More “Google is evil” news for you. The EU, a mythical organization granted legitimacy by the BBC, has said Google has no reason to keep users’ search information for more than six months. (It currently keeps such records for up to 18 months.) The proposal to force Google’s hand was drawn up by something called the Article 29 Working Party, which advises (PDF alert) the European Commission (the EU’s executive) on all matters data, privacy and so on. Google, currently trading at a disappointing $8 trillion a share, said that it keeps information like IP addresses and all that in order to serve ads. Ads make the world go ’round.
The proposal isn’t law just yet, and these things take some time, but it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the many message boards out there since hating Google is fashionable now.