Bing may beat Google to compliance with EU anonymization dir

BetaNews | at | by Mike

In an announcement early this morning, Microsoft stated it is altering the policy of its search engine Bing with regard to retaining personal data collected from its users. Under a new policy that may take as long as 18 months to implement, the company says, it will anonymize its data logs after only six months of retention rather than the previous 18, in compliance with a European Union directive -- perhaps the first major US-based search engine to comply.

In April 2008, the European Union's advisory body of member states' telecommunications ministers, called the Article 29 Working Party, advised that search engines doing business in their region should anonymize the personally identifiable data they've collected on their users after a six-month period.