Google to Cut Data Retention Time In Half

[GhostShip]

What have we here..

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080909-google-bows-to-eu-pressure-cuts-data-retention-period-agaom.html

Legislators in both the US and EU have been carefully eying the collection of personal identity information by search companies, raising the specter of mandated time limits on the retention of this data. That has caught the attention of many companies, leading a number to set more rigorous privacy policies. Google is among those paying attention, as last year, it bowed to pressure from the EU and shaved six months off its retention of identity information. In a further move to avert potential legislation, Google announced yesterday that it would cut the figure in half: IP addresses in its logs will now be anonymized after nine months.

Nine months is a strange figure to be discussing, its still rather a long term when you look at what they actuallly do with their data but any reduction is welcome even if they have been dragging their heels on this.

[Cobra]

From two years down to nine months through two reductions in only one year's time.

I'll take it.