EU Recommends Slashing Search Data Retention

According to Slashdot, the Article 29 Working Group, a collection of the EU's top minds on data protection and privacy issues, has written a report that recommends that search engines only be allowed to hold onto search data for six months. Google and others have long said that they need to retain data in order to refine search results, prevent click fraud, and launch new services like spell check. The working group however, has concluded that IP addresses could be used to identify individuals, if not by the search engine itself, then by law enforcement or after a subpoena.

Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel has already responded when he writes

"The findings are another important step in an ongoing dialogue about protecting user privacy online—a discussion in which Google will continue to be engaged. It's also a debate in which we hope our users will participate,"

Details appear in ars technica.

For full report in .pdf format, see ARTICLE 29 DATA PROTECTION WORKING PARTY.