Search Engines: Do Not Keep Users’ Data More Than 6 Months!

By Florence Chafiol-Chaumont from August & Debouzy*

In a recommendation adopted on April 4, 2008, the Article 29 Working Group (gathering all European Union national authorities competent on matters concerning personal data, of which the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés, or CNIL, is a member) detailed rules applicable to search engines. The Article 29 Working Group indicated that search engines are subject to regulation 95/46/EC relating to personal data protection, even if their corporate headquarters are located outside of the European Union. Consequently, search engines can only keep personal data collected in the course of their activity "for a period that does not exceed the time needed to accomplish the purpose for which they were collected and processed" (article 6 of the Loi Informatique et Libertés dated January 6, 1978). After that delay, search engines are compelled to destroy or "anonymise" that data.