Search Engines Surrenders!

Stung by criticism on their hostility to privacy, major search engines are now shortening the time span in which they will retain user data relating to searches. Microsoft said the other day that it will retain search information only for 18 months. This follows Google’s announcement a few weeks ago that it would restrict data retention to 24 months at the most. Another popular search engine, Ask.com, went a step further and has said that it would give users the option to erase data soon after a search. Yahoo is also expected to announce its policy to restrict data only for 13 months soon. The flurry of announcements have come in the wake of sharp attacks on Google by privacy advocates who said it could build up psychological profiles of users with all the data retained in its various applications.