Google has offered the first olive branch in its battle with European Union regulators concerned over user data retention. Yesterday, the search leader said it would store data for no more than 18 months, amending a policy that kept private information for up to two years. EU regulators welcomed the move, according to a Washington Post report.

"It is indeed a good step," said Franco Frattini, EU justice and home affairs commissioner. "I have appreciated the commitment of Google not only to meet our expectations in terms of protection of privacy or better on cutting the time and reducing the time of retention of personal data."
 
Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said the company now complies with EU law on the matter, adding that there is a lack of clarity regarding European privacy laws.

"There is tremendous confusion in legal circles across Europe on these issues," Fleischer said. "Both individuals and companies would benefit from greater clarity from authorities responsible for the EU Data Retention Directive to answer these very fundamental questions."

Recently Google has come under fire from privacy advocates who charge that the search giant has too much personal data under its control.