EU Recommends Slashing Search Data Retention

Wayland writes "The European Union's Article 29 Working Group has completed its PDF report on data protection and search engines. The group recommends that search engines only be allowed to hold onto search data for six months. 'To hang onto data for longer, search engine operators will need to show that such data is "strictly necessary" to offer the service. Google and others have long said that they need to retain data in order to refine search results, prevent click fraud, and launch new services like spell check (which, in Google's case, was built from user search data). In addition, the data that is kept will need to be guarded more closely. The working group concluded that IP addresses could be used to identify individuals; if not by the search engine itself, then by law enforcement or after a subpoena.'"

Comments

Re:How come EU is always more consumer-protectioni

[freedom_india]

And libel/privacy laws don't seem such a good idea Yeah, true. Especially when you are pronounced as a "Person of Interest" by Ashcroft (even though no such term legally exists), hounded by press, exposed as a CIA agent, etc., and then the press holding up relaxed libel law to get away with character and personality assasination.
Take Fox news for instance: Delibrately calling Obama as osama, The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth incident...
and these are just samples where i wish the ruthlessly effective libel law of EU applied in US.
Imagine the SBVT campaigners for bush being arrested, handcuffed and convicted to 3 months in prison.
Or Fox news CEO being convicted of Libel and forced to resign and pay huge compensations.
Or the bald idiot who exposed the CIA agent being forced to serve 18 yrs in prison....

Re:RTFA, lemming

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't like the service google is providing use a different service. It's as simple as that. Why should google change its business practices just because you want to search for buttplugs?