Search Users Overwhelmingly Opposed to Personalized Results

65% of search engine users say that search engines keeping track of their searchers and using the information to personalize their future results is a bad thing because it limits the information they get online and what results they see, according to [pdf] survey results released in March 2012 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. An even greater proportion (73%) of search users are not comfortable with search engines collecting user information to personalize search results because they see it as an invasion of their privacy. This view is relatively consistent across age groups, though is most pronounced among those over 50, with 83% saying they feel it is a bad thing on account of it being an invasion of their privacy.