Word of the Day: ptarmic - substance causing sneezing - Sheesh! That pepper is really ptarmic, man!
|
|
|
Microsoft changes Bing data retention policy
SOFTWARE BORG Microsoft has been gazing at its navel and decided that it only really needs to know everything you do on its Bing search engine for six months.
The Vole's chief privacy strategist Peter Cullen has announced that he will cheerfully delete all personal data that Bing gathers on you after six months rather than the current 18 months.
He said that this new and significant step will be incorporated into Microsoft's existing privacy practices, which he claimed already provide strong protections for Bing users.
Cullen said the change was the result of an ongoing dialogue with privacy advocates, consumer groups, and regulators. The fact that one of them, the Article 29 Working Party which provides advice to the European Commission and other EU institutions on data protection, was not happy about the Vole sitting on personal data for 18 months had nothing to do with it.
Currently Microsoft claims it de-identifies the data by separating it from account information that could identify the person who performed the search. After 18 months it deletes the IP address, the de-identified cookie ID and any other cross-session IDs associated with the query.
The change is in the date that the Vole will wipe the IP address. Apparently Microsoft will make the change some time in the next 12 to 18 months.
Microsoft still claims it needs to retain and review search data. Cullin said that studying trends in search queries enables the company to improve the quality of its results, protect against fraud and maintain a secure and viable business. µ
Share this:
Share
Don't use Google - they retain information for at least 18 months... and that is after reducing it from 36 months previously!
I couldn't care less, I'll never use it anyway.
The 6 month time frame is probably an optimistic maximum before the Windows Server 2008 machines blue screen, lose all their data, and need to be rebooted.
They are just advertising it now as a "feature" (compared to those pesky Linux servers, which just keep running...).
do microsoft have an anal retention policy?
i'd be very surprised if they didnt because they behave like they do
it shwows microsoft are aware of what consumers want from a search engine but they stopped short of a full anonymity policy!
why doesnt someone make a search engine with zero cookie and ip address retention?
...Optimus Prime works for Microsoft?!?!
"Noooo!"
"Such heroic nonsense"
KAZAM!
Knowing what people are looking for is a big business advantage.
Isolating locations or even persons is a big advantage in such analysis.