Over the issue on keeping the internet user data for a shorter period of time, Microsoft says it is ready to keep this period to 6 months as long as the other major players too abide by this standard. The EU proposed that all the internet users be provided anonymity with a shorter period of 6 months. If this has been implemented then the user data should be purged of their systems after every 6 months.
Microsoft argues that it has very limited market share in the EU as compared to Google. If at all any change is to be made, it should be Google, which has a market share of 80% of the EU search market. EU’s meeting on Article 29 is to be held on coming Wednesday; Microsoft wants to make sure that everyone is one level ground. John Vassallo, Vice-President, European Affairs and Associate General Counsel, Microsoft said that Microsoft supports the proposal of providing total anonymity of user data after 6 months under the condition, everyone follows the same. Microsoft wants that all the data that will allow the search engines to track individual users back to the searches they made should be purged after 6 months and this includes the IP addresses, persistent cookie IDs and all the other associated data.
Google originally, had been storing all the user data for 18 months and after the EU proposal, it has agreed to reduce this to 9 months. But Microsoft is willing to change its anonymity period only when everyone follows the same in the industry. Google’s global privacy counsel spokes person, Peter Fleisher, said that no indications were given to them that Microsoft is likely to place a conditional offer on the anonymity period. He also said that it is not necessary to lose all the data but the last four digits of the user IP alone can be removed to give them the needed anonymity. Microsoft through its expertise in the search industry states that partial anonymity will not serve the purpose of protecting the privacy of the users. It is important that the all the data should be purged so that the search terms are not linked to a particular computer that is connected to the internet.
The reason for retaining the user data for a limited period is to improve the quality of the search results and to improve online security. The search industry professionals need time to review the data so that necessary steps can be taken to improve the quality of the results. However, what is not revealed here is that losing user data will also mean losing ad revenue. The longer the cookies are stored the more relevant the ad placements in the content sites. According to the blunt statement of Vassallo, it is doable only under the pretext that everybody does it.