Windows 7: MS finally cuts Bing data retention time to six months

Microsoft has finally slashed the amount of time it keeps some online search query data to just six months, over a year after it declared it would make the change if the likes of Google and Yahoo! agreed to play ball.

The company’s privacy chief Peter Cullen said late yesterday that Microsoft planned to implement the changes to its data retention policy over the next 12 to 18 months.

“We will delete the entire Internet Protocol address associated with search queries at six months rather than at 18 months,” he said.

“This new and significant step will be incorporated into our existing privacy practices, which already provide strong protections for Bing users.”

In December 2008 Microsoft said it supported the Article 29 Working Party’s guidelines for anonymisation on the web, before adding that such rules could only be adopted if they were introduced industry-wide.