Friday, Dec 19, 2008    Text size: 

The ailing Internet giant made the change to its search engine policy in response to growing concern from privacy advocates. The move gives Yahoo a lead over its chief rivals in the privacy race – a move being heralded as a first step among many.

“I urge other leading online companies to match or beat the commitments announced by Yahoo,” said Massachusetts Democrat Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

Tech writer Miguel Helft said that despite the homage paid to privacy groups, Yahoo probably made the move for more practical reasons.

"The strongest pressure on Internet companies so far came from European regulators who have been urging major search engines to reduce to six months the time they hold personally identifiable information," Helft wrote for the New York Times.

Will the other major search engines follow suit? Live Search owner Microsoft has publicly stated that they would adopt similar privacy protections if the other two major search engines, but naturally, it'll all come down to what Google does. To date, Google has declined to erase personal information before nine months, arguing that to do so would reduce the quality of its search results.

Previous efforts to lure users away from Google with the promise of privacy haven't worked. In 2007, last-place search engine Ask.com added a new feature that let users erase their search activity instantly – and Google remains the dominant force in the search engine world.

As of now, Microsoft holds onto personal information for 18 months, while Google throws out some personal information after nine months. Before this week's policy change, Yahoo held on to such data for 13 months.