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Google Will Anonymize IP Logs Faster
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports on some changes to the data retention policy at Google in response to pressure from European authorities, but also included in the article is information about why Google claims they need to retain non-anonymised data for so long. Improving services, sure, but preventing fraud? Aiding 'valid legal orders'?"
Reader s0ckratees points to some commentary on the change at Google's official blog. The upshot: IP addresses in Google's logs will be anonymized after nine months, rather than 18 as previously.
China is the least of my concerns. How about the Justice Department or the Department of Homeland Security?
The Europeans might be pressuring Google to reduce its retention periods, but I suspect that Google heard the opposite point-of-view from the government here in the USA.
Frankly I think that none of Google's logs should carry identifying information. If they need to track IPs for some reason, put them in a separate database table that's unconnected to the contents of the search strings. Keeping this information much beyond a week or two seems unreasonable to me.