• Information Week, Monday, July 23, 2007 10:48 AM

In the Web business, there's always a latest privacy issue, and this year, it's search data retention. Federal, public policy and consumer activist groups have put big-time pressure on the search industry's Big Four to come clean about data retention-especially in light of the latest round of Web mergers that brought aQuantive to Microsoft and may yet bring DoubleClick to Google.

In response to the pressure, search leader Google told the EU it would dump user search data after 18 months. Microsoft on Monday went even further, outlining incremental steps to improve privacy for Live Search and its other online ad services. MSN will also keep search data separate from personally identifiable information gained through its Web portal services.

Of all the search engines, fifth-ranked Ask.com has gone the greatest distance: In addition to addressing the privacy issue in an upfront manner on multiple fronts, the IAC/InterActive Corp. company on Monday joined Microsoft in calling for the industry to develop a common set of global practices on data collection. Last week, Ask introduced the AskEraser tool, which keeps the search engine from storing any information about users' searches.

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