European regulators are considering whether to categorize IP addresses as personal property. Their decision could throw a monkey wrench into the methods that search-engine operators like Google, Yahoo and MSN use to track the online habits of Web surfers.

“As the use of search engines becomes a daily routine for an ever-growing number of citizens, the protection of the users’ privacy and the guaranteeing of their rights remain the core issues of the ongoing debate,” the European Commission’s data-protection working paper said earlier that month.

The group said it expects to release a final report in the months ahead. Its recommendations will have worldwide implications considering any search engine with at least one establishment in any European Union country will be mandatory to comply with EU privacy policies.

Not Personal?

Google has been trying to convince the regulators that IP addresses aren’t personal. Given that not everyone is connected at the same moment, each World Wide

Web service provider assigns a different IP address to each connecting computer, and next reassigns it when users disconnect, noted Google software engineer Alma Whitten.

“Because of that, the IP address assigned to your computer one day may get assigned to several other computers before a week has passed,” Whitten said.

For example, as laptop users move from home to work or operate from temporary locations, they are changing IP addresses constantly. “And whether you share your computer or even just your connection to your ISP with your family, soon after multiple citizens are sharing one IP address,” Whitten said.

Still, Whitten admits that each ISP knows the name and address of the person who holds the subscriber history to which a specific IP address has been assigned.

“On the other hand, the IP addresses recorded by every Web site on the planet without additional data should not…

Orginal post by Top Tech News