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

OK - that's the front end

[no-body]

Any backdoor data rention deals are not revealed since it would compromise national (US) security.

Whom do you trust more - or less for that matter:

• Google
• Microsoft
• Yahoo
• Ask

(just kidding - they're probably all the same when it comes to those black SUV driving up)