Web rivals get privacy directive

Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and other Internet search-engine providers must cut the time they retain users’ online records to comply with European Union privacy laws, advisors to regulators decided Friday.

Privacy-protection officials from the 27 EU nations unanimously adopted proposals that may force search engines to change the way they store data unless there is “a valid justification.” The officials decided after a two-day meeting in Brussels that the maximum time for keeping search data is six months.

The decision may threaten “the golden goose” of the broader business of Internet advertising, which uses customers’ online records to offer personally targeted ads, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco.

Alex Tuerk, the European group’s chairman, said search engines must delete personal information “the moment they don’t need it.”

In May 2007, the group told Google that it may be violating EU privacy laws by preserving user data for as long as two years. That spurred Google to trim the storage period to 18 months. Microsoft and Yahoo followed in July, saying they would limit the time they keep data records to 18 months and 13 months, respectively.

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., said Friday that it was committed to working with privacy officials to “explore ways to improve privacy online for all users.”

Google billed itself as the first search company to make logs anonymous and to cut the life of “cookies” used to track Internet users’ activity.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft and Yahoo of Sunnyvale, Calif., said they would be reviewing the EU group’s recommendations.