• Reuters, Tuesday, September 9, 2008 12:45 PM

As search guru John Battelle says, "Google knows what it knows is scary," hence today's announcement that the company is trimming back the amount of time it retains IP server logs from 18 months to nine.

In a blog post, Google said it was "anonymizing" user data more quickly "to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users."

At a meeting with privacy experts in Silicon Valley, Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist for Microsoft Corp, said Google's move was done in response to pressure from European regulators and industry rivals. In fact, Google's initial 18-month retention policy came as a result of EU pressure. During the meeting, Cullen pointed out that up until a year-and-a-half ago, Google kept personally identifiable information about its users indefinitely.

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