for a website entitled "Vine quietly adds verified badges for high-profile users." This is an issue of information:

Completeness or timeliness or relevance or accuracy?

Suppose that the developers of DuckDuckGo became concerned that Google engineers were trying to hack their system so that Google could get access to the search requests made on DuckDuckGo. Which of the following steps could they encourage users to take to prevent the hacking from working? Check all that apply.

Use a decision support system

Use artificial intelligence

Use a system of public/private key encryption

Work on a virtual private network (VPN)