Privacy concerns mark a change in Google policy

The world´s leading search engine Google has reduced the amount of time its stores user´s private data after privacy concerns were raised.

Google has cut its data retention time by half, to nine months, after which the search firm pledges to make users´ IP addresses anonymous.

In a Google blog post, the firm claimed regulators had become sceptical about the need retain users´ IP addresses and demanded justification.

The search giant said: "Many of these privacy leaders also highlighted the risks of litigants using court-ordered discovery to gain access to logs, as in the recent Viacom suit."

Viacom, which is suing Google for hosting copyrighted material on its video sharing website YouTube, obtained a court order allowing them access to personal information on every person who has ever used the website.

Google was ordered to pass on the details of more than 100 million people, including unique internet addresses, email accounts and the history of every video ever watched on YouTube.