Microsoft Limits Storage Of Bing User Data To Six Months

Bing Community blog

According to the Bing blog, Microsoft is reducing the amount of time it stores IP addresses from searchers to protect users' privacy. Competitors such as Google and Yahoo keep the data for 18 months, arguing it helps improve the quality of their search engines. Currently, Bing's data procedure is:

• The user's account information (such as e-mail or phone number) is extracted from other information (what the query was, for example). That "de-identifies" the search query from identifying account information.
• After 18 months, Microsoft deletes the IP address and any other cross-session IDs associated with the query. That second step will now occur at six months.
• "We think this gives us the right balance between making search better for consumers (we use the data to improve the service we offer) and providing greater protection for the privacy of our users," wrote Reese Solberg, Bing privacy manager.
• The change is partly in response to concerns of privacy advocates, consumer groups and regulators -- including the Article 29 Working Party, the group of 27 European national data protection regulators charged with providing advice to the European Commission and other EU institutions on data protection.
• Microsoft said it will implement the new policy during the next 12 to 18 months.