Permutation of Web Search Query Types for User Intent Privacy

Abstract

Privacy remains a major concern when using search engines to find for information on the web due to the fact that search engines own massive resources in preserving search logs of each user and organizations. However, many of the present query search privacy practices require the very same search engine and third party to collaborate, making privacy even more difficult. Therefore, as a contribution, we present a heuristic, permutation of web search query types, a non-cryptographic heuristic that works by formation of obfuscated search queries via permutation of query keyword categories. Preliminary results from this study show that web search query and specific user intent privacy might be achievable from the user side without involvement of the search engine or other third parties by the permutation of web search query types.