EU panel: delete search info sooner.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT - European Union

A European advisory body has determined that there is no reason for search engines to retain search information for longer than six months.

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The Article 29 Working Party, whose recommendations are usually adopted by the European Commission, directed in its recently released report that search engines should retain any personal information they collect about their online users no longer than is necessary for the specific purposes of processing and not more than six months in order to protect privacy and guard against misuse of the information. Continued storage, according to the panel, would require "adequate justification."

Currently, Google retains information related to searches for 18 months. Microsoft also has an 18-month policy, while Yahoo! and AOL retain search requests for 13 months. According to the report, "In case search engine providers retain personal data longer than six months, they will have to demonstrate comprehensively that it is strictly necessary for the service. In all cases search engine providers must inform users about the applicable retention policies for all kinds of user data they process."

In its report, the panel, which monitors compliance with Europe's Data Protection Directive, issued a new set of obligations for search engines, specifying that

* Search engines should require users to give specific consent before receiving more personalized advertisements based on the search queries they conduct.

* Personal data should not be retained for longer than six months.

* Information stored for one purpose, such as security reasons, must not be used for other, unrelated purposes, such as optimizing the search service.

* In the event that a provider retains personal data for longer than six months for the purposes of security or fraud prevention, such retention should be "comprehensively justified."

Until last year, search engines generally kept search records indefinitely. But the retention issue heated up when Google announced it would reduce the period for which it keeps records to 24 and then 18 months and "anonomize" its search...