Markey Lauds Yahoo Data Retention Change
House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Wednesday lauded a decision by Yahoo to decrease the amount of time they keep personal information about online searches and consumer Web use to 90 days, after which that information will be effectively anonymized. "Consumers deserve ample privacy protections in the digital era to ensure trust and freedom on the Internet," Markey said in a statement, noting he has been pressing Internet firms for greater voluntary efforts to rollback "massive, systematic gathering of information about individual consumer Web use and the long term retention of such data in a form that can identify the Web habits, interests, searches, and purchases of individual Americans."
By making the change from 13 months to three months, Yahoo set a new standard for such privacy protection against which Google, Microsoft and others will now be compared, Markey said. Earlier this year, Google halved the amount of time it stores personal data to nine months and Microsoft has said it will cut the time to six months if its rivals followed suit. The European Union has recommended that companies keep data no more than six months. Privacy International's Simon Davies told the BBC that he hoped firms would set an industry-wide standard of 30 days. Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology told Reuters that Yahoo's announcement is significant because "they actually have an implementation plan to get this done."
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus