Following this week’s announcement that Yahoo will shorten the period for which the company will log their users’ activity, privacy advocates praised the measure and stated that they are expecting other big companies, like Microsoft and Google, to change their privacy policy too.

One of the first to acclaim Yahoo’s move was the chairman of the House Subcommittee of Telecommunication and the Internet, Edward Markey. He said that Yahoo forces Microsoft and Google to revise their policy regarding user activity and data, now that the company has “voluntarily set a new standard.” He added that the new privacy policy is a statement that big companies are starting to respect and protect the freedom and trust of the users on the Internet.

Markey also stated that he has always tried to convince big companies to refrain from gathering and storing personal user data and activity in a manner that offers the companies clues about their “interests” and “habits.”

On December 17, Yahoo announced that they will shorten the time during which the servers keep track of users’ activity from 13 months to just 90 days. After that interval, the internet protocol (IP) address from which the users access Yahoo! services will be masked. This way, the data becomes anonymous.

These privacy policies were revised by Yahoo as a consequence of the discussions with European Union regulators, which insisted that the data about user activity and information should be stored for a shorter time.