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

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    Author
    Ghezzi, P; Bannister, PG; Casino, G; Catalani, A; Goldman, M; Morley, J; Neunez, M; Prados-Bo, A; Smeesters, PR; Taddeo, M; ...
    Date
    2020
    Source Title
    Frontiers in Medicine
    Publisher
    Frontiers Media SA
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    Smeesters, Pierre
    Affiliation
    Paediatrics (RCH)
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Citations
    Ghezzi, P., Bannister, P. G., Casino, G., Catalani, A., Goldman, M., Morley, J., Neunez, M., Prados-Bo, A., Smeesters, P. R., Taddeo, M., Vanzolini, T. & Floridi, L. (2020). Online Information of Vaccines: Information Quality, Not Only Privacy, Is an Ethical Responsibility of Search Engines.. Front Med (Lausanne), 7, pp.400-. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2020.00400.
    Access Status
    Open Access
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/252563
    DOI
    10.3389/fmed.2020.00400
    Open Access at PMC
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7431660
    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.

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