EU demands Google slashes cookie retention times
Six months is more than enough
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An influential EC policy group, the Article 29 Working Party, is calling on search engines to delete users' cookies within six months - a much shorter period than that typically used by Google, MSN, and Yahoo!
Google volunteered to anonymise information held after 18 to 24 months following earlier EC concerns. After further negotiations with Article 29 this was lowered to 18 months. So the information was still kept but it did not include anything that could identify individuals.
Article 29 is made up of privacy regulators from member states - the UK is represented by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas. The review of search engines comes from an article, in English, on the Dutch Data Protection Authority website following the group's meeting in Brussels last week.
Although the group's advice is not binding it is likely to be broadly adopted by the European Commission.
The Working Party finds that search engines are covered by the Data Protection Directive. They must delete or anonymise personal data "once they are no longer necessary for the purpose for which they were collected". Search engines must also inform users of any third party use of their data.
The Working Party also warns that any "enrichment" of user profiles, with data not provided by the users, needs those users' consent.
Google says it keeps the information in order to improve search results - by identifying what you have previously searched for it can do a better job of fine-tuning future search results. It is also, of course, useful for targeting advertising.
On its public policy blog Google repeated the importance of data logs to improving its search service claiming that: "Today, a Google search is far more likely to provide you with the information you're looking for that it did a few years ago."
The search giant also disagreed with the policy group's view that IP addresses should be treated as personal information. Google blogged: "Based on our own analysis, we believe that whether or not an IP address is personal data depends on how the data is being used.".
Google wants the benefits of data warehousing - improvements in services - to be included in discussions of user privacy. ®
COMMENTS
More a user issue, surely?
I'm not taking sides for or against the EU or Google. But I think the issue of regulating cookie retention is over-rated.
The answer, surely, is in the users' hands? The commonly used browsers - IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konquerer - all have the facility to delete cookies (either by demand or on exit). Most have the facility to do so selectively - that is, for users to select which cookies to delete.
Personally, I set my browser to delete all cookies on exit. I know that some people like or need cookie-reliant functionality on some sites so I concede that indiscriminate deletion isn't always an attractive option.
Ultimately it's up to the user how much she or he values their privacy. The paranoid can renew browser sessions between every site; they can set security and privacy settings to 'high'; they can disable Active X (in IE) or run add-ons such as NoScript; they can empty caches or set their browser not to cache anything; they can run Stephen Gould's CleanUp! utility after every browser session; they can break and re-establish their DSL connection to gain a new IP address (assuming their ISP provides dynamically assigned IPs) ; and if they're not in a hurry then can use Anonymouse or Tor.
And all that without any intervention by our masters in Brussels.
don't trust google
Why don't you all use gzapper, and end the problem once and for all.
"Based on our own analysis"
Wonderful justification, Google.
Based on my analysis, my IP is like my home address. I'll give it to you if I have to, but I expect you to be well-behaved enough to not come knocking without an invitation
Especially if you come to sell me something.
But this is all irrelevant anyway. In my hosts file, I have the major ad servers redirected to 127.0.0.1, and I use Firefox with Adblock.
Ads ? I used to see them.
Have fun with your cookies, Google.
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