Search engine giant Google says it will limit how long it keeps
information on Internet users' searches.
Google keeps information linking searches with specific computers, but
said it will make that information anonymous after 18 to 24 months,
The New York Times reported.
"We have decided to make this change with feedback from privacy
advocates, regulators worldwide and, of course, from our users,"
Nicole Wong, Google's deputy general counsel, told The Times.
The move got mixed results from privacy advocates.
"I think it is an absolute disaster for online privacy," Marc
Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, told The Times.
He predicted that because Google is so dominant in the search engine
world, other companies would likely follow the 18- to 24-month
standard, which he told The Times was too long.
But Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the group Center for Democracy
and Technology, seemed to see it in a better light.
"This is really the first time we have seen them make a decision to
try and work out the conflict between wanting to be pro-privacy and
collecting all the world's information," he told The Times. "They are
not going to keep a profile on you indefinitely."
© 2007 UPI
