CDT Compares Search Firms' Privacy Plans

The D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has released a report today called "Search Privacy Practices: A Work in Progress" that compares the privacy policies of five leading search companies: AOL, Ask.com, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. The report follows recent announcements that several of the companies are revamping their data retention plans to change how long they keep information about user searches.

Among CDT's recommendations is the following: "No amount of self-regulation in the search privacy space can replace the need for a comprehensive federal privacy law to protect consumers from bad actors. With consumers sharing more data than ever before online, the time has come to harmonize our nation’s privacy laws into a simple, flexible framework."

Here's a quick summary of how the search companies compare:

• AOL -- Will store IP addresses, cookies and search queries for 13 months before deleting.
• Ask.com -- Will store IP addresses and cookies for 18 months, and will keep search queries indefinitely. There's a notable exception though...users who opt-in to Ask.com's forthcoming AskEraser service will have their data deleted within a few hours of their search.
• Google and Microsoft -- Both will store IP addresses and cookies for 18 months, and search queries indefinitely.
• Yahoo -- Will store IP addresses and cookies for 13 months, and most search queries indefinitely (some queries will be deleted after 13 months)

According to the report, which you can download here, these changes will be going into effect at Ask.com and AOL "in 2007"; Google will implement its new policy by December; and Microsoft and Yahoo's policies will be in place by July 2008.

News.com's Anne Broache also writes about reactions to the report. Update: CDT has a post on its blog about the report.