It should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the news regarding search engine data policies, that as soon as Google changed its policy and Ask announced their new privacy policy, Microsoft would follow suit. Now, Yahoo and AOL are on the same track. Microsoft plans to make search query data anonymous after eighteen months by permanently removing cookie IDs, the entire IP address and other identifiers from search terms. Explaining that they would work to give customers more control over what information it uses to personalize their online search experience.
In addition, they will also create tools that let people search and surf its sites without being associated with a personal and unique identifier used for behavioral ad targeting, and allowing signed-in users to control the personalization of the services they receive. In connection with its efforts to support a common industry approach to privacy issues, Microsoft also announced that it would join the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) later this year when it begins to offer third-party ad serving broadly.
The same day that Microsoft announced their new privacy policy controls, they also announced a partnership of sorts with Ask.com. Microsoft and Ask, are proposing that leading search providers, online advertising companies, and privacy advocates convene to engage in an active dialogue to discuss privacy considerations posed by the proliferation of online advertising and search. The goal of the dialogue is to determine ways that the industry can work cooperatively to define privacy principles. “The companies will provide an update on their progress in September,” Microsoft said.
It appears that the call to arms, or as many analysts call it, a preemptive defense against mounting concerns from investigators, consumers, and industry regulators, is seen as a smart move. AOL, Yahoo, and Google each expressed interest in joining Microsoft and Ask in the venture. For Google, it is an extra measure of protection because of privacy concerns surrounding Google’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of ad-serving service DoubleClick Inc.
Google started the new privacy trend when they gave in to European Union demands and lowered the time in which they would start scrubbing personal data from search archives. They started with a twenty-four month policy and then moved it lower still to eighteen months. Microsoft mirrored that move with their announcement over the weekend.
Yahoo the second largest search engine said they would retain personal information for thirteen months before scrubbing the records, and AOL in a surprise announcement said they have had a thirteen-month retention policy for well over a year, but never made a public announcement about it.
Ask.com recently announced they would start implementing a new service called AskEraser that will offer users control over their privacy when searching for information on the Web. The tool, according to Ask ensures that private data is never retained. Users on the site will have easy access to AskEraser and can change their privacy preference at any time. “Once selected, searchers' privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches,” Ask said in a statement.
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