Google Changes Cookie Policy But Privacy Effect is Small
449573
Google shortens cookie expiration to two years, but regular users won't see privacy benefits.
401458
NEW YORK - People who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and Web searching have a new privacy risk to worry about: Google's free new tool that indexes a PC's contents for quickly locating data.    If it's installed on computers at libraries and Internet cafes, users could unwittingly allow people who follow them on the PCs, for example, to see sensitive information in e-mails they've exchanged...
200293
An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States.
166825
The site tweaks a privacy setting that had revealed personal information from private profiles after a Wired News inquiry, and explains its philosophy on users' privacy. Threat Level talks with chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly.
493186
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.
694673
Faced with concerns by European online privacy advocates, Google is promising to obscure information about people&#39;s Internet searches after only 18 months.
207215
Will keep your data for 18 months Google is cutting back the time it holds user-identifying data - a little. But will this be enough to placate privacy advocates?â¦
456833
The company's slogan may be "Don't be Evil", but Internet giant Google has been hit twice in as many weeks with allegations it doesn't respect users' privacy.
565113
Calls it a "public policy dialogue" A week after Privacy International ranked the privacy practices of 23 major web companies and put Google at the very bottom of the list, the Mountain View-based search giant has launched a brand new blog where it will regularly address matters of Internet privacy and other public policy issues, including copyright and trademark protection, online safety for children, content regulation, and patent reform.â¦
521176
BRUSSELS, May 25 -- An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google's Internet search engine follows European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States.
166255
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.
159829
Google deal prompts Federal Trade Commission to recently propose a set of privacy principles for online behavioral advertising.
310200
Addressing privacy concerns, the company announced on Tuesday that it would keep the Web search histories of users for only 18 months instead of 24.
566707
(InfoWorld) - Search portal Ask.com plans to make it easier for Web searchers to cover their tracks. The company is introducing a new feature to its Web portal later this year called AskEraser, which will let users perform anonymous searches. When AskEraser is turned on, the Web site will not retain the data it typically stores during a search, said Patrick Crisp, an Ask.com spokesman. "We will allow users to select a privacy setting that says 'I do not want you to retain my data at all,'" he said. If AskEraser is not turned on, the site will store the search query, the IP (Internet Protocol) address and some cookie information from the user, as well as the URL the user visited before coming to Ask.com, Crisp said. Search engines like Ask.com say that they retain this sort of information in order to improve their sites, but this practice has become controversial, with privacy advocates worrying that the data could be leaked or misused. Last year, AOL researchers inadvertently disclosed data on about 650,000 of searches made on the company's Web site. New York Times reporters were able to track down one of the searchers, based on the information contained in the AOL database. Bowing to pressure, Google recently announced that it would make the data it stores about its users anonymous after 18 to 24 months. Ask.com, which is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp., said it plans to implement a similar policy and will no longer link searches to IP addresses after a period of 18 months. That policy will be implemented by year's end, Crisp said. "We are eliminating the possibility of someone associating those queries with the person who made them." AskEraser will be available on the Ask.com and Ask.co.uk Web sites by the end of 2007. It will roll out to other markets next year.
755062
Google Inc. said it will soon start issuing user cookies that automatically expire after two years for users who don't return to the search site.
114943
(InfoWorld) - Google has decided to make the data it stores about end-users anonymous in its server logs after 18 months, according to a blog posted Monday by the company's global privacy counsel. Previously, Google had said it would make the data anonymous after 18 to 24 months. The decision comes in response to a letter the company received last month from a European Union data protection working group regarding Google's privacy policies. Separately, a report released last week by Privacy International ranked Google worse than any other Internet company in protecting the privacy of its users. In its letter, the Article 29 Working Party, an advisory panel of representatives from the E.U.'s national data protection authorities, asked Google to explain why it needed to keep user data for 18 to 24 months. The group said server logs contain information that can be linked to a particular person and that collecting such data must comply with the EU's data protection laws. The working group said keeping the information for 18 to 24 months does not meet those laws, and it asked Google to justify its reasons for keeping the information for that length of time. The group said it planned to discuss this issue at a meeting later this month. In a response, privacy counsel Peter Fleischer said: "The Internet is a global medium, and the principles at stake -- privacy, security, innovation, and legal obligations to retain data -- have an impact beyond Europe and outside of the realm of privacy." He added: "These principles sometimes conflict: While shorter retention periods are good for privacy, longer retention periods are needed for security, innovation, and compliance reasons." Fleischer said Google believed it had "struck a reasonable balance between these various factors" and that its policies were consistent with E.U. data protection laws. Fleischer said Google needed to retain server logs for a variety of reasons, including: to improve its search algorithms for the benefit of users; to defend its systems by fighting click fraud and spam; to comply with data retention legal obligations; and to "meet valid legal orders from law enforcement as they investigate and prosecute serious crimes like child exploitation." "After considering the Working Party's concerns, we are announcing a new policy: to anonymize our search server logs after 18 months, rather than the previously established period of 18 to 24 months," Fleischer said. "We believe that we can still address our legitimate interests in security, innovation, and anti-fraud efforts with this shorter period. However, we must point out that future data retention laws may obligate us to raise the retention period to 24 months." Fleisher said Google disagrees that it could meet "legitimate interests in security, innovation, and anti-fraud efforts with any retention period shorter than 18 months." In addition, Fleischer said Google was considering the working party's concerns about cookie expiration periods and said it was looking into ways to redesign cookies to improve privacy and would make an announcement on the issue in the coming months. "As we build new products and services, we look forward to continuing our discussion with the Article 29 Working Party and with privacy stakeholders around the world. Our common goal is to improve privacy protections for our users," Fleischer said. In his blog, search engine analyst Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com said, "It's nice to see Google make such a fast, responsive move, though it is reacting to something that felt more like a political show rather than a real effort to improve privacy protection." Sullivan also criticized the working group for singling out Google. "I find the letter fairly amazing from a group that supposedly is concerned about privacy, in how it fails to ask any substantial questions and suggests, frankly, technical ignorance," he said in his blog. "It simply feels motivated out of political posturing. Where are the letters for Microsoft and Yahoo?"ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
374000
Group seeks changes for more privacy during Web searches, like using an opt-in cookie instead of opt-out.