EU forces Google to change user records policy

10 Sep 2008

Google has bowed to political pressure from the European Union and will reduce the time it keeps user details in its search logs. In a response filed to European data regulators, the US-based search engine said it would make anonymous IP addresses - numbers that identify a user - after nine months, rather than the current 18 months.

Google stated that it was "concerned about the potential loss of security, quality and innovation that may result from having less data. It's difficult to find the perfect equilibrium".

By Rob Minto and Nikki Tait.

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