Yahoo! to cuts user search data storage to 90 days

Yahoo! Inc. announced that it was slashing the amount of time it retains the personal data of Web users to 90 days from the previous 13 months. Under the new policy, Yahoo! will anonymize user log data within 90 days with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations. This sets an industry-leading approach to user data privacy.

Yahoo! said the new policy will apply not only to search log data but also page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks. This new policy strengthens Yahoo!'s relationship of trust with its 500 million users world-wide and enhances its long-time leadership on privacy.

Yahoo! and other Internet firms have been under pressure from US privacy groups and the European Union to cut the amount of time they keep search and other data associated with a user's unique Internet address.

Web search giant Google cut the period to nine months from 18 months in September while arch-rival Microsoft, the US software giant, said this month that it was ready to reduce the time to six months from the current 18 months if other Internet firms agreed to do so.

An Internet user's personal search data is used in a variety of ways by firms such as Yahoo! and Google including the targeting of advertisements to the perceived interests of individual users. Yahoo! said the new 90-day storage period will still allow advertisers to continue to leverage it innovative interest-based advertising systems to deliver the most relevant ads to those users.