The following article caught my attention this afternoon:

The UX Of Ethics: Should Google Tell You If You Have Cancer?

“If I’m on a park bench, and I’m next to someone, and I hear them talking about symptoms of cancer, am I obligated to turn around and tell them they might have cancer?”

… artificial intelligence products are rapidly approaching the same diagnostic power. Google Search can already predict coming flu trends with some level of success. It’s not hard to imagine a system that can track my searches over a year—an ache, a cough, a rash—recognizing a cascade of symptoms that point to a disease with surprising accuracy.

source: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3058943/the-ux-of-ethics-should-google-tell-you-if-you-have-cancer

I have not often considered the ethical implications of enterprise search.  The article above reminded me that the information people type into those small search boxes can be extremely sensitive and revealing.  Do you recall the 2006 release of anonymized search queries by AOL?  Some very simple detective work made it possible to identify real people and real situations, even with usernames removed.  For example, a vanity search for someone’s own name followed later in the day by a search for a rare medical condition or a financial problem.  And it got more personal and embarrassing from there.