Google’s New Plan to “Anonymize” Search Logs: A Good First Step, But More Is Needed

After years of criticism from EFF and other privacy advocates, last week Google announced a new policy on how it handles logs of its users’ searches: after 18-24 months, it will delete key information in its server logs that could be used to link particular users to records of their search queries.

This is a big change from Google’s previous policy, which was essentially to keep all of those logs forever in identifiable form, and we’re certainly glad to see that Google is starting to limit its retention of such sensitive data. Your Google search history can paint an intimate portrait of your most private interests and concerns. Particularly in light of the disastrous AOL search terms disclosure, recent scandals involving government surveillance, and Google’s own recent court fight with the government over a subpoena for search records, it seems that Google has finally realized that limiting the retention of such records is essential to protecting your privacy.

see the full post on eff: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives…