Search engines should delete personal data held about their users
within six months, a European Commission advisory body on data
protection has said.

The recommendation is likely to be accepted by the European Commission and could lead to a clash with search giants like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Google and MSN anonymise user data after 18 months, while Yahoo does the same after 13 months. The body said search companies were not clear enough on data protection. Google said its privacy policy "strikes the right balance" between privacy, security and innovation. Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said in a statement: "Google takes privacy incredibly seriously; protecting our users' privacy is at the heart of all our products.
   
Search engine providers must delete or irreversibly anonymise personal data once they no longer serve the specified and legitimate purpose they were collected for
Article 29 Working Party report

The report from the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party said search engine providers had "insufficiently explained" why they were storing and processing personal data to their users. The report said the personal data of users should not be stored or processed "beyond providing search results" if the user had not created an account or registered with the search engine.

The advisory body also said it preferred search engines did not collect and use personal data to serve personalised adverts unless the user had consented and signed up to the service.
The body was set up to provide expert opinion to the European Commission and to make recommendations in the areas of personal data and privacy. The Commission usually adopts the recommendations the body makes.

The report also said search engines did not need to gather additional personal data, beyond the IP address of a machine being used, in order to deliver basic search results and advertisements. Personal data stored for security purposes should not also be used to improve services, the body recommended.

Source: BBC News "Search engines warned over data“ April 9, 2008.