Europe Battles with US Internet Search Engines

Europe Battles with US Internet Search Engines

The European data privacy officials have been combating with U.S. Internet search engines, pushing them to adapt with European restrictions on the storage of personal information gathered from the web.


Regulators have become impatient towards the issue especially now that search giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are keeping personal data outside the six-month time limit. The cap was set by the  European Commission.



A hearing is set in December to discuss the matter with Google representatives and other internet firms. This aims to finally reach a fair agreement and break the standoff.



An analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shar VanBoskirk, explained the possible reasons why internet search engine companies refuse to conform with the set limit. VanBoskirk said, "Shorter retention times could hinder efforts to continue honing search engines, potentially affecting ad revenue. That would have an effect on the sophistication of the profiles, which would affect the basic business model."