Google changes cookie policy

Google has announced that it is completely changing the way its 'cookies' behave in order to safeguard individuals' privacy.

Cookies are files stored on your own computer that contain information about personal preferences, such as the language you speak, and instruct Google's search engine how best to present results to you.

Google has always insisted that the cookies help it to provide a tailored search experience and that it was not misusing the data it collected about individuals.

However, organisations such as Privacy International have criticised Google's stance relating to cookies and other data that it retains relating to search enquiries.

The EU has also previously expressed concerns about Google's cookies, saying that it went beyond what is "strictly necessary" for the provision of the service.

"After listening to feedback from our users and from privacy advocates, we've concluded that it would be a good thing for privacy to significantly shorten the lifetime of our cookies - as long as we could find a way to do so without artificially forcing users to re-enter their basic preferences at arbitrary points in time," said Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel at Google.

In an attempt to appease the critics, the company has announced that cookies will expire after two years if you don't use any Google services. Otherwise, they will be renewed automatically every time you use Google.

"In the coming months, Google will start issuing our users cookies that will be set to auto-expire after 2 years, while auto-renewing the cookies of active users during this time period.

"In other words, users who do not return to Google will have their cookies auto-expire after 2 years. Regular Google users will have their cookies auto-renew, so that their preferences are not lost," said Fleischer.

To read Web User's analysis of Google's current data policies, click here.

www.google.co.uk

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