Search site Ask.com is letting users delete data on their search queries beginning today, with a feature on its home page and search pages, where users can easily choose whether or not to their data is stored.  “AskEraser” is activated with a click on a clearly marked “On” or “Off” button.
    
It’s the clearest move yet by a major Internet site to let users protect their own privacy online, and could put pressure on other search engines or sites to make it easy to opt out of that ooky Big Brother feeling on the Web.
    
Microsoft and Ask had both committed earlier this year to making Web search query data anonymous after 18 months, separating it from data that identifies people or their computers.
    
Of course the steps come as major Web search sites and portals invest billions into tracking user behavior and responses online, to better send them advertising. Even Ask.com says the added privacy comes with a price — personalized features for users on the site will also be turned off when the AskEraser is activated.
    
“The baby unfortunately needs to be thrown out with the bathwater,” Ask CEO Jim Lanzone told us. “If we’re not going to store ‘cookies’ … you’ll lose the benefit of any registered user products. We will put that choice in their hands.” 
(Reuters)   (NYTimes)

Keep an eye on:

• In more fallout from the Hollywood writers strike, the Television Critics Association says it’s canceling its annual January meeting, where networks and cable channels promote upcoming program schedules. (AP)   
• Scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits. (NYTimes)
• A U.S. judge sentenced former media mogul Conrad Black to 6-1/2 years in prison for obstructing justice and defrauding shareholders in one-time newspaper publishing empire Hollinger International Inc. (Reuters)
• Martha Stewart Living to stop publishing Blueprint magazine as a standalone publication early next year to invest more heavily in its digital and weddings divisions. Blueprint will remain the brand for an online blog. (Reuters)