Search engines start to minimise data retention

Ask.com, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have all announced their own initiatives to deal with the tricky issue. Furthermore, Microsoft and Ask have proposed an industry effort to create voluntary standards for protecting consumer privacy with search and online ads, notes Silicon.com. The companies said they would provide an update in September. Full Silicon.com report

Ask.com has become the first major search engine to promise users it won\'t store data on their queries. While Ask.com won\'t store the data, the new controls won\'t guarantee user anonymity, The Globe and Mail report notes. As Ask\'s advertising partner, Google would receive and could retain the data in question. Search terms also appear in the Web address sent to Ask and a user\'s Internet service provider could retain that information. However, Doug Leeds, of Ask, said that the company would be reviewing its contracts with Google and other third parties to limit what they could do with the information. In addition, Ask hoped the move would pressure rivals to also adopt tighter privacy controls. Full report in The Globe and Mail

Yahoo is also on the bandwagon and has vowed to remove portions of IP addresses and personally identifiable cookie IDs within 13 months except when users want the data retained for longer or when the company is required to retain it for law enforcement or legal processes, reports InternetNews. ‘We believe the 13-month policy is the appropriate timeline to meet our commitment to our users\' privacy while preserving our ability to continue to defend against fraudulent activity and improve our services to advertisers, publishers and users,’ a spokesperson said. Full InternetNews report

Microsoft says that its move is a response to public concern over the recent consolidation of the online ad industry as well as stepped up interest from government regulators in its call for a comprehensive rather than a piecemeal approach to privacy, reports AustralianIT. Microsoft said it would make all Web search query data anonymous after 18 months on its \'Live Search\' service, unless it receives user consent to store it longer. Microsoft planned to store customer search data separately from data tied to individuals and take steps to ensure no unauthorised correlation of these types of data could be made. It would also permanently remove \'cookie\' user identification data, Web address, or other identifiers. Full AustralianIT report

In Europe, Alexander Dix, Berlin\'s security and privacy representative, said that the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, a group of European privacy experts, welcomed Google reducing its cookie time to two years, but he said the group would discuss whether Google has gone far enough, according to Silicon.com. Dix said that Google renewing the cookie every time a person used either Google or a site using Google applications was not a major privacy concern, as users could control cookies by configuring their browser. However, Dix said that a bigger concern was the anonymisation of server log data. Full Silicon.com report

Staying with Google news: Executives of the search giant are expected to be called to testify before House and Senate subcommittees about the company’s planned $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick, a deal that is already facing close scrutiny from federal antitrust regulators. Various companies have complained that the merger would limit competition in the online advertising market. In addition, privacy advocates have voiced concerns about the deal\'s impact on consumer privacy, The New York Times reports. A subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to call a hearing to explore the antitrust and privacy issues raised not only by the Google deal but also by recent consolidation in the online advertising market. No date has been set for either the House or Senate hearings. Full report in The New York Times Read another report in The Washington Post