Google to change data retention policies to meet EU demands

Google to change data retention policies to meet EU demands

Search engine giant Google has said that they are scaling back how long it keeps personally identifiable data collected from their users to pacify the European Union watchdog which recently criticized their privacy policies.

Google said that they are ready to lower the time it stores user data to a year-and-a-half. This is the lowest limit proposed by them to the regulators.

Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel added that they need this much limit to retain the data on the customer to maintain the quality of their services.

He said: “After considering the Working Party’s concerns, we are announcing a new policy: to anonymize our search server logs after 18 months, rather than the previously established period of 18 to 24 months. We believe that we can still address our legitimate interests in security, innovation and anti-fraud efforts with this shorter period.”

Fleischer further spoke about the criticism about the famous Google Cookie which is stored on the user’s machine: “We are exploring ways to redesign cookies and to reduce their expiration. We plan to make an announcement about privacy improvements for our cookies in the coming months.