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

Re:Wasn't it the EU?

[TubeSteak]

I certainly hope the AskEraser turns out to be solid as I would switch for good, but I'm prepared to be disappointed. AskEraser seems like the only one that will actually accomplish its goal.

They're really going to throw away your search information, not just 'anonymize' it.

Everyone else is hedging their bet with weasel words like "legally compelled to do so." Which means the government can wave some legal papers around and your data is retained indefinitely.

Re:OK - that's the front end

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, take a look at which one of them already basically said "fuck you" to the government when they were asked for search results.

As much as people like to say "OMG Google is killing my privacy!" they're the only ones who have shown that they won't bend over for someone who wants your information.