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Google has taken another step to silence its privacy critics by declaring it will halve the length of time it stores its users’ details, though not without some reluctance. In a response to EU data regulators, the US search engine said it would make its users IP addresses anonymous after 9 months, rather than the current 18 months. While it was “glad” to improve user privacy,” it said it was also “concerned about the potential loss of security, quality and innovation that may result from having less data.” Google is working on the “implementation details” of cutting its IP retention time, a move which it has argued gives just “incremental” privacy benefits at the expense of degrading data utility. “It's difficult to find the perfect equilibrium between privacy on the one hand, and other factors, such as innovation and security, on the other,” testified Peter Fleischer, Google’s Privacy Council. Writing on the corporate blog, he explained Google may not be able to use precisely the same techniques for anonymising after 18 months, but was “committed” to making 9 months work. European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot reportedly said the change was "a good step in the right direction" but noted that retention for up to six months was the recommended EU target. In a statement to Reuters, he attached "special significance" to a new Google policy of informing users about its privacy policies in an easily understood way and welcomed its communication with data regulators. Sep 12, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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