Just another jpeg to look at

EuroPrise, a consortium of nine European privacy organizations, awarded its first European Privacy Seal to ixquick, a meta search engine. The Seal guarantees IT products and services that comply with EU laws and privacy regulations.

ixquick — which searches the web, phone directories, videos and photos — deletes data that could tie searches back to a user, including IP addresses, within 48 hours. (Sites like Google and Yahoo typically store this information for 18 months.) It also shuns the use of "cookies," which help websites track user activity or associate username and password data with a certain computer.

Much like behavioral targeting this year, search privacy was an emotional topic for privacy advocates in 2007. Amidst the hoopla, search site Ask.com launched Ask Eraser, which enables users to withdraw records of their searches from the search engine database.

Last month Ask published a link to its privacy policy on its homepage. Google followed suit in early July.

"This award sends out a very strong message to our users," said ixquick CEO Robert Beens. "It is the ultimate proof that we live up to our promises. If people search with Ixquick, they get the best results — and full privacy."

ixquick launched in 1998. It is owned by Surfboard Holding BV, a Dutch firm.