Yahoo! has quickly jumped to the front of the privacy heap with its recent announcement that search data will be globally anonymized after just 90 days.

The newest maneuver by the flagging web giant is stunningly brisk compared to the 18 month anonymization timetable promised by Microsoft and Google. It is believed that this move is intended to comply with the spirit of recent European regulatory requests to scrub identifying data sooner than it once was.

Given that search data can be used to personally identify the habits of search engine users, the EU has been quick to push for shorter expirations. This regulatory pressure came to a head when a working party for the EU discovered that most search engines were running afoul of EU privacy laws.

Yahoo! privacy officer Anne Toth promised that the change strikes a balance between engine relevancy and privacy. “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,” she said.

While Yahoo! ails in the search engine arms race, a renewed support for privacy the world over is one of the few advantages Yahoo! now has to offer.