Google takes steps to anonymize server logs

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall () gmail com>
Date: March 14, 2007 8:43:51 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Google takes steps to anonymize server logs
Reply-To: joehall () pobox com

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/taking-steps-to-further- 
improve-our.html

# Taking steps to further improve our privacy practices

3/14/2007 03:00:00 PM

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Privacy Counsel-Europe, and Nicole Wong,
Deputy General Counsel

When you search on Google, we collect information about your search,
such as the query itself, IP addresses and cookie details. Previously,
we kept this data for as long as it was useful. Today we're pleased to
report a change in our privacy policy: Unless we're legally required
to retain log data for longer, we will anonymize our server logs after
a limited period of time. When we implement this policy change in the
coming months, we will continue to keep server log data (so that we
can improve Google's services and protect them from security and other
abuses)---but will make this data much more anonymous, so that it can
no longer be identified with individual users, after 18-24 months.

Just as we continuously work to improve our products, we also work
toward having the best privacy practices for our users. This includes
designing privacy protections into our products (like Google Talk's
"[off the record][1]" feature or Google Desktop's ["pause" and "lock
search"][2] controls). This also means providing clear, easy to
understand [privacy policies][3] that help you make informed decisions
about using our services.

After talking with leading privacy stakeholders in Europe and the
U.S., we're pleased to be taking this important step toward protecting
your privacy. By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we
think we're striking the right balance between two goals: continuing
to improve Google's services for you, while providing more
transparency and certainty about our retention practices. In the
future, it's possible that data retention laws will obligate us to
retain logs for longer periods. Of course, you can always choose to
have us retain this data for more personalized services like [Search
History][4]. But that's up to you.

Our engineers are already busy working out the technical details, and
we hope to implement this new data policy over the coming months (and
within a year's time). We'll communicate more as we work out these
details, but for now, we wanted you to know that we're working on this
additional step to strengthen your privacy.

If you want to know more, read the [log retention FAQ][5] (PDF).


[1]: http://www.google.com/talk/chathistory.html#offrecord
[2]: http://desktop.google.com/gettingstarted.html#stop
[3]: http://www.google.com/privacy.html
[4]: http://www.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1593
[5]: http://216.239.57.110/blog_resources/ 
google_log_retention_policy_faq.pdf


--
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
UC Berkeley School of Information
<http://josephhall.org/>


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