Online Information of Vaccines: Information Quality, Not Only Privacy, Is an Ethical Responsibility of Search Engines

Abstract

The fact that Internet companies may record our personal data and track our online behavior for commercial or political purpose has emphasized aspects related to online privacy. This has also led to the development of search engines that promise no tracking and privacy. Search engines also have a major role in spreading low-quality health information such as that of anti-vaccine websites. This study investigates the relationship between search engines' approach to privacy and the scientific quality of the information they return. We analyzed the first 30 webpages returned searching “vaccines autism” in English, Spanish, Italian, and French. The results show that not only “alternative” search engines (Duckduckgo, Ecosia, Qwant, Swisscows, and Mojeek) but also other commercial engines (Bing, Yahoo) often return more anti-vaccine pages (10–53%) than Google.com (0%). Some localized versions of Google, however, returned more anti-vaccine webpages (up to 10%) than Google.com . Health information returned by search engines has an impact on public health and, specifically, in the acceptance of vaccines. The issue of information quality when seeking information for making health-related decisions also impact the ethical aspect represented by the right to an informed consent. Our study suggests that designing a search engine that is privacy savvy and avoids issues with filter bubbles that can result from user-tracking is necessary but insufficient; instead, mechanisms should be developed to test search engines from the perspective of information quality (particularly for health-related webpages) before they can be deemed trustworthy providers of public health information.

Online information on face masks in Italian and English websites: deficiencies and responsibilities of search engines

“…In general the comparison between the different SERPs confirms the conclusions by our earlier studies 14 15 indicating that Google provides information that is more aligned with the scientific consensus, which we interpret as higher information quality, than other search engines, particularly Duckduckgo that also returned the highest number of webpages reporting conspiracy theories and a low number of debunking webpages. However, Google in Italian provides an overall lower quality information than in English.…”

“…We therefore wondered whether different behaviors in different countries could be related to the type of online information on the potentially negative effects of face masks and their association with conspiracy theories. Using a methodology and a workflow previously used to study anti-vaccine information in different countries 14 15 , we analyzed the websites returned by searching the string “are face masks dangerous” in Italy’, the UK and the USA. Because different search engines in different countries and languages can differ significantly in the quality of the information they provide on health topics 14 15 , we used three: Bing, Duckduckgo (a privacy-savvy, no-tracking engine) and Google.…”

“…Using a methodology and a workflow previously used to study anti-vaccine information in different countries 14 15 , we analyzed the websites returned by searching the string “are face masks dangerous” in Italy’, the UK and the USA. Because different search engines in different countries and languages can differ significantly in the quality of the information they provide on health topics 14 15 , we used three: Bing, Duckduckgo (a privacy-savvy, no-tracking engine) and Google. We analyzed the first 50 webpages each of them returned in the different localizations in English and Italian.…”

Informação, Misinformação, Desinformação e movimentos antivacina: materialidade de enunciados em regimes de informação

“…Considerando que informações sobre saúde recuperadas por buscadores têm impacto na saúde pública -sobremaneira na aceitação das vacinas -, 5 o estudo de Ghezzi et al (2020) objetivou pesquisar a " [...] relação entre a abordagem dos motores de busca tocante à privacidade e a qualidade científica das informações que eles retornam"…”

“…Dentre os principais argumentos para a recusa da vacina, por ora em 5 A pesquisa foi motivada pelo pressuposto de que se por um lado há a expectativa de os buscadores respeitarem a privacidade, tais mecanismos também têm tido um papel importante na divulgação de informação em saúde da baixa qualidade, como é o caso dos sites antivacinas. Inicialmente, os autores realizaram consultas em motores de busca "alternativos" (Duckduckgo, Ecosia, Qwant, Swisscows, and Mojeek) e outros comerciais (Bing, Yahoo) e recuperaram, nas 30 primeiras páginas, 10-53% de websites antivacina, quando consultados sobre o tema "vacinas utismo" ("vaccines autism") nos idiomas inglês, francês, italiano e espanhol, contra 0% no Google (GHEZZI et al, 2020). 6 Pós-verdade ou Post-truth (termo popularizado em 2016 pelo Oxford English Dictionary), significa que a propagação de mentiras se torna uma rotina em toda sociedade, a despeito da impossibilidade de condenações judiciais, por exemplo, para os políticos (HIGGINS, 2016).…”