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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Revamping Policies To Allay Privacy Fears
by Andrew Noyes
Change is in the air when it comes to Internet search providers and user data protection. A handful of major Web sites recently announced revisions to their corporate policies in hopes of assuaging fears expressed by privacy hawks and consumer advocates.
Google, Microsoft And Others Alter Search-Data Life
Google was the first to take the plunge. The company previously kept search data -- including the query itself, the Internet protocol addresses and "cookie" details -- for "as long as it was useful." In March, the firm announced that unless it was legally required to retain logs for longer, it would make the data anonymous after 18 months.
Last month, Google changed its policy on cookies, which are tiny tags used to track passwords or remember Internet behavior. One key cookie, which remembers users' basic preferences was set to expire in 2038. Now it times out after two years.
Days later, Microsoft modified its policy. The changes will help protect the privacy of Microsoft Windows Live users by making search query data anonymous after 18 months by permanently removing cookie IDs and certain identifiers from search terms.
Microsoft said it would also work to give customers more control over how their search experience is personalized. The news was seen as an encouraging sign by the Center for Democracy and Technology's Ari Schwartz. He said Microsoft was "helping to lead the way" for "innovative, competitive solutions to online privacy issues."
"We have been thinking deeply about privacy related to search and online advertising and believe it is critical to evolve our privacy principles," Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist Peter Cullen said in a press release. The firm wants its principles to be kept as simple as possible for consumers and be part of a growing dialogue on the issue, he said.
Additionally, Microsoft said it will join the Network Advertising Initiative later this year as its third-party ad serving business expands. NAI, whose members include Advertising.com, DoubleClick, Tacoda and others, works to increase consumer confidence while contributing to the growth of electronic commerce.
NAI Executive Director Trevor Hughes called Microsoft's involvement in his group "an important step for the industry and for consumers." He added, "We look forward to working with Microsoft and other NAI members to encourage the adoption of NAI principles and other important privacy standards industry-wide."
Microsoft also joined InterActiveCorp-owned Ask.com last month in calling on the rest of the industry to help create global privacy principles for data collection, use and protection related to search and online ads.
The firms will work with tech leaders, consumer advocates and academics to develop the principles. "As search and other online services progress, it's important for our customers to be able to trust that their information is being used appropriately and in a way that provides value to them," Cullen said.
While anonymous user data can be useful to enhance search services, "people should have access to privacy controls based on their level of comfort around the storage of their search data," Ask.com's Doug Leeds said. The companies hope to provide a progress report in September.
Yahoo also got the message, announcing in late July that it would make user search data anonymous after 13 months. The policy sets "the appropriate timeline to meet our commitment to our users' privacy while preserving our ability to continue to defend against fraudulent activity and improve our services to advertisers, publishers and users," spokesman Jim Cullinan told Computerworld.
Watchdog Groups Weigh In On Firms' Changes
Marc Rotenberg, who heads the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said search logs "have long been a ticking bomb for online privacy." Problems will get worse with the rise of behavioral targeting, using technology to serve relevant advertising based on consumers' online habits, he said.
In April, EPIC joined several other groups in filing a complaint with the FTC, requesting that an investigation be opened into the proposed acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick by Google. The filing was particularly focused on the search engine's ability to record, analyze, track and profile user activities.
EPIC further urged the FTC to require Google to publicly present a plan to comply with established government and industry privacy standards such ones offered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Rotenberg said he was pleased to see major search firms starting to reevaluate their practices, but "there is a lot more that needs to be done. If search companies keep individual search histories, users should know what data is collected and how it used."
Profiling algorithms, which are aimed at reducing the time spent searching, should be fully disclosed and anonymization procedures need to be robust and reliable, he said.
Fred Cate, director of Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, said action taken by the search firms is "tangible evidence that Microsoft and Google and Ask.com really believe that privacy matters to consumers.
"The new push to establish stronger consumer protection and clearer opportunities for consumer control over data suggests to me that these industries believe user interest in privacy is changing," said Cate, who sits on Microsoft's trustworthy computing board.
Microsoft's appeal for an ongoing dialogue suggests that the firm "thinks it is important for there to be a higher standard industry-wide and that the legislative process -- the traditional way one obtains such a standard -- is either too slow or unlikely to work in any event," he said.
America Online Eyes Privacy Policy Updates
Ask.com, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are not the only Internet firms overhauling their privacy policies. America Online is paying close attention to the issue, according to Jules Polonetsky, the company's chief privacy officer.
AOL's first policy, drafted more than a decade ago, was bare bones, he said. So was the focus of DoubleClick's disclaimers when he worked there from March 2000 through April 2002, Polonetsky pointed out.
Back then, firms cared about "the basics" like disclosing how cookies were used, opt-out provisions and controls on sharing e-mail addresses. "That was cutting edge at one point... but now people have gotten more sophisticated about their online interactions," he said.
In recent years, companies have had to address data retention fears and "back-end data flow type stuff," Polonetsky said. To respond to the changing climate, AOL implemented a 13-month retention policy for search data in late 2006 -- and unlike other firms data is discarded, not just anonymized.
In the long run, the upgrades to privacy protections and corporate policies "will be a net positive for businesses as well as for users," he said. Polonetsky predicted that the next step will be "better efforts to make these policies understandable to users."
Long and complicated policies that explain cookies, opt-in and opt-out are "written by lawyers like myself who want to be careful and precise," but they do not serve the public well, he said.
A new generation of Internet users is "firmly in control" and has pressed service providers to increase transparency. "Users are voting with their keyboards by choosing to define their interaction with the Internet on their own terms," Polonetsky said.
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