Google to Hang on to Search Data, Despite AOL Blunder

Despite the publication of hundreds of thousands of AOL users' search records late last week due to a breakdown of security procedures, Google says it will continue to store similar information.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said although he was concerned by AOL's release of online search request record, Google's policy of storing its own users' searches would not be overturned, writes the Associated Press. "We are reasonably satisfied...that this sort of thing would not happen at Google, although you can never say never," he is quoted as saying the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose.Schmidt said he is less concerned about the possibility of stored data being stolen or inadvertently released than he is about governments' yen to snoop on their citizens and demand to view their search requests. Google, along with other search players, mines the stored data to better target ads to search users.
AOL and Google are business partners; Google owns a 5 percent stake in AOL, which also accounted for about $330 million of Google's revenue in the first half of this year. AOL also uses Google algorithms for its search.

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