Internet

Search and Advertising

Economists are interested in how the design of ad auctions affects search engine revenues, and how access to the Internet – and thus to search engines – affects retail prices and possibly leads to higher prices for certain consumers.

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TAP Academics

Catherine Tucker
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Innovation and Economic Growth, Networks, the Internet, and Cloud Computing, Internet, Search and Advertising

James Grimmelmann
Cornell University
Intellectual Property, Privacy and Security, Copyright and Trademark, Networks, the Internet, and Cloud Computing, Cloud Computing, Internet, Search and Advertising, Media and Content

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TAP Blog

Private browsing: What it does – and doesn’t do – to shield you from prying eyes on the web

Carnegie Mellon University computer science and privacy expert Lorrie Cranor and her colleague Hana Habib, Graduate Research Assistant with CMU, explain what the private-browsing tools available with most browsers actually provide users. They clarify: “don’t confuse privacy for anonymity.”

Lorrie Faith Cranor

August 21, 2020

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Fact Sheets

Search Engines, Advertising, and Auctions

Search engines – such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and a variety of other smaller search engines – help users find what they are looking for online by finding web pages that match user-entered keywords. Search engines are free to users, but typically earn revenue through paid advertising.

Quote

This Deal Helped Turn Google Into an Ad Powerhouse. Is That a Problem?

“If I knew in 2007 what I know now, I would have voted to challenge the DoubleClick acquisition,” — William Kovacic, Professor of Law, George Washington University

William E. Kovacic
The New York Times
September 21, 2020

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“It’s a scavenger hunt”: Usability of Websites’ Opt-Out and Data Deletion Choices

Privacy laws require websites to offer consumers options such as the choice to opt out of advertising or to delete account data. On many sites, these options are poorly labelled and hard to find.

By: Alessandro Acquisti, Florian Schaub, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Hana Habib, Jiamin Wang, Norman Sadeh, Sarah Pearman, Yixin Zou

April 5, 2020

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