Ars readers hated this startup’s privacy policy—so the company changed it

Enlarge / This isn't the relationship you want to see between a company with access to your private data and its affiliates. (credit: Camerique / Getty Images)

When we covered subscription-based search engine startup Neeva in June, most reader focus wasn't on the search engine itself so much as its privacy policy, which left much to be desired—particularly given the option Neeva gives its users to search their email via the service. Shortly after publication, Neeva CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy reached out to Ars to discuss what went wrong and how the company planned to fix it.

Updated privacy policy

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  The especially noxious Affiliates and Advertising Partners sections of Neeva's original Privacy Policy have been entirely removed. [credit: Jim Salter ]

Ramaswamy told Ars that the company's intention was to provide a secure and privacy-respecting platform from the start. But, he added—and we're paraphrasing here—"lawyers will be lawyers," and it was "on him" that he had not inspected the policies drafted by the company's legal counsel closely enough. He told us that he heard our readers' feedback loud and clear, and he pledged to overhaul the policy to bring it in line with the company's actual vision.

The gallery above displays the three areas in the policy that have changed since the call with Ars. Both references to third-party advertising—and tracking technologies associated with such advertising—have been entirely removed. The major impact here lies in expectations for third-party intrusions into the Neeva site itself, and it's an important one—there isn't much point in paying a monthly subscription in return for privacy if your search metadata might be leaking to the public giants you're trying to avoid in the first place.

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