To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39167455,00.htm

Google bites the privacy bullet
Scales back data retention...

By Reuters

Published: Tuesday 12 June 2007

Google is scaling back how long it keeps personally identifiable data accumulated from its web users, seeking to mollify a European Union watchdog that has questioned its privacy policies.

The world's top provider of web search services said it is ready to curtail the time it stores user data to a year-and-a-half, the low end of an 18- to 24-month period it had originally proposed to regulators in March.

But Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel said in a letter addressed to the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party in Brussels that any regulatory requirement to keep data for less than 18 months would undermine Google's services.

Got two seconds?

Make your voice heard - take our latest poll.

He said in the letter dated 10 June: "After considering the Working Party's concerns, we are announcing a new policy: to anonymise our search server logs after 18 months, rather than the previously established period of 18 to 24 months." The server logs refer to software that stores web search histories.

Fleischer added: "We believe that we can still address our legitimate interests in security, innovation and anti-fraud efforts with this shorter period."

Google is seeking to ease the concerns of regulators in Europe and the US, as well as a small but vocal chorus of privacy activists who see the scope of Google's web services as posing unprecedented threats to consumer privacy.

Each time a Google user searches the web, the company gathers information about that customer's tastes, interests and beliefs which could potentially be used by third parties such as advertisers. Google shares general user statistics but is adamant it never shares personal data outside the company.

The European Union body, made up of national protection supervisors of the bloc's 27 member states, said in May that Google seemed to be failing to respect EU privacy rules and asked for clarification before its next meeting in mid-June.

Google has sought to take the lead in defining a global standard for rules governing online retention of consumer data. Other household internet names - including Amazon.com, AOL, Apple, eBay, Microsoft and MySpace - have yet to disclose any limits on how long they retain consumer data, according to a recent report by Privacy International.

In the May letter, the Working Party also expressed concern about the length of time Google retains web surfing tracking data known as "cookies" and other details on users' searches.

Google said it was studying how it can meet the concerns of European regulators over cookies, a widely used consumer-tracking technology that websites rely on to customise what users see and advertisers use to target ads.

The letter adds: "We are exploring ways to redesign cookies and to reduce their expiration. We plan to make an announcement about privacy improvements for our cookies in the coming months."