Google Inc. said it will cut the time it stores users' personally identifiable search data to nine months from 18 months, responding to regulators in the U.S. and Europe who are concerned about privacy.After that amount of time, the query data is made anonymous by removing the computer's IP address and other identifiers from the search terms.
Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy adviser, also said changes are being made to Google's "Suggest" application, which helps users by recommending search terms based on what they've already typed. He said Google logs 2% of data collected on such searches, but said such records now will all be erased after a 24-hour period, starting this month.
The announcements were meant to appease EU data protection officers who have questioned the need for search engines to keep records of users' behavior.
Google and other Internet search engines such as those run by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. all save data from users' computers. The companies say that keeping users' data and search history improves the search engine by fighting spam, helping the search engine recognize misspellings and offering users alternative search terms.
After a certain period of time, the companies all make that data anonymous, which is less useful for search purposes. Indeed, Google said the new policy on data saving would "have costs" for Google's ability to improve its services by delivering more relevant search results and advertisements.
Wall Street Journal; September 10, 2008
