Google, Yahoo Keep User Data Too Long, EU Group Says

Privacy-protection officials from the 27 EU nations unanimously adopted proposals that may force search engines to change the way they store data unless there is "a valid justification." The officials decided after a two-day meeting in Brussels that the maximum time for keeping search data is six months.

The decision may threaten "the golden goose" of the broader business of Internet advertising, which uses customers' online records to offer personally targeted ads, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco.

Alex Tuerk, the group's chairman, said search engines must delete personal information "the moment they don't need it."

In May 2007, the group told Google that it may be violating EU privacy laws by preserving user data for as long as two years. That spurred Google to trim the storage period to 18 months. Microsoft and Yahoo followed in July, saying they would limit the time they keep data records to 18 months and 13 months, respectively.

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., said Friday that it's committed to working with privacy officials to "explore ways to improve privacy online for all users."

Google billed itself as the first search company to make logs anonymous and to cut the life of "cookies" used to track Internet users' activity.

Microsoft is looking forward to reviewing the EU group's recommendations "as part of our continued work with them on this important issue," said Thomas Myrup Kristensen, a spokesman for the Redmond, Wash.-based company. "We believe that it is important to implement a range of privacy protections for search."

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, said it is reviewing the group's opinion.