> At absolutely zero cost to themselves and good PR as a benefit google could re-write their privacy policy if that were the case
I just gave you clear examples where that wasn't the case, examples you can verify yourself by inspecting the requests.
> Note that they still have not amended their privacy policy to the effect that they indeed anonymize the log files after 9 months, even though they announced that they would do that years ago.
"We anonymize this log data by removing part of the IP address (after 9 months) and cookie information (after 18 months). If you have Web History enabled, this data may also be stored in your Google Account until you delete the record of your search."
> But with a privacy policy that details what they do log...
I don't understand why you're ignoring the very important distinction between of "do log" and logs "may include".
"may include" in a privacy police is newspeak for "we will".
That 'may' is there so that if you read it you get a warm fuzzy feeling because no way would google ever do such a thing, and it allows them to point at it when they're caught doing it saying 'we told you we were doing this all along, see, we gave ourselves just enough leeway there to squeeze through'. Call me jaded, cynical, old for all I care but I have yet to see a big company that did not act in the way I just described when it came to covering their asses while pulling the wool over the eyes of their end users.
> We anonymize this log data by removing part of the IP address (after 9 months)
That's not exactly anonymization is it? You're making it worse. Anonymization is removing all user identifiable information. This is merely stripping some unspecified number of bits of the IP, which more than likely has changed by then so has lost most of its value, and retains the cookie which has more resolution than an IP to begin with.
There's an interesting article from CNET (from 2008) on this topic:
"Debunking Google's log anonymization propaganda"
"Company says it will be reduce the amount of time that it will keep sensitive, identifying log data on its search engine customers. This is little more than snake oil."
I just gave you clear examples where that wasn't the case, examples you can verify yourself by inspecting the requests.
> Note that they still have not amended their privacy policy to the effect that they indeed anonymize the log files after 9 months, even though they announced that they would do that years ago.
here: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/162743
"We anonymize this log data by removing part of the IP address (after 9 months) and cookie information (after 18 months). If you have Web History enabled, this data may also be stored in your Google Account until you delete the record of your search."
> But with a privacy policy that details what they do log...
I don't understand why you're ignoring the very important distinction between of "do log" and logs "may include".