A European Union privacy panel wants Internet search engine providers like Google and Yahoo to delete data taken from users after six months, even when they operate abroad.
The new report from the EU-funded privacy watchdog recommended that search engines follow European data protection rules regardless of their headquarters' location.
Although the watchdog has no policy powers, its report could lead to stricter privacy rules. The EU's executive, the European Commission, is currently redrafting data-protection rules for the 27-nation bloc.
The panel's report said search engines fall under EU laws if they collect users' numeric Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses or track search history using a unique ID on small data files called cookies installed on users' computers.
Most search engines, including Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, do so to gather insights on usage.
Germany's data protection commissioner Peter Scharr said in January that IP addresses should generally be regarded as personal information.
IP addresses consist of a string of numbers that identifies individual computers on the Internet so that a search engine would know where to return results.
Search engines have generally regarded IP addresses as anonymous information because they aren't necessarily linked to personal data about individuals. However, they can reveal the individual's location or service provider, from which a company or government agency armed with a subpoena can track down the individual.
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