EU complains Google keeps logs too long

Google has vigorously defended its data retention policy, saying that it is necessary to fine-tune and improve Google's services. "With logs, we can improve our search results: if we know that people are clicking on the #1 result we're doing something right, and if they're hitting next page or reformulating their query, we're doing something wrong," said Fleischer earlier this month. IP addresses are needed in order to strengthen security, says Google, which believes that their immediate deletion would lead to increased problems with phishing, scripting attacks, and spam.

Google is also concerned with complying with data retention laws, although very few of those laws are on the books. The biggest such law, the EU Data Retention Directive, was passed in late 2005, and specifies a period of six to 24 months. The Directive is not yet in force; member nations have until 2009 to put it into effect.