Maybe that little jab about privacy from Microsoft did stir up some changes at Google, because they’ve just announced that they will be anonymizing all IP addresses in their server logs after 9 months, in contrast to the previous 18-month retention policy.
On their official blog, Google is bragging they were “the first leading search engine to announce a policy to anonymize search server logs in the interests of privacy.” But, the truth was, the move came after a quite fierce debate about Google’s privacy issues. Now, they seem to be trying to move ahead of time instead of waiting for yet another salve of criticism about their privacy policies. Unfortunately for them, when it comes to privacy and security, you can never have enough of it, so it’s a never ending battle.
Furthermore, Google is obviously anxious to completely clear the air on the matter, and thus they’ve filed an official response (PDF) to the requests of policymakers and regulators. In short, they’re happy to comply with privacy-related requests, but they’re worried about “the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data.” Well, from my point of view, I’d rather have ads that aren’t perfectly targeted in exchange for more privacy, but that’s just me. What do you think?
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Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:
The Daily Poll: Do You Care About Search Privacy?
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Google To Microsoft: We’re Serious About Privacy
Surprise! Google Still King of Search.
Google-DoubleClick: Privacy Groups Now Opposed
Search Engines Must Comply With Strict EU Privacy Rules
Google and FTC Working on Privacy Standards
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