Search Sites Unveil Privacy Plans

Klaidas sends us word of BBC coverage of action on privacy by the top four search sites. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ask have introduced plans to reduce the data they store and how long they store it. From the article: "The rush to improve privacy policies was started by Google in March when it announced it would start deleting the final parts of the individual address it collects from each user's computer after 18 months... Microsoft is expected to make a similar announcement to separate the identifying address and other data from searches after 18 months. The information will be held for longer if users request it. Yahoo said it would delete identifying addresses and cookies after 13 months... Ask is taking the most radical step by unveiling plans for a tool called AskEraser which, it claims, will let people tune whether data is gathered about them on a search-by-search basis."

Comments

Wasn't it the EU?

[ThatsNotPudding]

"The rush to improve privacy policies was started by Google in March when it announced it would start deleting the final parts of the individual address it collects from each user's computer after 18 months..."

Umm, wasn't it because the EU forced Google to change their policies?

I certainly hope the AskEraser turns out to be solid as I would switch for good, but I'm prepared to be disappointed.

logs about deleting logs about...

[SuperBanana]

Ask is taking the most radical step by unveiling plans for a tool called AskEraser which, it claims, will let people tune whether data is gathered about them on a search-by-search basis."

AHA! But what happens to the logs from the AskEraser tool?

*runs for cover*

(Psst. Serious side note: with AT&T and others happily giving the NSA and others big fat listening tubes, who cares...about the end points? Besides, a 6 month retention policy gives Google plenty of time to do all sorts of analysis. They probably don't need *any* bits of your IP after a few days...)