Yahoo Reverses Course on Data Retention

Privacy advocates have long pressed search companies and ISPs to minimize the time they keep user data, and in late 2008, Yahoo won plaudits for cutting its retention time for most customer information down to 90 days. Today, however, the company did a 180, announcing that by mid-July it will start retaining raw search log files for 18 months and will re-evaluate the retention time for other data. The intent, Yahoo said, is to balance privacy with the personalization features of a more social Internet. Unmentioned, but also part of the broader debate: The desires of law enforcement here and in Europe.