• Financial Times, Friday, July 6, 2007 12 PM

In response to a European Union inquiry into their data retention practices, Microsoft and Yahoo are getting ready to announce that they've made concessions to their privacy policies. The move follows mounting pressure in the EU over the length of time search companies retain personal data. Last month, the EU said it would investigate how long companies like Google and Yahoo keep individuals' search data.

Meanwhile, the EU's so-called Article 29 Working Party has also been in discussions with Google over its policies for keeping data, notably in regard to its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. Google recently won an appeal to have the EU review the deal, rather than regulators in individual member countries. This would have created a major headache for both parties.

Google also recently clarified its privacy policies for the EU, agreeing to keep search data for 18 months instead of the usual 18-24 months. It also agreed to have cookies expire after two years instead of 30. Yahoo and Microsoft have said they retain data for as long as is commercially useful-meaning some data is stored indefinitely. So far, neither company has specified any changes to that policy.

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