29 May 2007

Google may be in trouble over data use policy

Google have recently been informed that they might be breaking data protection laws, ratified by the EU, by keeping personal and sensitive search information on their servers for up to two years. The Article 29 group, made up from data commissioners from around Europe, have formally asked Google to clarify their position.

Currently, Google retains a record of user information, ranging from the unique IP address of the PC, the search term/phrase used, in order to compile services like the Google Zeitgeist, and a long-ranging tracking system that matches the terms submitted to Google over a period of time. Combined, this data serves to ensure that a comprehensive profile of a user's search habits, machinery and level of usage can be built - which goes beyond the scope of fair data usage for marketing purposes by Google.

The use of this information in order to improve products and services is perfectly legal, but the data commissioners have concerns that the information is simply being held for too long. Data is anonymised after this period, but still kept. The concern is that such a large amount of personalised data held for such a long period of time could be used unethically if gained by less scrupulous individuals, for purposes including but not limited to fraud, identity theft and online abuse of various types.

A spokeswoman for Google answered the queries by saying the company would respond to the EU's concerns before the next panel meeting at the end of June.

Earlier this year, Google said it would begin to anonymise data after 18-24 months, mostly to step in line with data retention laws being rolled out across Europe.

A recent bigmouthmedia survey asked respondents whether users trusted the major search engines to keep their data private, and Google was perceived more favourably than its main competitors, Yahoo! and MSN.

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