  We next examine privacy concerns in which search engine users themselves are the data subjects (i.e., for search engine companies). Zimmer (2008, 83) notes that personal information about users is “routinely collected” when they use search engines for their “information-seeking activities.” But why, exactly, is this problematic from the perspective of privacy? For one thing, search engine companies such as Google create a record of every search made by users, and these records are also archived. The topic searched for, as well as the date and time the specific search request is made by a user, are included in the record. Until recently, many people had been unaware that their search queries were being recorded and tracked.