> Microsoft's Bing is anonymizing this information after six months by deleting the entire Internet Protocol ("IP") address associated with your search queries. Google can and should anonymize search queries in the same way after six months or less.<p>FUD. 20 seconds of Googling shows me:<p>----------------------<p><a href="http://www.google.com/privacy_faq.html#toc-anonymize" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/privacy_faq.html#toc-anonymize</a>
Why are search engine logs kept before being anonymized?<p>We strike a reasonable balance between the competing pressures we face, such as the privacy of our users, the security of our systems and the need for innovation. We believe anonymizing IP addresses after 9 months and cookies in our search engine logs after 18 months strikes the right balance.<p>----------------------<p><a href="http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2010/01/19/updates-to-bing-privacy.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2010/01/1...</a>
Specifically, we are reducing the amount of time we store IP addresses from searchers to 6 months. Currently we keep that information for 18 months before we delete it. .. Then, after 18 months we take the additional step of deleting the IP address and any other cross session IDs associated with the query.<p>----------------------<p>"Cross session IDs"? What is that? Cookies? All cookies? In my mind, these policies are very equivalent. Google already does the same thing after six months. Probably the same thing at 18. Plus, Bing just announced this change a week or two ago.