Mystic
03-16-2007, 02:51 AM
By anonymizing logs of information captured from people who search on Google after 18 to 24 months, the company hopes to improve the perception people have of their privacy being protected.
Google keeps data now for as long as finds the information useful. That could be an infinite period due to the relative low cost of storing that data.
They likely still feel the sting from last summer's oopsie at AOL, where a researcher posted reams of search data online that became big news just as the SES San Jose conference began. That leak enabled others to put together pretty accurate pictures of users, enough for the New York Times to positively identify one of them.
Once the privacy changes take effect, as described by Google's Peter Fleischer (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/taking-steps-to-further-improve-our.html), Privacy Counsel-Europe, and Nicole Wong, Deputy General Counsel, log data will be more anonymized:
By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we’re striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google’s services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices. In the future, it's possible that data retention laws will obligate us to retain logs for longer periods.
Laws and the whims of government, as aptly demonstrated when Google and Alberto Gonzales' Justice Departmet faced off in court over a federal subpoena for search data, left a lot of people worried about Washington grabbing even more personal information about citizens than they have already.
Even though Google managed to negotiate a settlement of far more limited scope than Justice wanted, numerous other search engines readily handed over thousands of search records, quietly and without complaint.
Google's new privacy policy isn't just an enhancement. It's a very public way of saying they will do what competitors haven't done and likely won't do themselves in the search engine space. While lawmakers could easily undo what Google wishes to accomplish, they have managed to make a very public differentiation between themselves and others.
Source (http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/2007/03/15/google-enhancing-user-privacy)
Google keeps data now for as long as finds the information useful. That could be an infinite period due to the relative low cost of storing that data.
They likely still feel the sting from last summer's oopsie at AOL, where a researcher posted reams of search data online that became big news just as the SES San Jose conference began. That leak enabled others to put together pretty accurate pictures of users, enough for the New York Times to positively identify one of them.
Once the privacy changes take effect, as described by Google's Peter Fleischer (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/taking-steps-to-further-improve-our.html), Privacy Counsel-Europe, and Nicole Wong, Deputy General Counsel, log data will be more anonymized:
By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we’re striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google’s services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices. In the future, it's possible that data retention laws will obligate us to retain logs for longer periods.
Laws and the whims of government, as aptly demonstrated when Google and Alberto Gonzales' Justice Departmet faced off in court over a federal subpoena for search data, left a lot of people worried about Washington grabbing even more personal information about citizens than they have already.
Even though Google managed to negotiate a settlement of far more limited scope than Justice wanted, numerous other search engines readily handed over thousands of search records, quietly and without complaint.
Google's new privacy policy isn't just an enhancement. It's a very public way of saying they will do what competitors haven't done and likely won't do themselves in the search engine space. While lawmakers could easily undo what Google wishes to accomplish, they have managed to make a very public differentiation between themselves and others.
Source (http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/2007/03/15/google-enhancing-user-privacy)