Google's Anonymization Period Reduced to 2 Years

Google works on its privacy practices and this is more obvious after the international organizations criticized the Mountain View company for its weak efforts over the privacy of the users. First, the search giant announced a major modification in the users' privacy, saying that all the logs will be anonymized after a period of 18-24 months by deleting some strings from consumers' information stored on Google's service. Because the company was under pressure, it announced that this period was reduced to 18 months but the 24 months period is maintained in some countries with special laws.

Today, a new major change is officially confirmed by the company's representatives who announced that all the users' cookies will be deleted after two years since the consumer's last visit on Google's products. Basically, if you want to remove your data from Google's servers, you have to avoid visiting the search giant's solutions for two years because all the cookies are removed after this limit. In addition, if you want keep your settings on Google's servers, you have nothing more to do than to use the company's products.

"In the coming months, Google will start issuing our users cookies that will be set to auto-expire after 2 years, while auto-renewing the cookies of active users during this time period. In other words, users who do not return to Google will have their cookies auto-expire after 2 years. Regular Google users will have their cookies auto-renew, so that their preferences are not lost. And, as always, all users will still be able to control their cookies at any time via their browsers," Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel, wrote today.

Basically, a cookie is a file created by the websites you visit using your browser that is keeping all the information entered such as preferences, search queries, language and other settings. This data helps the giant Google provide better results and improved performance of its products as well as personalized solutions depending on your needs.