Google Cuts User Search Data Retention Time

Every time a user searches for something in Google, it stores the history of the user's search. This is the key to the search engine's success.

Google has a powerful and flexible scheme to analyze search data got from all web surfers. This data helps the search engine to understand what are the web surfers looking for, which web pages are better for users and give proper answers to their questions. This is the aim of any single search engine to provide users with the data they need, so tracking their search history is to offer netter services for users themselves.

Tracking users' web history, Google decides what new products will be useful for web surfers. For example, spelling check is based on the history, so if the user types a word with spelling errors, Google will offer the right version of the word.

Besides, users' web history helps Google to decide which web page will appear the first in the answers to the user's search. Search engines goal is to look for and provide the best web page that gives the best result to the user's search.

Users' web history is also the most important thing for advertisers, who need to know what users need, to provide them with useful and interesting ads.

So Google's goal is to provide users with better quality using their web history. But since European Union privacy activists wanted the search engine to shorten the history time, it promised to do so.

"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," said Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel. "We believe that we can still address our legitimate interests in security, innovation and anti-fraud efforts with this shorter period."

Peter Fleischer wrote a letter to the privacy group about how the search engine uses history and how important it is for users themselves. The letter also explained that Google doesn't violate users' privacy by keeping the search results for 24 months. The policy has set from 6 to 24 month depending on the country and it is 24 months for US.

Peter Fleischer also talked about the cookies, that are stored after users' web surfing.

"We are exploring ways to redesign cookies and to reduce their expiration," Fleischer states. "We plan to make an announcement about privacy improvements for our cookies in the coming months."

Despite of the Fleischer's letter, Google will shorten the time it users' web search history. It will completely remove any user information from computer databases. By Ruzan Harutyunyan For HULIQ