EU Says Search Engines Violate Rules on Personal Data

A European Union data protection panel on May 26 criticized Google, Microsoft and Yahoo for operating search engines that it said kept data on individual computer users for too long, in violation of E.U. rules.

The group of 27 E.U. national privacy chiefs, called the Article 29 Working Party, said it would also ask the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the data retention practices of the three search engines violated U.S. law. In a letter sent to the three search engines, the advisory panel to the European Commission asked the companies to appoint outside auditors to verify that their practices of rendering individual data anonymous truly eliminated all links to individuals.