Yahoo: We’ll Only Keep Your Data For 3 Months

Yahoo is cutting back the amount of time it hangs onto your data and hoping its competitors will follow suit.

The company announced it’ll now anonymize all collected user information after three months, down from a previous timespan of 13 months. Google, in comparison, masks user info after nine months — a recent change from its previous 18 month cycle. Microsoft is still sitting at the 18-month mark but has said it would consider shortening it to a six-month industry standard.

As for Yahoo’s shift, the new three month limit will include all search log data, page view and page count collections, and ad view/ad click records. The plan goes into place in January, though it won’t be fully effective until midway through 2010.

Both remaining Yahoo users were said to be excited about the change.