14 DAY TRIAL // By the next meeting of the working party of EU regulators dealing with online privacy, there will be some guidelines ready to be set down. I'm not sure news could get any worse for Microsoft and Yahoo!, the decision to be made will affect them directly in the core of their search platforms, based on cookies and private preferences and data being stored.
I left Google out of the 'worst news for' lineup because the EU regulators are currently taking a deeper look into their acquisition of DoubleClick. I'm guessing not allowing it to go through would be the worst for the Mountain View-based company.
Foreseeing the restrictions to come, all the three major search engines have cut down the period for which they store information, both Google and Microsoft choosing 18 months, while Yahoo! lowering the bar to 13 months. Peter Schaar, Germany's federal data protection commissioner and chairman of the Article 29 party dealing with privacy policy, told the Financial Times that Google made it clear that 18 months was its final offer. "We are not in a bazaar. We are legislators, and at the end there must be a lawful situation. This process is not at an end. We have to continue discussions with the providers."
The search engines try to push forward the idea that separate European data retention laws require them to keep data in order to help combat terrorism. This will probably divide the services they offer into mail and messaging, which will be considered as telecommunication and will be kept, and web services and search, to be regulated in the upcoming February 18 meeting.
Some deeper inquiries will be made by the EU commission in the area of targeted advertising, which delivers specific information to users based on geo-positioning, profile and preferences. And down will go Google and Yahoo!, if there's something wrong with the concept and it can't be fixed.