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Canadian analysts are divided on the value and impact of Google's recently announced privacy measures.
While one observer says they are inadequate, another welcomes them, saying they will bolster user confidence in the search company.
Mountain View, Calif-based Google Inc. announced, on Wednesday that the new privacy measures it's adopting would make it difficult to connect online search requests with the people making them.
Google said it would provide its search engine users greater privacy by removing from its system – every 18 to 24 months – key elements that could lead to users' being identified.
The schedule is designed to comply with an assortment of regulations around the world that stipulate how long search engines are supposed to retain user information.
A Canadian privacy advocate called Google's recent measures unsatisfactory.
"In my view two years is still a long time to keep this sort of information," said Philippa Lawson, director, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic in Ottawa.
Noting that Google is "still way off the mark", Lawson said the company could have been "trying to get good press and appease both sides."
She said the timetable proposed by Google coincides with demands by some European Union governments seeking greater access to Internet users' data, but could also be seen as bolstering privacy rights.
Commercial companies, Lawson said, might need to hang onto customer data for marketing purposes but there is not such need for search engines to retain this sort of information for two years.
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