Chris
Thanks for pointing this out: just checking that I've correctly
understood what it is that the WP are worried about?
As far as I can see from the letter the Art29WP aren't actually
disputing that removing the last octet (8 bits) of an IP address does
indeed "anonymise" it. That's as I'd expect: search records indexed by
the remaining 3 octets could indistinguishably merge up to 254
individuals (or more if, as is common on the IPv4 Internet, a single IP
address is re-used by either NAT or DHCP systems).
However it seems that what they are concerned by is that the search
records are actually also associated with a cookie value. That's
actually a more unique identifier than even a full IP address, since a
cookie will distinguish individual machines behind a NAT or DHCP address
and even (if I've remembered correctly how cookies are stored)
individual user accounts on a single PC.
Does that match your understanding?
I'm also intrigued that the letter mentions "your company and *three*
other search engine providers" (i.e. four in total), whereas the letter
is addressed only to three. Is this just a translation quirk, or is
there a "search engine provider" out there that the WP is happy with???
Cheers
Andrew
--
Andrew Cormack, Chief Regulatory Adviser
JANET(UK), Lumen House, Library Avenue, Harwell Science and Innovation
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JANET(UK) is a trading name of The JNT Association, a company limited
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Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire. OX11 0SG
> -----Original Message-----
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> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of chris pounder
> Sent: 26 May 2010 23:30
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> Subject: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! Do not comply with data
> protection rules
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>
>
> "Article 29 Data Protection Working Party - Press Release:
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> EU data protection group says Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!
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> do not comply with data protection rules"
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> http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/news/index_en.htm
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> Dr. C. N. M. Pounder
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