EU Widens Search Engine Privacy Investigation

Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search will join ranks with Google into an investigation of users' privacy which was initially focused exclusively on the practices of the Mountain View-based company. The original EU investigation was generated by the way Google understands to store and manage sensitive user data. The Mountain View search giant is not the only search provider retaining user data in an effort to improve query results and the advertising services delivered to their customers. The practice is in fact shared by all Internet search providers, and as such officials from the European Union Data Protection announced that the investigation into user data privacy will broaden its scope.

The Article 29 Working Group now questions not only Google's privacy practices but also those of rival search engines. The main concerns are related to the period of time that companies keep user data in order to improve their services. European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx confirmed that indeed the panel is looking into additional search engines on top of Google, but he failed to mention specific names. A statement released from the panel only mentions that "will deal with search engines in general and scrutinize their activities from a data-protection point of view, because this issue affects an ever-growing number of users."

However, in the panel's view Google poses the largest problem due to the range of its services. "The use of the Internet the way Google is doing it could introduce tremendous privacy problems. We will study the company's response to our letter very carefully," Hustinx commented. "If the picture they give is not accurate or not justified we might find ourselves on a collision course. That's not my sense at the moment."

But Microsoft's own plethora of services united under the Windows Live umbrella closely replicate Google's offerings. And in this sense the Redmond Company is also an excellent subject for the user privacy extended investigation. The panel's concerns also focused on the volume of cookies each company stores, with Microsoft at the top, 14 cookies for a single search, Yahoo next with six and Google with only two.

"Microsoft has a long-term commitment to providing customers with control over the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information. While we have not received formal communication from the Article 29 Working Party, we recognize that online search is creating legitimate concerns about privacy and are actively engaged with data protection authorities around the world to ensure that our practices meet the highest standards when it comes to protecting privacy," Microsoft revealed in response.