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Google Pledges 9 Month Anonymity On Data

techradar.com — Google has responded to mounting EU pressure on privacy by stating it will 'anonymize' users' IP addresses after nine months. European Union regulators have been pushing Google to cut the time they keep personal data that can identify users to nine months, and it appears to have worked. "About a year ago, in March 2007, we announced that we would

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 10, 2008

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  • Fhwqhgads, on 09/09/2008, -5/+49Should be 0 months.
  • insidein, on 09/09/2008, -2/+35Nine or 18 months, you still have my data.
  • soulkitchen, on 09/09/2008, -2/+20...but how will they catch the "terrists"

    *pulls covers over head*.
  • iPontus, on 09/09/2008, -0/+14I understand why'd they want to use data to track different things, but the users' IP adresses should be anonymous from the beginning. And then they should delete the data after maybe nine months...
  • iceman0113, on 09/10/2008, -0/+13https://ssl.scroogle.org/scrapen8.html
  • YourMaster, on 09/10/2008, -0/+9Microsoft anonymizes data immediately.
  • Meekus, on 09/10/2008, -0/+9There was a time when it would of been the United States of America who would be making this demand. A time when MY country cared about individual liberty and privacy. Instead, MY country is the one doing the exact opposite for "national security". FISA, Patriot Act, being criminalized at airports.

    I am glad that Google has pledged this. I am saddened that it was not the USA who was at the forefront of this.
  • Soole, on 09/10/2008, -0/+7Orson Scott Card...
    Lol

    Are you sure you ever read it ?
  • Stevo23, on 09/10/2008, -0/+7It shouldn't matter. Most high-speed internet providers assign dynamic IP addresses that get reassigned over time, so there's no guarantee that a given IP address is consistently the same computer.
  • RyanWilliams, on 09/10/2008, -0/+6Is there some particular reason Google doesn't and Microsoft does, then? Why would Google choose to keep identifiers in their logs rather than immediately anonymise them? Does it improve the results in any way?

    Just trying to work out what their incentive is for risking pissing people off.
  • inactive, on 09/10/2008, -3/+9FTA: "After months of work our engineers developed methods for preserving more of the data's utility while also anonymizing IP addresses sooner."

    Jesus Christ, Google, ever heard of a "unique ID" before? Or a GUID? Replace IP's with unique ID's, dump the IP's, problem solved.
  • RyanWilliams, on 09/10/2008, -1/+7You say that as if other search providers are any better. Are they?
  • paulieslim, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5Google is watching you.

    ...you might want to dress up

  • TehDoctor, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5Whoooosh!!!
  • jeremyduffy, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5Oh, here we go again. Google is full of *****. They have NO reason to store your private data and search history past ONE minute let alone nine months. Sure they need search results records for optimization, but tagging that to an individual searcher is only good for marketing and building profiles on people to sell to other companies. This is why I NEVER search when I'm logged in to Google.
  • jeremyduffy, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5I wasn't aware of there being a first reason. Last I checked, search engines need to work before anyone will use them. Such a shame too. They had all that awesome publicity, but didn't bother making it functional first.
  • Opiate, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5The average medium-small doesn't at all, it's way too impractical.. if it was ever forced on ISPs it would surely crush them. (yes I work for one).
  • fani, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5No one has the right to know what searches I made and when I made it.

    Sorry google, you're not the do-no-evil company you claim to be. You're the do-little-evil company now. Bending to the Chinese draconian laws, keeping 9months data etc. are all bad acts.

    And tbh, its not just google, yahoo, live and others also keep data and that is WRONG.
  • palehorse864, on 09/10/2008, -0/+5Really,

    I didn't know it was free to rent book retards. I thought you had to spend money to rent book retards. Thanks for the tip. I'll go out and get my book retards today!
  • RobertBogley, on 09/10/2008, -0/+4There's enough anonymous providers out there including those that use google results. Googles keeping information about you because it knows the huge commercial gains to be had through data mining leading to targeted advertising. If google sees you searching for a new car, every site thats a google ad syndicate could be putting targeted car ads in front of you. Thats lots more$ for google compared to the digg advert I'm looking at right now which I will never click because (a) I dont need a new credit card and (b) I dont live in america !!
  • Izacus, on 09/10/2008, -0/+4There are times when living in EU doesn't seem all that bad.
  • jeremyduffy, on 09/10/2008, -0/+3I hate cretins who use that argument.

    "Hey Webnower, if you don't like our free speech, get off the Internet!"

    There. How do YOU like it?
  • gekkoeye, on 09/10/2008, -1/+4Not solved.
    They wouldn't be able to link subsequent incoming data to your IP if they replace it with a unique ID. They will have different unique IDs for the same IP address.
  • Asianwaste, on 09/10/2008, -0/+3"PS Maybe some of you should go to your local library located in every county, Yeah it's free to rent book retards! Take out a copy of the constitution and 1984 by Orson Scott Card."

    I'm pitching this word for word to a sitcom.
  • inactive, on 09/10/2008, -0/+3The world would be happy if you concealed your identity.
  • Webnower, on 09/10/2008, -0/+2There's no such thing as free speech anymore. Didn't you hear?
  • jeremyduffy, on 09/11/2008, -0/+2I digg you for coming back with a sense of humor. Well played.
  • inactive, on 09/10/2008, -1/+3How long does an average ISP keep logs of your traffic?
  • paradexes, on 09/10/2008, -1/+3Meh I just use http://ixquick.com. At least they have privacy. 48 hours of data retention. Not too bad IMO.

    Oh and for the moron who said 1984 was written by Orson Scott Card...you are clearly an idiot. George Orwell wrote it. And in 1945.
  • inactive, on 09/10/2008, -0/+2noobs. obvious troll is obvious. i actually thought it was pretty funny though
  • bratterscain, on 09/10/2008, -0/+2I got a feeling, not long. Do you realize how much hard drives one would have to have to track every single byte going through the tubes?

    What google tracks is queries, not byte-for-byte data like ISP's do or may do, and all this I'm assuming. I don't know for sure how it goes on exactly. But the way google, I assume, tracks user data, it can store it a lot more efficiently.
  • MicrosoftBob, on 09/10/2008, -0/+2He even put it in "quotes", ffs.
  • mahadiga, on 09/10/2008, -0/+2http://www.customizegoogle.com/
  • lornali, on 09/10/2008, -0/+2EU knows it better
  • Stevo23, on 09/10/2008, -1/+3LOL@All the Diggers heads' exploding over a negative story about Google. Next you'll tell us that Apple overcharges for their hardware!!!
  • showyoudawei, on 09/10/2008, -4/+6Wow! You've managed to solve a problem Google's spent months working out in a matter of seconds. You must be a genius and Google should hire you!

    Sarcasm.
  • tbredofsin, on 09/10/2008, -0/+21984 is a science fiction book by George Orwell and is from 1945.
    Orson Welles' entire name is similar to "Orwell", and he was popular around the same time Orwell published 1984, and is responsible for the infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast (science fiction).
    Orson Scott Card is a prominent science fiction author today (he wrote Ender's Game).
  • Elranzer, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1MSN Live may be anonymous... but Microsoft spies on you right in the operating system (at least, if you're using (XP or especially Vista).
  • soulkitchen, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1so very Dense.
  • pcghost, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1Using tor for google searches is highly recommended. As long as you don't mind occasionally getting the results in a foreign language.
  • zjbird, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1Anowhoity?
  • lushboy, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1Google, whats my I.P going to do for you. We have supported you so much over the years and turned you into the company you are today. Give me back my anonymity as a favor.... puhleasse??!
  • MicrosoftBob, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1As an American, there are a -lot- of times when living in the EU doesn't seem all that bad.
  • ThirdPrize, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1Surely the headline (copied from the original site) imples that the data will be anonymous for 9 months as opposed to actually being trackable for 9 months and then anonymous after that.
  • Elranzer, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1George Orwell ≠ Orson Scott Card ≠ Orson Wells
  • MicrosoftBob, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1Free rent!
  • sbaysem, on 09/11/2008, -0/+1Go Go Go Big Daddy!!! m/
  • Elranzer, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1Jesus is coming.

    Look busy.
  • svivian, on 09/10/2008, -0/+1@RobertBogley: yeah fine you don't click them. So what the hell is your problem? Why do people care about Google not anonymising data?
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