7 posts and columns on data retention

French Data Regulators to Google: How About Making Your Answers to Our Questions Universally Accessible and Useful?

in News on May 24 at 4:02 am PT

Just answer the damn questions, would ya?
google_greater_than_you

News Byte

Yahoo Reverses Course on Data Retention

in News on April 18, 2011 at 12:30 pm PT

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.

EU Slams Google, Microsoft and Yahoo Over Data Retention

in News on May 27, 2010 at 9:28 am PT

The privacy practices of the world’s three largest search engines are under fire in Europe again. European Union officials sent letters to Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo yesterday claiming their data protection policies flout EU data retention rules.

No More Bing Brother, Says Microsoft

in News on January 19, 2010 at 11:05 am PT

Google has long claimed that the server log data it collects are a critical driver of innovation. Over the years, to appease privacy advocates, the company has tweaked its treatment of those data and the length of time it stores them. Google continues to collect IP addresses, though it makes them anonymous after nine months. This may soon change. And not because of any initiative on Google’s part but because of one by Microsoft.

Microsoft to Google: We Were Going to Call You, But … We Lost Your Number. … Yeah, That's the Ticket!

in News on July 23, 2007 at 5:38 am PT

What an odd bit of coincidence this is. Amid increasing scrutiny of Google’s privacy practices and its planned $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick–which some say would concentrate too much consumer data in its hands–Microsoft and Ask.com are calling upon “leading search providers, online advertising companies and privacy advocates” to develop “privacy principles” for the search [...]

Microsoft to Google: We Were Going to Call You, But … We Lost Your Number. … Yeah, That’s the Ticket!

in News on July 23, 2007 at 5:38 am PT

What an odd bit of coincidence this is. Amid increasing scrutiny of Google’s privacy practices and its planned $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick–which some say would concentrate too much consumer data in its hands–Microsoft and Ask.com are calling upon “leading search providers, online advertising companies and privacy advocates” to develop “privacy principles” for the search [...]

European Data Protection Officials: Yahoo and Microsoft Have Search Engines?

in News on June 12, 2007 at 12:01 am PT

Let’s be honest here: “Don’t Be Evil,” Google’s Hippocratic oath for corporations, was a masterful public-relations gesture when it was first made, but it never changed the increasing risks associated with the company’s business operations. Google is a public company, not a public interest. There’s really no reason to trust it to do the right [...]