5. The method of claim 1 further comprising selectively transmitting targeted advertising along with the plurality of search results, wherein the transmitting the targeted advertising is avoided in response to the first search query being declared as private.
1. A method of operating an application search system, the method comprising: storing, in an application record data store, a plurality of application records corresponding respectively to a plurality of applications; storing, in a privacy record data store, for each application of at least some of the plurality of applications, a global privacy indicator specific to the application and applicable to all users; in response to receiving a first search query from a user device: identifying a plurality of search results responsive to the first search query from the application record data store, the plurality of search results corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of application records; for each search result of the plurality of search results, selectively determining a privacy indicator based on the privacy record data store; determining a search sensitivity value based on the privacy indicators; declaring the first search query as private based on the search sensitivity value; transmitting the plurality of search results to the user device; and in response to the first search query being declared as private, transmitting a search privacy indicator to the user device.