Google to Halve Length of Time it Retains User Data

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 9, 2008 - 9:45am.

Mountain View, Calif. - Addressing concerns of U.S. and European regulators, Google (NASD: GOOG) said that it will cut in half the amount of time that it stores personal information gathered from users' web surfing activities, from 18 to nine months.

"We're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users," the company wrote in its blog.

Google said that it uses the data to improve search quality and security, as well as reduce spam.

Having less data, the company said, may prove to be a hindrance.

"As the period prior to anonymization gets shorter, the added privacy benefits are less significant and the utility lost from the data grows," the company said.

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