Yahoo stated that it will shorten the time they will keep users activities from 13 months to 3 months. Records include users’ online behavior such as search results. Lawmakers have concerns about how much data and what kind internet companies really have on their users and how is that data being use. Yahoo also wants Google and Microsoft to do the same. Microsoft keeps its users data for up to 18 months but it is thinking about a 6 month period, which is the industry standard.
Yahoo will alter their cookies, delete parts of IP addresses, and delete personal information that can identify users after 90 days for most of their cases. This will take place next month but it will reach the entire department in 2010. They want to build trust with their users; they also want to show that internet companies are able to regulate themselves. European Unions have pressured internet companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google over the past few years to shorten the time they hold data on users; more recently the Government here has been questioning the companies on what kind of data they really hold on their users.