Google cuts data retention times
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Search engine giant Google is to cut the length of time that it retains users' personally identifiable data.
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You'd be surprised what search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search record and retain in their vast data banks.
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By Steve Lawson  GOOGLE are overhauling their search system so it returns results from news sites, blogs and video services instead of just from web pages.
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As part of the ongoing concern over privacy and retention of private information gather from its users, Google is setting a new policy to reduce the lifetime of cookies to a period of 2 years auto-expire term. What this means is that users who visited Google&#8217;s site and continues to visit Google will have their [...]
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By Kevin J. O'Brien and Thomas Crampton  In the latest example of a U.S. technology giant potentially being called on the carpet in Europe, Google has been warned that it may be violating European Union privacy laws by storing data on its users for up to two years.
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Google wants to help you effectively access the piles of information you store in the documents, e-mail messages, Web pages, and contact lists stuffed on your PC.
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Google Inc. doesn't have all the answers &#151; a fact underscored by the Internet search leader's decision to abandon a 4-year-old service that hired researchers to field questions on everything from school homework to sports trivia.
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By CONSTANT BRAND  LUXEMBOURG - A European Union official on Wednesday applauded Google Inc.'s offer to cut by a quarter the time it retains data on its users' searches.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has enhanced its enterprise search device, doubling its capacity and adding new query capabilities. The Search Appliance's maximum capacity has been increased to 30 million documents, up from 15 million, Google announced Tuesday. The increased capacity comes via a software upgrade that also includes search query enhancements. The software upgrade is available to Search Appliance owners with an active support plan. All owners get access to the search query enhancements, but they have to pay extra if they want additional capacity. The Search Appliance, introduced in 2002, is a hardware box with Google search engine software designed to index and retrieve documents stored in enterprise servers. The Search Appliance model that can index up to 30 million documents is the GB-8008, the line's most advanced. Google doesn't disclose its price but its 30 million document configuration can cost "in the high six figures," said Matthew Glotzbach, head of products for the Google Enterprise unit. The intermediate model, the GB-5005, has a 10 million document capacity, while the entry model, the GB-1001, starts at US$30,000 and can index up to 3 million documents. Although the off-the-shelf GB-8008 now has a maximum capacity of 30 million documents, Google can make the product index more documents through custom configurations. "We can easily do a 100 million document system," he said. With this week's upgrade, all Search Appliance models have gained the ability to limit search results by a date range. For example, a user now can retrieve documents published in, say, the first quarter of 2004. The Search Appliance now also can narrow search results by number range. This might be useful for e-commerce companies, so they can let their customers find products within a specific price range. The purchase of a Search Appliance includes a 2-year support plan, which in turn includes software updates and telephone technical assistance. Google also has a smaller search device called the Google Mini, aimed at departments and small and medium-size businesses, as well as an enterprise desktop search application. Google competes with vendors like Autonomy Corp. PLC and FAST Search & Transfer ASA in the enterprise search market.
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Following the example set last week by Ask.com's AskEraser announcement, Microsoft has jouned the push toward greater user privacy protections for search-engine queries. The company will introduce an anonymous-surfing option and a new data-retention policy that will purge identifiable info after 18 months.
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Google is being investigated by the European Union over possible violation of the bloc's privacy rules. At issue is the search engine's practice of retaining user information for up to two years.
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(InfoWorld) - Google Inc. will make the data it stores about end users anonymous in its server logs after 18 months, part of an effort to deflate concerns about privacy raised last month by a European Union working group. In a letter sent to the group on Monday, Google also said it is looking at ways to redesign its Web cookies and reduce the length of time they are stored on users' PCs. Cookies are small files that uniquely identify a Web browser and are widely used to track surfing behavior and store user preferences. The letter, from Google's global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, was in response to a letter sent last month by the E.U.'s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, which outlined its concerns about Google's service. Among them, it questioned why the company needed to retain its server logs for 18 to 24 months, saying the practice does not appear to meet Europe's data protection rules. The server logs, which include search histories, can be linked to individual users and therefore constitute personal data, the group said. Fleischer responded by saying that Google would make data anonymous in its server logs after 18 months, the low end of its previous commitment. "We ... firmly reject any suggestions that we could meet our legitimate interests in security, innovation and anti-fraud efforts with any retention periods shorter than 18 months," Fleischer wrote. The company said it needs the log data to improve its search algorithms, fight click fraud and spam, comply with data retention laws, and meet "valid legal orders from law enforcement as they investigate and prosecute serious crimes like child exploitation." It noted that the E.U.'s own Data Retention Directive will require companies to retain such data for 6 to 18 months when new laws go into effect by 2009. Since few countries have passed their retention laws yet, "we have no choice but to be prepared to retain log data for up to 24 months," Fleischer wrote. The working group had also complained about the length of time Google stores cookies on users' PCs. Google said that it is exploring ways to redesign its cookies to improve privacy and that it would make an announcement "in the coming months." One observer, while acknowledging privacy concerns about Google, was critical of the working group for singling out one company. "These concerns would have been equally applicable to Yahoo or Microsoft or many other companies on the Internet," said Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the Web site Search Engine Land, who wrote a detailed analysis of Google's response. Microsoft and Yahoo have not specified how long they store their log files, he said, and they may retain them for longer than Google. He also said the group showed "technical ignorance" by focussing on server logs. Like other search engines, Google collects information about users each time they register for a service such as Gmail or Adwords. These "user databases" contain more personal information than server logs can gather, and they are often retained until a user closes the account or actively deletes the information, he said. The working group in its letter last month cited Google's "market position and ever-growing dominance." It also thanked the company for its "ongoing engagement with the data protection community," especially in contrast with "a lack of engagement by some of the other leading players" in the search industry. The group is expected to discuss Google's response at a meeting later this month. Â
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Google Inc. on Wednesday introduced a way to move its online software applications off the Internet, hoping the flexibility will encourage more people to use the free services and extend the company's clout beyond its ubiquitous search engine.
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The decision by Google to limit the retention of identifiable search data to a flat 18 months (as opposed to the 18-24 month range announced earlier) earned the company some rare praise from the European Union, which has been critical of Google&#39;s privacy policies.
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While servers and backup tapes are normally off limits to Google searches, Google's GSA tool does include a mechanism to deal with archived data. Known as the OneBox for Enterprise, it acts as an interface between the GSA and 3rd party search engines.
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Media & professional: Google to begin deleting private information it stores on the computers of millions of users.
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Google released enhanced search tools that let companies sift through as many as 30 million documents kept on networks or websites.