Google to Anonymize Users' Search Data

Google's official blog states they are on an effort to anonymize their search data after 18-24 months. After previously fighting turning over search data to the feds, it looks like they are striking another blow to the "think of the children" crowd. Any bets on whether MSN or Yahoo! will follow suit?

Mine already is

[solevita]

Although I did have to install the AnonymizeGoogle Firefox plugin to get it.

Shouldn't be collecting that info anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

Google should not be collecting any of that huge pile of information AT ALL, not just anonymising it after 18 months. As the AOL case showed, search queries can be used to identify individuals even after AOL anonymized them, so it's not IP addresses they are recording, it's PEOPLE.

There is no need to collect the IP addresses of searchers that haven't opted in to Google's personalized search. There is no law, that requires it.

There is no need to store the IP addresses of individual visitors to websites when Google analytics is used on a web page.

There is no need to store IP addresses of pages delivered to adsense viewers. Clicks maybe for a short time to prevent click fraud, but viewers, no.

None of this information should be recorded, and further the EU privacy directive should be enforced to ensure that none of that information is recorded. The law says we have privacy, Google should be forced to comply with that law.

Re:Mine already is

[solevita]

Ignore that post above - I'm a moron. I meant to say CustomizeGoogle Firefox plugin .Get it here [customizegoogle.com].

I guess that's what happens when you Slashdot before caffeine. I'm sorry.

Re:right....

[skrolle2]

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do? uri=CELEX:32006L0024:EN:NOT [europa.eu]

The data retention directive only applies to ISPs, and only deals with who you "communicate" with. It does not explicitly say that a record of which websites you visit should be retained, and it explicitly says that the content of the communication must not be retained.

However, as for all EU directives, it only contains the baseline of regulation. Directives are never law themselves, but have to be implemented in each respective member state by each respective legislative body. These, in turn, are free to implement whatever they want ABOVE the baseline, so some member states may have longer retention periods for this data, some member states may require ISPs to retain additional data.

The deadline for this directive is September this year, but if you read it, a few member states have reserved the option to postpone parts of the directive, typically of the internet-related traffic. This basically means that they recognize the difficulties in implementing it, and want more time to think about on how to do it, or possibly obstruct it.

What all of this boils down to is that maybe, sometime in the future, if you have an European ISP, they may be required to store all the URLs that you access. Google search data is transmitted as querystring parameters that are part of the URL, which means that your search data may be stored by your ISP, in a non-anonymized way. There's nothing in this possible future that Google has to comply with, as long as they are not an European ISP.

Because Google's primarily a media company...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Why not anonymise the data after zero months?

Because Google's primarily a media company, like NBC, only with much finer detail about what you want to see. Like any media company, Google finds demographic data incredibly valuable because it allows them to "connect" you with the "correct" advertisers. There's no way in hell Google would let people be completely anonymous; it goes against their business plan. (I'd also bet three years from now we'll find through some court case that backup tapes somewhere really extend "anonymous after 18 months" to 4-5 years.)

Re:Mine already is

[solevita]

Your IP usually isn't the problem, especially in my case where my ISP sends it all through their regional proxy anyway. What CustomizeGoogle does is randomize your Google UID. Take another look at the recent AOL breach - people weren't suffering privacy loss due to their IP address, but rather because AOL gave each and every user a number that could be tracked through the system. Thanks to CustomizeGoogle, that won't happen to me and my searches.