Brussels: Microsoft Corp said Tuesday it
would shorten the time it stores Internet users' addresses
from Web search queries from 18 months to six months following
a request from a European Union data privacy panel.
It said the change would make its Bing search a better
choice for privacy-conscious users than the world's leading
search engine Google Inc, because Microsoft will delete the
entire Internet Protocol address from search queries, the
string of numbers that shows a computer's location.
"We believe that the balance between privacy and
efficiency is very much in the mind of consumers," Microsoft's
associate general counsel John Vassallo told reporters.
"Getting the balance right does make the search engine more
attractive."
Microsoft says its search engine has some 2 per cent of
the European market, well below Google on 80 per cent.
Google says keeping data from search queries is important
to improving the way it processes search results and
"represents a crucial arm in our battle to protect the
security of our services against hacks and frauds."
It says it makes users' search details anonymous after
nine months and allows people see and control some of the
information that is stored on their searches.
Yahoo says it deletes IP addresses and makes user log
data anonymous after 90 days, with some exceptions to fight
fraud, secure systems and meet legal obligations.
EU data protection officials have questioned the need for
search engines to keep data on searches and had asked for a
six-month limit.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 23:57