Thursday, March 15, 2007

How SMBs Eliminate IT Threats with Proactive Security. How SMBs Eliminate IT Threats with Proactive Security. (Source: MessageLabs) In this exclusive Webcast, Chris Christiansen and a panel of security experts will examine the fundamental link between IT security and its effects on business health. [Computerworld Privacy News] 3:19:14 PM

Google's New Plan to "Anonymize" Search Logs: A Good First Step, But More Is Needed. Google's New Plan to "Anonymize" Search Logs: A Good First Step, But More Is Needed. After years of criticism from EFF and other privacy advocates, Google announced yesterday a new policy on how it handles logs of its users' searches: after 18-24 months, it will delete key information in its server logs that could be used to link particular users to records of their search queries. This is a big change from Google's previous policy, which was essentially to keep all of those logs forever in identifiable form, and we're certainly glad to see that Google is starting to limit its retention of such sensitive data. Your Google search history can paint an intimate portrait of your most private interests and concerns. Particularly in light of the disastrous AOL search terms disclosure, recent scandals involving government surveillance, and Google's own recent court fight with the government over a subpoena for search records, it seems that Google has finally realized that limiting the retention of such records is essential to protecting your privacy. Hopefully, Google's change in policy will spur other online service providers to consider how they can minimize the amount of personal data that they store, and perhaps even prompt competition between service providers to offer the most privacy-protective services. However, we hope that this new announcement is only Google's first step in changing its privacy practices, because additional changes would better protect user privacy and set an even better example for the industry: Google should shorten the retention period for identifiable logs to six months at the outside, and ideally to only thirty days (which is AOL's retention limit for similar logs). Barring this, it should at least justify why it needs such records for up to two years, beyond offering one-sentence platitudes about how such records are used to improve Google's service. Google should also shorten the retention of the "anonymized" logs, which Google apparently still intends to keep forever. As Google itself admits, the new policy changes still don't guarantee users' anonymity, and holding onto those records indefinitely still poses a serious private threat. Therefore, Google should consider more robust anonymization techniques, up to and including scrubbing entire IP addresses rather than just the last quarter or "octet" of such addresses. Finally, Google should expand its new anonymization policy to include the search records of users with Google Account log-ins, and to records generated by their myriad other services, rather than limiting the policy change to regular search logs. Beyond making these additional policy changes, there's one more thing that Google should be doing[~]something we think it actually has a duty to do as a good corporate citizen and as a preeminent Internet powerhouse[~]and that is using its considerable political clout to fight for better Internet privacy laws on Capitol Hill. Right now, there are significant questions as to whether or how Internet search logs are protected by existing federal privacy laws, and Google owes it to its customers to publicly advocate for updating those privacy laws for the 21st century. [EFF: Deep Links] 3:05:57 PM

Comments on Google's Privacy Announcement. Comments on Google's Privacy Announcement. Greetings. Google has announced significant changes to their data retention policy. Since I'm already being asked for my opinion regarding their announcement, I'm sending this out now rather selfishly to avoid having to generate a large number of individual responses... [Lauren Weinstein's Blog] 2:22:07 PM

Google adding search privacy protections | CNET News.com Google is changing its data retention practices to make it harder to identify the specific computers used in searches. Google's servers log information every time someone conducts a Web search, keeping data such as the keywords used, the Internet Protocol address or unique number assigned to that person's computer, and information from Web cookies, which are small bits of data exchanged between a server and a Web browser each time the browser accesses the server. Cookies are used to authenticate the user and maintain information such as the user's site preferences. Currently, Google maintains the search data logs indefinitely. Under the new policy announced on Wednesday, which Google expects to have fully implemented by the end of the year, the company will anonymize the final eight bits of the IP address and the cookie data after somewhere between 18 months and 24 months, unless legally required to retain the data for longer. The information on specific searches will remain indefinitely, but it will be much harder to tie the searches to specific individuals or computers. "Logs anonymization does not guarantee that the government will not be able to identify a specific computer or user, but it does add another layer of privacy protection to our users' data," the company said. The policy change will apply to future Web search data as well as archived logs and all copies of the data stored on other servers, Google said. Users will be able to opt out of the practice and request that their search data be maintained indefinitely. Privacy advocates in general said Google's policy change is a step in the right direction but not nearly enough to really protect Web searchers from overzealous law enforcers. Keeping the search histories could enable investigators and governments to get to all sorts of personal information about people, they argue. "I don't think the Google proposal is adequate. This period is too long and it's not in fact data destruction, it's more data de-identification, and that should be happening in 18 to 24 hours, not months," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "I'm not persuaded that this isn't still a ticking time bomb for Google's search engine." Richard M. Smith, an Internet security and privacy consultant at Boston Software Forensics, said Google should never be archiving the IP address and cookies on servers. "Google should not be in the spy business," he said. "By logging IP addresses and search strings they are running the largest intelligence operation in the world." Anonymizing the last eight bits of the IP address effectively would enable investigators to narrow the IP address down to 256 possible computers or users. That would be similar to obscuring the last digit in someone's street address. [...] Kevin Bankston, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he would like to see Google scrub the entire IP address within six months, but praised Google for making this "positive first step." "We hope other online service providers will heed this example and work to minimize the amount of data they keep about their customers," Bankston said. [...] The risks associated with Web search data were highlighted last August when AOL inadvertently exposed on the Internet the search history of more than 650,000 of its users. The move prompted widespread criticism from privacy advocates and Congress and the filing of a complaint against AOL with the Federal Trade Commission, as well as the firing of two AOL employees and the resignation of its chief technology officer and a class action lawsuit. 2:21:06 PM

Google To Anonymize Data -- Updated WIRED Blogs: 27B Stroke 6 Googleis reversing a long-standing policy to retain all the data on its users indefinitely, and by the end of the year will begin removing identifying data from its search logs after 18 months to two years, depending on the country the servers are located in. Currently, Google retains indefinitely detailed server logs on its search engine users, including user's IP addresses - which can identify a user's computer, the query, any result that is clicked on, their browser and operating system, among other details. Even if a user never signs up for a Google account, those searches are all tied together through a cookie placed on the user's computer, which currently expires in 2038. The new policy will be global, but there will be variances by country, especially in Europe where a data retention rule passed in 2005 requires ISPs and phone companies to keep data from six months to two years. After that time period, Google will "anonymize" the search data from web and image searches by dropping either the second half or last quarter of I.P. addresses, thus turning an address such as 127.0.34.35into127.0or127.0.34. The goal is to make it technically impossible to retroactively tie a query back to a computer, unless the query included identifying information. User logs from services that require log-ins, such as personalized search, Google Documents and Gmail will not be subject to this policy. Those services are governed by their own privacy policies. More can be found on this at Google's official blog announcement. Civil libertarians have long criticized the search giant's hoarding for data, saying that the data store created an attractive target for law enforcement and civil suits. Google successfully quashed a Justice Department request for large chunks of user data in 2005. 2:15:53 PM

Google To "Anonymize" Personal Data after 18-24 Months. Google To "Anonymize" Personal Data after 18-24 Months. Google made a major announcement today that by the end of the year will begin removing identifying data from its search logs after 18 -24 months: When you search on Google, we collect information about your search, such as the query itself, IP addresses and cookie details. Previously, we kept this data for as long as it was useful. Today we're pleased to report a change in our privacy policy: Unless we're legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymize our server logs after a limited period of time. When we implement this policy change in the coming months, we will continue to keep server log data (so that we can improve Google's services and protect them from security and other abuses)--but will make this data much more anonymous, so that it can no longer be identified with individual users, after 18-24 months. They've released a log retention FAQ (PDF) with more details, including how they will "anonymize" the log data: What does it mean to anonymize the logs? We will change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs as well as change the cookie information. We're still developing the precise technical methods and approach to this, but we believe these changes will be a significant addition to protecting user privacy. How do these anonymizing measures protect user privacy? Changing the bits of an IP address makes it less likely that the IP address can be associated with a specific computer or user. Cookie anonymization makes it less likely that a cookie can be used to identify a user. Do these changes guarantee anonymization? It is difficult to guarantee complete anonymization, but we believe these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified. This is an important and promising step towards greater privacy and protection of personal search history records. But remember, AOL thought they had released anonymized data as well. Just because and IP and cookie has been modified doesn't mean that user privacy is ensured. The preferred solution would be for Google to purge the data altogether after, or just don't collect it in the first place. Unfortunately I don't have much time for further analysis (baby, dissertation, oh my!), but 27B Stroke 6 is on top of it, and CNet has reaction from CDT, EFF, and others. michaelzimmer.org] 2:12:41 PM

Google to anonymize user data. Google to anonymize user data. It's about time Google is to discard some of the information it stores about user search requests in an effort to address concerns by privacy watchdogs and defend itself against government demands for data. [The Register - Music and Media] 2:03:25 PM

Google to Make Search Logs Anonymous. Google to Make Search Logs Anonymous. Google announced today that it will start making its records about users' searches anonymous after 18 to 24 months. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 2:01:09 PM

© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick. Last update: 3/18/07; 5:03:53 PM.