At a time when users regularly turn to search engines to find information on the Internet, search privacy is of paramount importance. The search terms you give to search engines can be used to compose a telling portrait of your interests and concerns, a fact that has led privacy advocates to call for greater protection for individual users.

That's why it's great news that European privacy officials from the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party" (WP29), which is an influential advisory body to the European Commission, have recently taken decisive action to push for stronger search engine privacy.

Recently, WP29 told the major search engines Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that their methods of making users' search data anonymous still do not comply with the European Union's Data Protection Directive, a legislative mandate requiring governments and businesses to protect citizens from indiscriminate collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. WP29 further requested that the search engines change their search data retention policies to comply with the recommended maximum period of 6 months. Full article:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06/european-officials-google-yahoo-microsoft-breaking-law