Mazhar Buttar: Research Question

3 Responses to Mazhar Buttar: Research Question

1. erum.zubair says:

   October 20, 2011 at 10:27 pm

   Hi Mazhar! I like your topic and I am actually doing something very similar to the privacy policy of Google. My advice to you is that you need to make your research question much more specific. I feel that it is general right now. Just the topic of Google’s Privacy Policy may be too vague. Maybe you should focus on a specific field regarding Google’s Privacy Policy. For example, you may want to focus on how is the personal information of Google users protected; such as medical issues, financials, location, etc. Or you could also specify your topic to Google’s Privacy Policy in a certain country. Additionally, there are many other fields of Google regarding the privacy policy that you can research like Google Maps or Street View. Hope this helps!
2. helder.correia says:

   October 23, 2011 at 7:28 pm

   I agree with Erum. I think you should really focus on narrowing down on a specific search query. Maybe you could focus on Google users searching about specific medical issues they could have and how Google could possibly use that information.
3. Stephen Francoeur says:

   October 26, 2011 at 9:45 pm

   Your classmates have already made some good suggestions about narrowing your topic. The topic area of what Google does with “sensitive” search queries is a very interesting one that I hope you pursue. Maybe in your research, you’ll discover in a newspaper or magazine article a good example of where search query data that Google held compromised someone’s expectations of privacy. Your research question could then become a case study about whether Google did the right thing or about some other interesting question about the case. That’s just one way among many to focus your question. I hope we’ll have a chance to talk about more.

   I’d like to note that as it stands, the wording on your topic could use some sharpening as well. When you ask to what extent can Google’s privacy policy be trusted, that phrasing opens up a lot of questions in my mind about what you really mean. Be trusted how? By saying “to what extent” you are suggesting that trust is something that can be measured or specified along some continuum. But how would that be done exactly? And is it the privacy policy that people trust or is it “Google” that they are trusting? How do you define “sensitive” when it comes to search queries? Sensitive in what ways? Maybe you want to pick one area and name it in your question (such as issues relating to sexuality, or maybe health conditions, or something like that).

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