San Francisco  - Responding to widespread concerns among users and privacy advocates, internet portal Yahoo announced on Wednesday that it would make users' internet search data anonymous within 90 days, except when there are fraud or security concerns.

The move comes amid growing concerns about the way search engines keep track of what customers look for on the web, and Yahoo said its new policy set a new standard for the internet industry.

"We know that our users expect relevant and compelling content and advertising when they visit Yahoo, but they also want assurances that we are focused on protecting their privacy," said Anne Toth, Yahoo's vice president of policy. "This policy represents Yahoo's assessment of the minimum amount of time we need to retain data in order to respond to the needs of our business while deepening our trusted relationship with users. We're proud this new policy sets a new benchmark for the industry."

Representative Edward J Markey, chairman of the House of Representative's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and a founding member of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, welcomed the move.

"I have been pressing online companies for greater voluntary efforts to refrain from the massive, systematic gathering of information about individual consumer web use and the long-term retention of such data," Markey said in a statement. He also pressed Yahoo competitors such as Google and Microsoft to match Yahoo's new benchmark.

In September, Google said it would halve the time it keeps users' personally identifiable search data to nine months. Microsoft said last week it was willing to cut the time to six months if such moves were also adopted by its competitors. (dpa)