Wednesday 13 June 2007

EU Official Welcomes Google Privacy Move

By CONSTANT BRAND
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 13, 2007; 10:52 AM

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.

The move comes amid growing concerns that the company could be violating EU privacy rules with its current policy of keeping data for up to 24 months. Now, the search leader says it will make the information anonymous in 18 months.

Franco Frattini, the EU justice and home affairs commissioner, welcomed a letter sent by Google to an independent EU data protection panel earlier this week in which the company said it would raise its data privacy standards for all users.